Steve shares top tips and tricks for combining Wakelet, Kahoot and Flipgrid in the ultimate appsmash!
Wakelet was one of the programs on my list to try for a while, and the global shutdown in the Spring of 2020 gave me the opportunity to explore it in detail. With Wakelet I found a simple yet elegant tool that helped me curate resources and organize them easily for students and their families. I was sold.
In Indianapolis, school resumed in the Fall but we started off 100% virtual. Each student received a district-issued Chromebook. Few students knew many Chromebook features causing frustration for all parties. To help, I created this Wakelet collection of Chromebook Tips and Tricks.
I taught students (and their families) how to take good photos of classwork and submit to teachers, how to take screenshots, and probably most importantly, how to split windows on their Chromebooks. I asked teachers and parents for suggestions on what tutorials they thought were most needed, and I would continuously add to the collection based on student needs. While I spoke to the students in the videos, the tutorials were just as useful to the parents who were tasked with the unenviable position of overseeing virtual learning. I even created a tutorial that showed students how they could play Kahoot!, my all-time favorite tool, at home with their class, even if they didn’t have an extra device handy.
And then it occurred to me how useful and easy it would be to app smash, and embed a Kahoot! game right into a Wakelet collection. I created a “Meet the Specials Teachers” Wakelet for students to get to know their teachers better and to create a fun activity to start a challenging school year. I asked each Specials Teacher at my school, Clearwater Elementary, to record a short introductory video on Flipgrid. I thought it would be fun for the families and students to be more familiar with us and start the year with a positive and gamified interaction. After each Specials Teacher added their short video to the grid, I attached that Flipgrid link to the Wakelet collection. It is so easy! Just click the plus icon and paste the link to the Flipgrid topic you want your families to see. Wakelet does the rest for you!
Then, I created a short Kahoot! including questions about each teacher. Most people know that you can play Kahoot! Live, but not all know that you can assign challenges that students can play at their own pace.
You just have to enter a timeline for when the challenge expires, and students can play on their own. They just need to click the link which can be embedded in the Wakelet Collection.
So I added the Kahoot! Challenge to the Wakelet Collection and told students that the top five scorers on the Kahoot! Would be mailed Flipgrid stickers. It was a hit. It was an innovative and fun way for students to get to know not only the staff a little better, but also they got better acquainted with a few useful tools as well. It was a win win!
If you wanted to do more, you could post photos, videos, and anything else you wanted your families to see before starting a school year! It would be a wonderful way for families to meet the teacher and learn expectations about a school, a grade level, or even a single classroom!
You could even do something like this during the first week back at school where your students could get to know each other. Create a Flipgrid topic where students share about themselves. Embed this topic link into a Wakelet, and have students “study” by listening to each other’s share. You can even throw in a Kahoot! study guide to make learning about each other even more fun! Then, wrap it all up on a Friday with a live game of Kahoot! and have fun seeing how much your class has learned about each other.
So, kickstart your school year with a Wakelet, Flipgrid, Kahoot! app smash! It’ll introduce your students to several engaging tools they’ll use throughout the school year and will also help build the foundation of a wonderful school community.
