- Introduce a "Scam Whisperer" Curriculum: Integrate mandatory, short units across all subjects to teach critical thinking skills needed to identify phishing, deepfakes, and misinformation.
- Model Responsible Digital Citizenship: Teachers and leaders must actively discuss, verify sources, and model healthy digital boundaries to give students a visible roadmap.
- Engage parents with a Digital Wellness Compact: Host family workshops and secure a shared commitment to discussing online safety and modeling good habits at home.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/your-morning-boost-forwarded--6630377/support.
Thank You for Listening! This has been an episode from The FowardED Network—Where we are Advancing Voices and Shaping Education. We are dedicated to supporting everyone invested in K-12 success: teachers, leaders, parents, and community advocates.
Want to keep the conversation going?
- Subscribe: Never miss an insight. Hit the subscribe or follow button on your podcast app to automatically receive our next episode.
- Share the Knowledge: If this episode provided value, please take a moment to rate and review us! Your five-star reviews help new teachers, parents, and leaders find our network.
- Explore the Network: This show is just one part of the ForwardEd Network family. Head over to our network page to explore our full roster of interconnected podcasts, including CTRL Shift Lead, Vice Principal UnOfficed, From Carpool to College, and Your Morning Boost.
- Connect with Us: Have a question or an idea for a future episode? Reach out to us at pillars.forwarded@gmail.com or find us on social media using the tag #theForwardEDnetwork.
This episode includes AI-generated content.
00:00:17 --> 00:00:23 Grundmeyer Leader Services, where together we are transforming education, one leader at a time.
00:00:23 --> 00:00:27 Now, get ready to amplify your day with your morning boost.
00:00:31 --> 00:00:35 Welcome back to your morning boost. It's Friday, everybody. We've made it.
00:00:35 --> 00:00:37 Happy Friday. Happy November 7th.
00:00:37 --> 00:00:41 Today, we're wrapping up our deep dive into the Fitting 5 newsletter,
00:00:41 --> 00:00:45 and we're doing so by looking at a fascinating, if slightly strange,
00:00:45 --> 00:00:49 piece, Why Your Kids Keep Saying 6-7.
00:00:49 --> 00:00:55 It's a great viral example of how quickly and often internet culture,
00:00:55 --> 00:00:59 specifically the culture of scams and digital misinformation,
00:00:59 --> 00:01:05 just infiltrates our schools, and more importantly, how much our students are exposed to it.
00:01:05 --> 00:01:09 It reminds us that our students are fluent in digital slang,
00:01:09 --> 00:01:13 but often dangerously illiterate in digital safety and security.
00:01:14 --> 00:01:18 Our challenge isn't just dealing with homework, it's helping them navigate a
00:01:18 --> 00:01:21 complex, often hostile, digital ecosystem.
00:01:28 --> 00:01:34 The 6-7 phenomenon, a playful reference to a social media scam,
00:01:34 --> 00:01:37 is a perfect metaphor for the digital world our students live in.
00:01:38 --> 00:01:42 Fun, viral, and often hiding a serious security risk underneath.
00:01:43 --> 00:01:48 As leaders, we have a responsibility to teach our students to identify these risks.
00:01:48 --> 00:01:52 We need to make digital citizenship a core competency.
00:01:52 --> 00:01:57 Think about introducing a scam whisperer curriculum. We have to treat digital
00:01:57 --> 00:02:01 literacy with the same urgency as core literacy.
00:02:01 --> 00:02:07 This means integrating a short mandatory unit across all subject areas, not just tech class.
00:02:07 --> 00:02:10 This teaches students how to recognize phishing,
00:02:10 --> 00:02:16 misinformation, and deepfakes. This unit shouldn't just be about don't click,
00:02:16 --> 00:02:20 but about teaching the critical thinking skills that are needed to question
00:02:20 --> 00:02:22 sources and verify information,
00:02:23 --> 00:02:27 effectively making our students sophisticated skeptics of what they see online.
00:02:28 --> 00:02:34 This helps us move beyond the curriculum when we model responsible digital citizenship
00:02:34 --> 00:02:41 ourselves. Our staff is the front line here, and our behaviors speak louder than any lesson plan.
