Tag Archives: Wakelet

PD Bingo for the Win

If you are looking for some asynchronous PD to offer to your teachers, consider something like a BINGO board. In our model, we essentially PAY people to do Professional Development – and it works great. We believe that today’s teachers are interested in asynchronous learning that they can do on their own time. While many are intrinsically motivated to learn new things, some extrinsic motivation helps fuel the fire!

As coaches in our school district who provide lots of PD, this Bingo format has been a big hit. It allows teachers choice, and can appeal to those with a competitive nature. Although, in our year-long Bingo scenario, if you “do the work” you win – you play, you win.

This has been a good investment and was especially useful during COVID when teachers couldn’t travel to conferences anyway. As we plan the boxes, we are able to nudge teachers into directions that help them to meet or address district goals and priorities. In the end, they still get to choose what to focus on.

Some box options are easier than others. Boxes address a wide range of PD topics and wellness activities: technology tools, literacy, wellness and school culture and deeper learning are some of the topics.

In early editions of our Bingo, we only offered “PD credit” for the following school year. “PD credit” is quite a generous term as it can apply to in-person PD costs (registration, travel, etc.); online courses or webinars; or even education-related books. While that appealed to a portion of our population, we found that adding some opportunities for Amazon cash (to be spent totally at the teacher’s discretion) really expanded the pool of bingo players. Over the years, however, several teachers have earned “Blackout” status which is equivalent to the registration for a major PD conference. For example, several teachers have used their Blackout to pay for ISTE registration.

For the past 2 years, we have also added an additional incentive. Every month in our Coaches’ Newsletter we advertise a “box of the month”. If a staff member completes the box item in that month (or previously), we send them a $10 Amazon card at the end of the month. It turns out that teachers are motivated by a guaranteed $10 Amazon card.

Early on, our Bingo card was actually like a bingo card (see below) with a 5 x 5 grid and winning was based on the number of lines or boxes.

Our most recent “bingo” cards don’t look so much like bingo. The official name is a “Self-Paced PD Challenge” but most people still refer to it as bingo. Now, to earn a blackout you need to complete 25 of the 30 boxes… this increases the amount of choice.

Early on we had a variety of submission options including paper submissions and a Google Classroom. We’ve simplified the process to involve an interactive slide deck. Each box has a live link to a submission location such as Padlet, Flip, Wakelet, Slides, a Canva template or a Google Form. Players add their items to the submission location on slides 3-1. This has the added bonus of creating a culture of learning; teachers usually take the time to check out everyone else’s learning submissions!

In addition, the slide deck has 15 additional slides. Each slide has the repeated instructions for two bingo boxes. Players add a screenshot and/or link to their completed submission so that we can easily ascertain whether or not they get credit for that box. Our district is small (fewer than 300 teachers) so we can manage the hands-on, non-automated nature of this submission process.

Here is a link to check out our most recent board in detail: bit.ly/prpsbingo Take a closer look at the types of challenges in the list below. Some we keep from year to year, but many we change up every fall. Click the links to see collection methods and teacher samples.

  • Take a selfie with a school colleague. Upload it here: padlet.com/MrsKannekens/bingo1
  • Try a new-to-you  deeper learning  strategy in your class; Tell about it at Flip
  • Submit an artifact and explanation (pic, vid, link, etc) showing literacy in action in your classroom to this form: bit.ly/prsdliteracy 
  • Convince a PD Bingo Rookie colleague to do a PD Bingo “Box of the Month” (for Amazon $$). Record a short Flip interview together
  • Create a social media post in Canva using the link here of a sample from your podcast playlist. Your podcast playlist can include non-edu podcasts.
  • Attend a PD session (virtual or in-person) – Coaches, SAPDC or other; Share your takeaways on Flip.
  • Provide certificates of completion for a combined 2+ hours of Webinar PD; provide links or screenshots to submission slides
  • Read an edu-book; advertise/convince colleagues to read it by creating a book flyer in Canva. Use this link to create your crowd-source flyer.
  • Try a new tech tool/app in your class or for your own creation purposes;  Tell about it at Flip.
  • Complete all 8 Chromebook Blitz Challenges or Google Drive Organization Blitz by yourself or with your class. Use links above to submit.
  • Complete at least 1 “Search” Blitz Challenge in the month it is featured. Submit a screenshot of your Amazon Prize to your copy of this bingo board
  • Complete the entire Google Search Blitz series for this year.  Use this template to submit your collection. bit.ly/myprpssearchchallenge
  • Create a screencast for your students/colleagues showing them “How-To” something. Add it here: padlet.com/MrsKannekens/bingo14 
  • Complete a Canva Design School course. Add a screenshot of your completed lessons (checkmarks) & artifact to your bingo slide deck.
  • Choose an item from the Fun with Google A-Z playlist to try with your class/staff. Interview at least 1 student about the experience on Flip
  • Subscribe to an educational blog; Screenshot some proof of subscription & of leaving a comment for the author
  • Capture an extracurricular activity or field trip from your school.  Share images/videos along with a reflection of the activity: padlet.com/MrsKannekens/extra 
  • Provide evidence of using something new you learned at any PD (Newsletter, After School PD, SAPDC, Webinar..) padlet.com/MrsKannekens/bingo19 
  • Bring joy! Choose 1 colleague to connect with and spoil with kindness throughout the school year. Add at least 4 pictures/examples to the slide deck.
  • Capture your favourite part of your school community. Share words/image/audio/video here: padlet.com/MrsKannekens/bingo21  
  • Complete a course from the Google Teacher Center (Classroom, Chromebooks, Dig Cit, ELL, Distance Learning). Post your badge in slidedeck.
  • Invite a colleague into YOUR classroom Document/ share your experience  at padlet.com/MrsKannekens/classvisit
  • Visit someone else’s classroom Document/share your learning at padlet.com/MrsKannekens/classvisit
  • Address a classroom challenge; plan an Impact Cycle with an Instructional Coach Contact a coach to get started.
  • Plan an “Act of Kindness” with your students or a group of colleagues  Submit evidence/the story
  •  in this Wakelet.  (No account required)
  • Learn a new thing – something not school related! (knitting? skiing? noodle-making?)
  • padlet.com/MrsKannekens/somethingnew
  • Get active! Add a selfie of you getting some exercise -indoors or out! Submit evidence/the story in this Wakelet.  (No account required.)
  • You first! Let’s crowdsource advice/tips on how you take time for you. Add to this Wakelet and check out the advice. (No account required)

