Please have your child use their BASD Chromebook and open Google Classroom to see required assignments and activities. Google Classroom will work best if your child uses their BASD Chromebook. Using the BASD Chromebook also makes it easy for your child to access other sites and apps that are used at school.
Bellefonte Area School District has negotiated a group policy discount with Securranty for Students/Parents to purchase insurance for devices issued to students. A one-time payment for Unlimited Peace of Mind for 1 Year (12 months). No additional fees or charges. Insurance must be purchased within 30 days of the start of the insurance program and before any failure, damage or loss occurs to the device. For more information or to purchase a policy, visit https://securranty.com/bfasd.
Bellefonte Area School District students are provided with Google Workspace for Education accounts. In addition to providing secure access to Google Classroom and other Google tools, Education accounts have additional privacy protections that are different from private Google accounts. Google Workspace provides settings that prevent students from sharing files outside of the district or from receiving files from outside of the district. Email access is restricted to internal use only unless approved by an administrator.
Google requires parental consent for use of apps that are not considered core services. Apps that are not included core services are considered additional services. Additional services include YouTube, Google Earth, Maps, My Maps, Translate, Applied Digital Skills, Chrome Canvas, Chrome Web Store, Google Play, CS First, Arts & Culture, Google Bookmarks. These additional services have been available to students for many years and have been valuable educational resources. Please submit this form if you do not give consent for your child to access additional services.
Google logins are also used to access educational apps including but not limited to Canva, Clever, ExploreLearning, and ST Math. Student Google Workspace accounts are configured to prevent file sharing outside of the BASD domain.
Beginning in kindergarten, students learn about online safety and responsible use of technology at an age appropriate level by our school resource officers. The BASD Google Workspace for Education is configured to prevent students from sharing or receiving files from outside of our domain. While elementary students have Google email addresses, Gmail is not enabled until 6th grade, except for BeLA students. Email communication is limited to within our domain unless approved by an administrator. See below to learn about additional safeguards provided by content filtering.
All browsing on BASD Chromebooks is disabled from 8:00 PM to 5:00 AM for K-5 students and from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM for 6-8 students.
GoGuardian is used to provide content filtering beyond the protections of the district content filter. GoGuardian blocks comments and suggested videos in YouTube. GoGuardian also has safeguards to identify and block content not appropriate for students. GoGuardian is used to block all YouTube access for K-8 students from 3:30 PM to 7:00 AM on school days. YouTube is blocked completely on weekends, holidays, and any day when school is not in session. FID days are considered school days with YouTube unblocked.
GoGuardian also has safeguards to identify and block content not appropriate for students. Since no content filter is capable of blocking all inappropriate content, parents and guardians should supervise and monitor Chromebook use at home and reinforce that Chromebooks should only be used to complete school work.
It is recommended that parents use the PowerSchool mobile app. The app provides easy access to grades and attendance and offers a variety of notifications for missing work and grade changes. The free app is available for Android (Google Play) and iOS (Apple) devices. Our district code is RJLC. If you do not yet have access to view grades and attendance, more information along with the form that is used to request access can be found here.
Directions for signing in from home, how to submit assignments, and other helpful resources have been added to the Google Classroom for Parents page. Please review these resources for more information regarding Google Classroom and Google Meet video calls.
Google Classroom automatically creates a class calendar that includes all assignments that have due dates. Every student has access to the calendar through the Google Calendar icon at the top right of Google Classroom and at calendar.google.com.
Shut down the Chromebook at the end of each day and any time that you run into problems that can't be easily resolved. The power icon can be found by clicking on the time at the bottom right of the screen when signed in. When signed out "Shut down" appears at the bottom left.
Close tabs that are not needed especially when using Google Meet. Having multiple tabs open slows down the Chromebook.
Don't use the background blur feature in Google Meet unless you have a fast, reliable, wifi connection.
If your home wifi is slow, work in the same room as the router and avoid streaming video or music unless it is needed to complete assignments.
Elementary students use Clever to sign in to Reflex math (Explore Learning), ST Math, ConnectEd (McGraw Hill) and ThinkLink (FOSS). When signed in to a BASD Chromebook students have a blue and white Clever icon near the top right of their screen. Students can log in to Clever using a personal device at https://clever.com/in/basd. After clicking the Clever link, click "Log in with Google" and enter the email address and password used to sign in to the student's BASD Chromebook (can be provided by the teacher if needed).
Chromebooks have built-in accessibility features that allow students to select text to have it read aloud to them. Students can also enable a setting that will allow them to speak and have the Chromebook type for them. Take a look at this document for directions and links to videos showing how these features work.
Take a look at this spreadsheet which contains links to helpful tutorials for Google tools including Classroom, Meet, Drive, Docs, Slides, Sheets and more.