April 2024

Tech Tips

Thanks to everyone who came to Tech Connect 2024 and made it our best event yet! We had 215 attendees and 40 sessions run by school staff, all hosted in the beautiful new Terminal Park Elementary.

We're excited to continue this event next year and empower our amazing staff to bring technology into their classrooms.

Above is a short video of some of the event highlights -- if you want to be part of this, we look forward to seeing you at Tech Connect 2025!

National Library Week - 7th-13th April

The theme for National Library Week 2024, “Ready, Set, Library!,” promotes the idea that in our always-online world, libraries give us a green light to something truly special: a place to connect with others, learn new skills, and focus on what matters most.

Although the official dates fell during Auburn Spring Break, it's always a great time to connect with your school librarian and find out how they can support what's happening in your classroom, suggest books for your classroom projects, or provide you with online resources to enhance instruction.

Get ready to explore, become inspired, and make new connections. Libraries are there for you, all the way to the finish line!

ASD Cultural Calendar

The Equity and Family Engagement Department has a new website that is now live. On it, you can find a cultural calendar of events throughout the year, and resources that you can bring into your classroom to recognize these important events. Check it out at the link below:

ASD Cultural Celebrations

Helpdesk

Hotspots for Families

We have a limited number of internet hotspots available to be checked out for families who do not have internet access at home. A number have been supplied to each school, but if you are in need of more hotspots, please complete the request form below so that more can be provided to you.

Hotspot Request Form

Instruction

Google Classroom Tip - Using Analytics for Insights

You can now get more information about your Google Classroom using Classroom Analytics. Using this feature, you can see information about assignment completion, missing assignments, average grade, and active users. This helps a teacher have an at-a-glance overview instead of having to click into each thing individually to find the same type of information. A simple new addition to Classroom but a great time saver! Check it out!

Innovation Funds - Deadline 13th May

Do you have an exciting, innovative idea for tech in your classroom? Do you know that there is money available from the Technology Levy for that?

We are currently soliciting proposals for the final round of Innovation Funds this year. The deadline for submission is May 13th. To learn more about how to submit a proposal, please see our guidelines below.

Innovation Funds Process

Canva Lesson Templates

Canva has added lesson templates to their list of resources! Browse through a variety of lessons from Science to Mental Health that are customizable and tailored to classroom use.

Keep in mind, though the templates claim they are "ready to teach," Canva does not know your students and content like you do. Make sure to always review resources before using them with your students.

Code.org Elementary Workshop - April 20th

Are you interested in opening technology career paths for your elementary students?

You are invited to a FREE Code.org Computer Science Fundamentals Workshop Saturday, April 20th at Pioneer Elementary School from 8:30am – 3:30pm!

Participants will receive a $150 stipend and 7 STEM Clock Hours for attending. This professional development opportunity is open to all elementary teachers but is aimed at those new or emerging in Computer Science who would like to implement the Code.org curriculum in their classrooms next year.

Digital Citizenship & Media Literacy

How Does AI Inherit Our Biases?

AI tools are only as good as the dataset with which they have been trained. Think about developing a tool to identify birds, but it has never been shown a female bird; or a tool to improve writing, but it has only been fed examples of romance novels. These would be pretty awful tools, due to the inherent bias in their data.

Now think about who has been excluded or under-represented in the data available on the internet, and you begin to see some of the issues with AI.

To help students understand this issue, you can ask them to develop their own AI with Teachable Machine -- this tool from Google allows you to feed an AI with data to identify very specific inputs (e.g. is this a cat or a dog? is this the sound of a guitar or a piano?).

By getting hands-on and building datasets themselves, students will begin to see where gaps in the "knowledge" of AI tools can cause problems.

Image generated by Canva Magic Media

Tech Tools

Noodle Tools

The King County Library System and Auburn School District have partnered to grant teachers and students access to a plethora of digital tools and material! Explore all the options on your own by visiting the link in the provided image or check out some specific services by clicking the icon and logging in based on the teacher login. If you need more help on using your account, visit bit.ly/ASDKCLS or check in with your school's teacher librarian.

KCLS +ASD (1).pdf

Smart Chips in Google Docs

Within Google Docs, editors can add a variety of Smart Chips that can enhance engagement and increase productivity. Smart chips can provide viewers an opportunity to vote, embed links, pin locations and input data within placeholder chips. Editors can embed timers, stopwatches and even create their own variables to customize a document further than before. For more information about Smart Chips in Google Docs visit this Google Docs Help Page.

Data Security

Report Spam Messages in Outlook

If you receive an unwanted email, remember to use the Report Message feature in the Outlook App or Outlook Web Access (OWA).

Simply click on the "Report" button and select which type of message this is: phishing or junk. This will report the message and can prevent other staff from receiving it.

Staff may still forward messages to the Postmaster account, however, reporting messages directly through the app is the preferred method.

Further details can be found on Microsoft's Support Page.

Reporting a message in the Outlook desktop app (L) and OWA (R)

Skyward

Username Updates

Employees and guardians can update their Skyward usernames to be unique. Log into Skyward and click the dropdown next to your name in the upper right corner. Choose Change Username, create a new login and click Save.

Attendance Comments in Teacher Access

Teachers have the ability to add attendance comments to students marked Tardy or Absent and view attendance comments entered by the office. From the main menu, navigate to Attendance > Daily Attendance, choose a class, and change Attendance Mode to Student List. In the Comments column, hover over the box until a plus sign appears, click the plus, and enter an attendance comment. Teachers can also click on a C in the comments column to read an attendance comment entered by the office.

Skyward Help

The Data Services Website provides help and information for Skyward users with specific pages for employees, teachers, Skyward training, and submitting help tickets.

Shout Outs

Tech Connect Presenters

Shout out to all our amazing Tech Connect presenters this year, without whom there would not have been a conference!

Erica Covey (Arthur Jacobsen) Sandy Scott (Willow Crest) Adam France (Auburn Mountainview) Pinar Johnson (Mt Baker) Stephen Bean (Olympic) Christina Celver (Bowman Creek) Juli Rester (Willow Crest) Shawn Welsh (Gildo Rey) Michael Blessing (DoT) Björn Renshai Janson (DoT) Melissa Cox (Arthur Jacobsen) Janice Bigby (Auburn High) Steve Quist (SSS) Alyssa Jacobsen (Chinook) Art Spencer (Mt Baker) Kelly Love (West Auburn) Jennifer Longmire (Enumclaw SD) Jamie Whitney (Washington) Marla King (Lakeland Hills) Lynnette Miller (DoT) Amanda Umberger (Highline SD) Nicholas Serdahl (Arthur Jacobsen) Mike Martin (Ilalko) Krysta Matt (Terminal Park) Matt McGovern (Evergreen Heights) Lucas Baptiste, Jamison Hyatt, Emily Spencer (Mt Baker - Student Presenters) and our fabulous keynote speaker: Holly Clark!

Report abuse