I’m a believer in the value of classroom chatter.  Very often, amazing things happen when we just let kids interact, chat, collaborate, discuss, speculate, pontificate…Yeah, I pretty much am a fan of that kind of classroom.  Most of the time.

BUT, I know and appreciate the fact that there are times when classrooms should be quiet places….during tests, silent reading time, study centers, active writing… you can probably name a few (dozen) more.  Here’s a cool tool you can use to keep the volume on the down-low at times when it matters:  Bouncy Balls  

It’s ridiculously easy, so I’m not going to take much time to explain things here.  Just a few tips:

  • Run this in Chrome or Firefox (it doesn’t seem to like IE)
  • You need a microphone, and you’ll have to click “allow” to let the program access it.
  • Feeling crazy? Switch from bouncy balls to emojis, bubbles, or eyeballs

Ideas for use ~ also super-simple:

  • Challenge class to keep the balls as still as possible
  • You may want to build in rewards or consequences
  • Use a projector or SmartBoard to make it large

That’s pretty much it.  Bouncy Balls is just kind of cool, so I thought I’d share.  Let me know what you think of it.

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