Wake Up & Wakelet

Wakelet Collection Video by @Wakelet

What is this Wakelet that you have been hearing about, and why do you need it in your life??? I know these are the questions you have been pondering as you lay in your bed at night staring at your ceiling, hoping to fall asleep. Well maybe not to that extent, but they are definitely questions worth asking yourself especially if you want to rock out collecting resources, collaborating, student engagement, digital storytelling, and soooooo much more! 

I am not going to lie, I have been nerding out about Wakelet for a while now! Yes, I know my master’s degree in Library and Information Sciences does fuel my excitement just a little bit, but it seriously is a super cool tool with endless possibilities! 

What a quick run through about this amazing new tool, well here you go!

Wakelet has a lot of great resources: https://help.wakelet.com/hc/en-us/categories/360000157651-General

They also really listen to educators. They are constantly changing and updating to make things rock even more in the educational world. 

Some of my favorite uses for Wakelet:

Collection Development

What do you mean? I mean, I love to gather resources in one place for my peers but also for students. I love that you can add anything with a link. I also am super grateful for the fact that students do not need an account. There are so many times students cannot access the things I need or cool resources because they have to sign into a tool. I will teach about a topic we are coving and put all of the resources a student needs in one place. Or I am collaborating with my peers and we need a place to put the resources we find so we  can all have access to them. You can also copy a collection someone has already made. There is a vast community out there of Wakelet users who probably have already created something you can use! Sharing is caring.

Learning Choice Boards

Student choice has a direct correlation to engagement. Let them choose how they will show you their learning and you will be excited how many students who previously did not engage, will finally do something!  Wakelet is a great place to create learning choice boards with options and even how-to's on each option for students to show learning.

There are more options and endless possibilities how you can use Wakelet in the classroom and in your professional life! I can’t wait to see what you come up with! Make sure to tag #EdtechKISD when you share your collections and also tag Wakelet!

Wakelet is awesome to follow and give shoutouts on Twitter.  Follow them @Wakelet #WakeletWave and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the large community just waiting to learn and show you more!

Misty Shea

Ed Tech, Keller ISD

Cybersecurity Awareness Month

   National Cybersecurity Awareness Month (NCSAM) has officially begun!

With school back in session, many students will re-establish friendships whether in person or making new ones and with social media being a major factor in many of these friendships. We need to help students remember that cybersecurity should always be a priority.

Here are some TIPS to increase safety:

These are just a few ways for students to stay safe while growing up in a digital age 
Please visit ed.gov/FREE for additional information. 

     https://www.cisa.gov/national-cybersecurity-awareness-month-sample-social-media-posts-and-graphics Cybersecurity Awareness Month - Own. Secure. Protect. IT

It's Grade Reporting Week in KISD!

KISD Teachers,

It is time to post grades for our first marking period in Keller ISD and we want you to have the most up-to-date information using our new Aeries Gradebook or Standards-Based Grades. 

If you teach students in 2nd-12th grades, you will follow the Grade Posting instructions:  How-To Document | Video Help.

If you teach students in PK, Kindergarten or 1st grade, you will follow the Standards (Competency) Based Grades instructions: How-To Document | Video Help.

Below are a few hazards to avoid with your first Aeries grades posting:

• If you are seeing Ps and Fs instead of numbers for your FINAL GRADES, please follow these instructions to get the correct marks in your Gradebook. DISREGARD if you are a Co-Curricular teacher or a PK-1st Grade Teacher. 
  
  
• All students must have a grade. If a student is missing all assignments displayed by an orange block, you need to put the number 1 into at least one assignment so the student's grade will not post as a blank.
  

... is being offered throughout the week on Aeries grades posting. Please check your Keller ISD email for various dates and times for assistance.

Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels

We just learned about Emoji Keyboard by JoyPixels today! This Chrome extension saves clicks, which, in turn, saves TIME! Teachers need tools that are quick and easy. Follow the steps below to install Joy Pixels.

NOTE: This extension should be used by teachers and not by students.

1. From your Chrome browser, navigate to the Chrome Web Store:
   
2. Enter joypixels in the SEARCH BAR
   
   
3. Click on the EMOJI KEYBOARD BY JOYPIXELS extension:
   
4. Click the button
5. Click ADD EXTENSION:
   
6. Click the extension in the upper, right corner of your Chrome browser:
   
7. Utilize the JoyPixels SEARCH field to find the desired emoji:
   
   
   
8. Click the SETTINGS GEAR to adjust the JoyPixels extension settings:
   

📰Fighting False Information w/ News Literacy Project 📰

📰I challenge you to stop the spread of misinformation. 📰

Misinformation and disinformation are rampant in our lives. Now that people have the news literally at their fingertips on smart devices, there is a wealth of knowledge, but not all of it is true or unbias. There are even those out there purposefully feeding us false information to skew elections, heighten our emotions, and falsely create generalizations about groups of people.

Watch this video to see how AI can be used to create fake information. You will notice the former President Obama says some choice words that he would normally not say. This shows how real and life-like some of the information out there can be.

Colorful Ads, short videos, and emotion catching memes bombard social media, cable, tv, and radio. Feeding us sometimes more than we can handle. How can we prepare ourselves and our students to navigate all of the information out there. 

One of my favorite resources is the News Literacy Projects at www.newslit.org. They are a non-profit organization created to help teach skills to separate truth from false or misinformation. They focus on teaching specific skills and giving tools for each type of misinformation. Checkology, their classroom program, gives specifics on how to spot fake news. Below is just one of the many great handouts to teach the different types of misinformation.

Most of the resources are free! Checkology is free to educators right now due to Covid-19 and remote learning. As a teacher, there is even a lot to educate yourself on misinformation.

Do you not know where you stand on the misinformation front? Take this fun quiz! These are some common false pop culture sayings that are shared. There were some questions on there that were truly tricky! How many can you get correct?

📝Easiest Quiz of All Time📝

Now that you know where you stand, go out into the world and stop the spread of misinformation!