Tech in 20 Mini: Wakelet

Yet another “Tech Tip in 20” mini-PD offered in #PRSD8 during COVID19. Here the original Google Meet-delivered lesson is converted into a click-able format for you to use with your own staff or students.

Background Info: What is Wakelet?

Wakelet is a collection or curation platform where you can collect just about anything digital (links, social media posts, videos, images, other Wakelet collections, etc.) Some perks are that you can do some organization and add context to your links and with written text and descriptions. In addition, you can invite collaborators (a friend or a whole class) to create collections together ~ this makes it a super versatile tool for both personal and educational use. Oh ~ and it’s totally FREE!

Hands-on Mini-Lesson. Follow these steps:

Step 1: Start without creating an account or logging in – to show that students don’t need an account to use Wakelet in your class. Share a link to a collaborative Wakelet collection (with a clickable link or join code). Click here for a sample. There should be some simple creation instructions such as adding their name with text and then adding a picture or link. I like to do a simple, engaging topic like “Where would you like to vacation?” or “Tell about a good book.”

If I have a bit more time, I like to add a third “playground” step where they click on “video” and add a short recording via the embedded Flipgrid tool.

Step 2: From the Wakelet homepage, click on “For Educators”. Spend a few minutes clicking around or searching for an area of interest (recipes). If you are connecting virtually, encourage participants to type the topic of good finds in the chatbox of your session, or they can even add a link with their topic.

Step 3: If you haven’t yet, create a Wakelet Account; if you have, spice up your profile.

Step 4: If there is time in your mini-session, have participants do the following.

Get the lesson mini-slide deck here.

More Personal PD:

Check out the full Tech in 20 series.

AKGTC + Breakout: Step 5-Get on the Map!

Finally – the step that we’ve all been waiting for! Let’s get that map dot on the Kids Guide to Canada map!

If this is your first time adding to the Kids Guide to Canada Map, you will want to go over the steps before hand, and not necessarily launch into this step with students. There is a fairly detailed form that you fill out and you should be ready to add any of the following when you create your item:

  • photos (preferably with a good descriptive title – you know, other than IMG641.jpg); whatever your photos are “saved as” will show up on the list on your map entry, so I think it is well worth your time to provide a good image title
  • any other link to content such as a YouTube video (could be set to public or unlisted); there is only space for a single link, so…..
  • I love the idea of an “expandable link” – a place where the link stays the same but you can add and edit content as needed. See the image where it says “link to artifact”. This is important because YOU can’t edit your entry – if you need anything changed or added, you need to contact the nice ladies at A Kids Guide to Canada. They WILL amend your entry, but I would like to keep their workload down! These are some “expandable link” options that you might try the following:
    • Padlet.com – Here is a link to our ‘protected’ Padlet site that we will be using for AKGTC
    • a Wakelet.com collection
    • a Google Site, or any other website
    • a class blog, such as the blog that can be connected to your Seesaw class
  • Content ideas to add at an “expandable link” are almost limitless! This expandable link is what allows this to be an ongoing project where you could add things like:
    • video tours
    • interviews
    • research slideshows
    • community or Canada insprired artwork

Although it isn’t super convenient to make edits to your original “post” you can add additional “pages” to your location. They recommend a new page if you are adding content from a different class or grade (this is what we have done in Acadia Valley), or if you have content on an entirely different theme, such as economics or music or “place”.

