To listen now by streaming the episode, click Episode 2.

If on a phone, you may need to press and hold the play button a second longer than you think to play or pause.

Mimio Studio Updates

There has been a Mimio Software update. To get the update teachers will need to uninstall the old version first and then reinstall the new version from the Software Center (directions ---------->). Teachers new to the district this year will already have the latest version, and if you have had a recent reimage to your computer you will will also have the latest update. The quickest way to tell if you have the most current version is to open Mimio and look at your floating toolbar. If the icon at the top is purple with a paintbrush you have the old version. If the icon has a dark grey triangle pointing up you have the newest version.

Team Drives in Google

Shared Drives, which used to be called Team Drives, are now available for Staff in our district. You’ll see the icon for Shared Drives over in the left of your Google Drive. You can create and name a drive and add collaborators. The benefit of this is that the files created, uploaded or copied onto your shred drive will be co-owned by the members of the drive. If the team creates or places all their common files here, everyone on the drive is a co-owner of those files… so if someone leaves, the file does not leave with them, even if they are the one who created or added that file to the team drive.

Book Snaps

A Book Snap is about grabbing a short quote from a book and creating a shareable image about it. Typically, people take a quick snap or screenshot (if the text is digital) of something they are reading. Once it is an image, they add to it with other images, emojis, and text, to share their thinking. Student's can use Google Drawings as their creation tool for the snaps. It is a super fun and creative way to have students reflect on what they are reading.

Seesaw

Seesaw is a platform for student engagement. Teachers can have students create, reflect, share, and collaborate in the classroom they set up. Students can “show what they know” using photos, videos, drawings, and text. Teachers can push out links and work, similar to Google Classroom. Activities can be easily created or found, for FREE, in the Seesaw activity library. It’s simple to get student work in one place and share with families, and nothing is shared without teacher approval.

Apple Classroom

Apple Classroom allows the teacher to view what students are doing on their iPads, you can push out apps to the students as well as lock them in specific apps so they can’t come out of it, you can lock and mute devices as well.

Apple Classroom works for the whole class, small groups, and individual students. Teachers will need to download the Apple Classroom app to their district issued iPad.

Foundations for Educational Excellence Grant

Is there a school-wide or grade-wide initiative in which teachers or administrators are interested? In the past, the Foundations for Educational Excellence Grant has provided funding for plays and musicals, school or grade wide murals, outdoor fitness stations, STEAM initiatives, science programs, music programs, school-wide gardens, composting initiatives and much more. The deadline to apply for grants is Friday, November 1.