00:02:41 --> 00:02:47 We as leaders and teachers must intentionally model responsible digital boundaries and habits.
00:02:47 --> 00:02:53 This involves showing students how we verify sources, talking openly about a
00:02:53 --> 00:02:58 scam email that we almost fell for, or maybe explaining why we keep our phone
00:02:58 --> 00:03:00 put away during meetings.
00:03:00 --> 00:03:05 When students see adults struggling with and actively practicing healthy digital
00:03:05 --> 00:03:11 habits, it normalizes the challenge and gives them a visible roadmap to success.
00:03:11 --> 00:03:17 Now, to complete this triangle of support, we must engage our parents in a digital wellness compact.
00:03:18 --> 00:03:22 We need to shift the conversation with parents from simply monitoring screen
00:03:22 --> 00:03:26 time to forming a partnership centered on safety and development.
00:03:26 --> 00:03:31 Here's a good chance to host maybe something like a biannual family workshop
00:03:31 --> 00:03:36 that's focused on digital threats and security and ask parents to maybe even
00:03:36 --> 00:03:41 sign a brief simple compact with the school agreeing to discuss online safety
00:03:41 --> 00:03:43 and modeling good digital habits at home.
00:03:43 --> 00:03:48 This type of a shared commitment is one way that we can create a consistent
00:03:48 --> 00:03:51 message that protects our students around the clock.
00:03:58 --> 00:04:02 All right, well, we wrapped up our week facing the reality of a rapidly evolving
00:04:02 --> 00:04:04 digital world. The key takeaway here is clear.
00:04:05 --> 00:04:08 Digital literacy is now a fundamental safety issue.
00:04:08 --> 00:04:13 We need to commit to implementing a scam whisperer curriculum or something like
00:04:13 --> 00:04:18 that to teach critical thinking and model responsible digital citizenship.
00:04:18 --> 00:04:22 All of these steps will ensure that we are preparing our students not just for
00:04:22 --> 00:04:27 the next grade level, but for a life in an increasingly complex digital world.
00:04:27 --> 00:04:31 Now, finally, you might be wondering, like, okay, listen, I listened to this
00:04:31 --> 00:04:35 this morning and hoping that I would get a definition of what this 6-7 thing
00:04:35 --> 00:04:36 is that every kid is saying.
00:04:36 --> 00:04:41 Short version here is that it's often a cryptic reference most famously on platforms
00:04:41 --> 00:04:44 like TikTok, and it refers to a scamming tactic.
00:04:44 --> 00:04:50 Users send these digits to bypass platform filters or to signal a follow-up
00:04:50 --> 00:04:55 request often impersonating friends to ask for money or share malicious links.
00:04:55 --> 00:05:02 It's exactly the type of vague, viral threat that makes our digital literacy efforts so vital.
00:05:03 --> 00:05:07 Hope you have a wonderful Friday. Hope you have an even better weekend because
00:05:07 --> 00:05:09 I know you have earned it.
00:05:09 --> 00:05:13 Thank you for listening this week. We're back again with a guest next week,
00:05:13 --> 00:05:15 so I look forward to that for you as well.
00:05:15 --> 00:05:18 But again, if you don't get the Grundmeyer Fitting 5, please reach out.
00:05:18 --> 00:05:21 We will get that sent to you as soon as we can.
00:05:21 --> 00:05:24 Otherwise, thank you for listening. Have a wonderful weekend.
00:05:24 --> 00:05:26 And we will talk with you again next week.
00:05:28 --> 00:05:32 That concludes another episode of Your Morning Boost.
00:05:32 --> 00:05:36 We hope today's daily dose of professional development helps you amplify knowledge,
00:05:37 --> 00:05:39 widen reach, and broaden impact.
00:05:39 --> 00:05:45 Your Morning Boost is an AWB education production brought to you with the generous
00:05:45 --> 00:05:47 support of Grundmeyer Leader Services.
00:05:47 --> 00:05:52 Join us again tomorrow for more. Until then, keep boosting your impact.
00:05:54 --> 00:05:54 You.