Handy guide for teachers - Top Ten Tips for Mouse Mischief

After Friday’s post about Mouse Mischief (a free add-in for PowerPoint that allows teachers to create interactive real-time quizzes for students), a colleague from over the pond dropped me a line to tell me about the “Top Ten Tips for Mouse Mischief ” Guide, which is available to download from the Microsoft website.

1. Encourage class discussions by using “polling” slides
   A polling slide is a multiple choice slide where there isn’t a correct answer, but a series of options to be discussed once the results are shown.
2. Use Drawing slides to give students hands-on experience with ideas and relationships
   With a small group of students, you can get them each to draw something with their mouse on the slide (all at the same time)
3. Use the alignment options to accommodate different scripts or differently shaped objects
   If you end up using different pictures to represent answers, you can line them up neatly
4. Manage mouse hardware effectively
   With advice, based on other schools’ experiences, for managing lots of mice in one classroom
5. Create a slide “parking lot” or resting space for student mice pointers
   This shows a way to avoid students constantly moving their mice around when you’re talking
6. Create Mouse Mischief game rules
   More tactics to avoid chaos when you’ve got lots of mice out
7. Encourage teamwork by creating class presentations to play in Team mode
   Ideas for getting students working together in small groups
8. Have your students create multiple-mouse slides
   Turn the class into quiz masters
9. Put Mouse Mischief into students’ hands
   Going further, by encouraging them to write quizzes for the rest of the class (something they can also do at home)
10. Share multiple-mouse presentations through Office.com
    You can upload your own lesson resources to Office.com, as well as downloading resources other teachers have shared
    
    And here’s my own idea for Top Ten Tip number 11:
    
11. Get teachers wanting to use Mouse Mischief by running a staff quiz with it, either formally at your next INSET training, or informally as a pub quiz.

Find out more about Mouse Mischief