Wondering what those emojis mean? I 👀 love 🧡 using emojis 😃 to make my messages 💭 and lessons 📝more interesting 👍. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so why not leverage the value of a picture/emoji to increase student engagement?
Where do you start? It's easier than you think. Did you know that you have an emoji keyboard available at your fingertips? Select the Windows button and the period button at the same time to activate the emoji keyboard. (Windows + .) If you are using a Chromebook, you can add a Chrome extension like Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels to access emojis. For Mac users, press (CTRL + CMD + Space) to activate your emoji keyboard.
Now, that you have access to emojis let's talk about a few ways they can be used to add instant engagement to your classroom.
- Icebreaker - Encourage your students to use three emojis that represent who they are. Have them add their emojis to a shared Google Slide or Jamboard. 👩🏫👧👧🍰📚
- Retelling or Summarizing a Story - Can your students use nothing both emojis to retell or summarize a story? 👧🏡. 👧🧡👧. 🕷📝🕸🐷. 🎡🏅🐷. ❌🥓🙌. 👧🐷.
- Exit Tickets - Use emojis to gauge student understanding of a topic. You can have them pick their own emojis or have 3-4 emojis pre-selected for students to choose from. 👍🤷♂️🙋♀️
- Social-Emotional Check-Ins - Sometimes students have a hard time expressing their emotions, use emojis to help them out. Use emojis as a way to check in with students daily. Even the littles can use emojis to express how they are feeling. 😃😐😢
- Character Traits - When describing the word "grumpy" which emoji comes to mind? Pairing a visual with the word will aid in vocabulary development for all learners. 😠
- Number Representation - Use emojis to represent numbers and have the students solve what each emoji represents. ⛅ + 7 = 🌈, 🌈 - ⛅ = 💧, 🌈= ?, ⛅ = ?
The possibilities are endless! What other ways can you think of to use emojis with your students? Have an idea? Tweet it out and tag me @TechCoachFikac.