Click on the dots to the north and south of Acadia Valley to see other school communities from our PRSD8 school district.

Click here to read about the rest of the steps in our Kid’s Guide to Canada Map + Breakout EDU Community project.

New Year, Old Year: Musings

Ahh…the New Year… New goals and reflections… I’ve been in a few PLN spaces recently where participants were encouraged to share their “ONE WORD” for 2020. The word that will inspire you, guide you, motivate you, and lead you through 2020…

Full confession: for as long as the one-word trend has been trending, I have never been able to tie myself to a word or even have a sniff at a word that might fit.

So while this initially makes me want to hide out in the back of the class, like the unprepared student, I instead need to acknowledge that I’ve had a pretty intense year of growth and learning. And what better place than a blog that I’ve been slogging with since 2012 to reflect on the year, despite the absence of ONE WORD.

Perhaps the most significant benefit of writing a blog is to be able to retrace one’s own thinking and growth. I always smile a bit and nod as I look or read through past titles, whether that includes accomplishing that which once seemed daunting or being excited about an opportunity that never did materialize. At any rate, this archival purpose of a blog is strong – it continues to push me to write, even when I know that very few people read any of my words.

I’m reminded of this growth, as last year at this very time, I was fretting over the quite intensive application process to become a Google Certified Trainer. Last early January, I was in the stages of re-doing and re-doing my 3-minute introduction video for the Google Certified Trainer application – that was probably the most challenging part of the GCT process.

Happily, by mid-February 2019, I had successfully achieved my Google Certified Trainer Credentials. Since then, I have done over 30 Google-related trainings, presented at another Google Summit and I believe that I’ve successfully completed the re-certification process required of all Google Trainers for 2020.

While I would consider my Google Certified Trainer certification to be my most significant Edtech achievement, 2019 was a year of digging deeper into several of my favourite technologies so that I had the skills and credibility to help others:

  • I became a FlipGrid Level 3 #GridGuide. This is a small but helpful community and I love getting the inside scoop on some of the Flipgrid rollouts. Here is part of my application requirements: Flipgrid Fieldnotes
  • I became a Seesaw Ambassador. This allows me access to some extra training materials which have been very useful as I’ve helped train dozens of teachers in our district about Seesaw this year
  • I became a Breakout EDU Certified Trainer. Although I’ve brought Breakout experiences to over 100 classrooms across our district this year, I also love to help teachers use Breakout on their own.
  • I became a Wakelet Ambassador. I’m getting lots of learning opportunities as we are running our district Instructional Coach Newsletter through Wakelet this year.
  • I became a Kahoot Gold certified educator
  • I became a Certified Microsoft Innovative Educator (In all honesty, a pretty weak credential, but my goal is to balance out my Google in 2020 by becoming a MIE Expert)

And I’ve learned in so many other ways: I’ve read dozens of books, watched dozens of webinars, listened to dozens of hours of podcasts, taken on-line courses through ISTE and Harvard, attended High Tech High in San Diego, and led a few book studies. I was finally bold enough to launch a PD Bingo initiative for our school district so that I can encourage my colleagues to learn with and from each other.

So, it seems that I did all right in 2019 without my ONE WORD. Here’s hoping that I continue to thrive in 2020, wordless!

Trying Something New: Newsletter via Wakelet

Have you caught the Wakelet Wave?

Introducing Wakelet for our Instructional Coaches Newsletter:

This year, we are trying out our Instructional Coaches Newsletters in a NEW format…. Wakelet. Wakelet is essentially a curation platform, like others you may be familiar with – Padlet, Smore, Storify, or even Google Keep. Wakelet has a growing user community, and unlike some of the others, Wakelet is free! In many ways, Wakelet is similar to Pinterest, but instead of being image driven, Wakelet can highlight several different kinds of content.

Is Wakelet the tool for you? Consider a few of its many uses:

  • classroom or school newsletter – printable .pdf available (To print, click the 3 dots up above and choose “PDF Export”
  • student (individuals or groups) project boards
  • Book Club hub – invite “contributors” and you can each write a review post for the book of the month
  • it can serve as a student ‘blog’ platform, even remaining ‘unlisted’ to control who sees it
  • students and teachers can use Wakelet as a digital portfolio

Previously, we constructed out newsletter in Google Slides, so it had that “Publisher” feel. The biggest downfall is that the page formatting matters. If an item is edited, or you want to add a picture or make a significant change, the formatting for the whole page is affected, meaning lots more work for the editor.

In Wakelet, each month’s newsletter will be a “Collection”. This collection will have a distinct link to share, but we can easily edit or add to the collection once the newsletter has been “published”. The image below shows the options that can be added. So for example, we will use add “images” as section headers (Literacy, Deeper Learning, Assessment, Technology Tidbits, etc) , and then add content beneath to appear as articles with text, images and videos.

Items that can be added to a Wakelet “collection” – or options for our newsletter.

Read our first attempt here: bit.ly/ICNEWSsept19