Weekly Updates

Jamboard is going away, but Lumio is a great replacement! Learn more about it here.

Seesaw is rebranding. Here are some helpful resources to share in your classroom!

Lumio has some great new manipulatives you can use! Check them out here!

Jamboard is going away, but Lumio is a great replacement! Learn more about it here.

Seesaw is rebranding. Here are some helpful resources to share in your classroom!

Lumio has some great new manipulatives you can use! Check them out here!

How can I introduce tech in a way that doesn't overwhelm me or my students?

New keyboarding program

• We have transitioned from Keyboarding Online to a new keyboarding website for grades 3-5. Starting this fall, students in grades 3-5 will use Typetastic to learn and practice keyboarding. You can check it out at https://wayzata.typetastic.com/. More information will be coming soon on how to get started with your students!

SHIFT

• We still have openings for anyone interested in joining our latest SHIFT Cohort. If you don't know anything about SHIFT, it is a group that meets four times throughout the year to learn about creativity and innovation and human centered design. We investigate ways that these play a role in the classroom and even get to redesign aspects of our classrooms and lessons using what we have learned. For dates and more info, click here. 

New Phones

• We have implemented a new phone system. The new system is an add on to our current Zoom platform.

• You will see a new phone in your room. 

• You can also use the Zoom application on your computer, ipad or phone to access your phone calls. 

• For more information on how to use your phone, please click here.

Canvas

• Here is some information you may want to share with parents to help them get started for the school year: Canvas Parent Communication. This includes information about pairing codes so that parents can get connected to their child's account.

• Here are directions for importing your course content from last year's course into this year's course as well as cross listing your courses.

Seesaw

• Seesaw classes will be set up on August 28th. New students will be added automatically once they are added in Skyward. 

New schedule

• I will again be officing in buildings on a rotating basis. Here is a copy of my schedule for the year. You can always reach me by phone or email, even if I'm not in your building on that day!

Mosyle

• As we prepare for the upcoming school year, we are deploying a new Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution - Mosyle - to enhance the management and security of all district-issued iPads and Mac devices.

• To ensure a smooth transition and maximize efficiency, we request that all district staff enroll their assigned iPads and Macs into the Mosyle MDM system by September 15th. While the official deadline is September 15th, we highly recommend completing the enrollment process well in advance of the school start to avoid any potential issues during the initial days of school.  

Skyward Q updates

• Skyward Q continues to add functionality. You can now schedule messages to send at a later time! 

BrainPop 

• Student Accounts are now working. They will use their district usernames and updated district passwords. For more info on how to use BrainPop with students, click here.

Keyboarding Online

• Keyboarding Online is set up and available for use for all students grades 3-5. Please plan for keyboarding instruction throughout the year. Here are instructions for logging in and getting students started in Keyboarding Online.

WOOT Math app

• Check out this new math app available in Self Service!

Loom Updates

• There were small but mighty workflow improvements like Quick Restart button on our Desktop and Chrome extension recorders and “sticky” recording settings which save your most recent settings so you don’t have to reconfigure them for every recording.

• Then there were the bigger features we shipped. Speaker Notes lets you organize your thoughts in a movable window that’s hidden in the final recording. And Blur, still in Beta as of writing, gives you the power to hide elements in the Chrome Browser before you start recording.

Sora

• We have added a new reading tool to our list of apps! Sora is an app that will replace OverDrive(Libby) It gives students access to hundreds of library books, both text and audio, through the library system. They don't need a library card, just a log in for the Sora app. We have created accounts for all teachers and students using their district username and password. It provides many great features:

1. Teachers can create book lists for students .

2. We limit access to books at an appropriate level so they can't access adult books in the library.

3. They can annotate in the book and flag pages for later discussion.

4. You can set a dyslexic font to make it easier to read.

5. You can look up and get a definition for any word in the books. Then you can see a list of your vocabulary words you have looked up across all your books.

We will be adding Sora to Self Service very soon!

Apple Classroom

Apple Classroom should be working soon. If you open the Apple Classroom app, you may see your classes. You can ignore the subject specific classes. When you open your homeroom class, you should see your current students. If you still see last year's class, we hope to have it  fixed soon. For more info on what you can do with Apple Classroom, click here.

If you are a k-2 teacher with shared ipads, we will update you soon on how you can get Apple Classroom set up.

Remember: Your students must be logged into their Apple ID's on their iPads for Classroom to work!

Passwords

We are working on making passwords available to you in Skyward. It is not an option at this time. In the meantime, please see your building office admin pro about a printout of passwords for your classroom.

Seesaw

Seesaw classes are now set up for all classroom teachers. You should no longer see multiple classes. If you do, please let me know.

If you are not a classroom teacher, but you work with E-3 students, we can manually create a class for you. If you would like this, please create a help desk ticket. Include the name of the class and the names of all E-3 students you want included in the class.

Seesaw Messages

Seesaw has a new feature this year called Seesaw Messages. It allows you to communicate directly with families and students. We currently have it set so that you can initiate a message with a family or a student but they can not initiate a message. At some point, we can turn that feature on if we as a staff would like it. I will be sending a survey around to gauge your interest later in the year.

By now you are likely aware of the security issue with Seesaw that occurred last week. For more info, click here. While Seesaw messages are currently turned off, we hope to turn it back on again soon.

Canvas

If you have families that are new to Canvas, parents will now need to set up their accounts and link themselves to their children. To do this, please follow the directions here.

BrainPop

We are in the process of updating student usernames and passwords. They should be able to access BrainPop soon! I will keep you updated!

Zoom for Conferences

Here is updated info on how to adjust your settings in Zoom prior to your conferences. Please read before you create your Zoom meetings!

https://sites.google.com/isd284.com/techintegration/home/zoom?authuser=0#h.zdg22ypjomcd

• MyApps - Creating a Personal Collection:

MyApps is a website launch page. Many of our district websites can be easily accessed from the MyApps page. Some will automatically log into those pages for you. To learn how to make a personalized MyApps page with the apps you want in the order you want, watch this video or read these instructions.

• Canvas: Why do I have 6 courses? 

Now that we have separate courses in Skyward for each subject, it automatically creates separate courses in Canvas. But don't worry, you only need to use one. I recommend you use the Homeroom course. It will be named 2023- Grade - Teacher Name. Ignore the ones that have a subject in the name. If you don't publish them, they will not show up for students and they will stay in the Unpublished section of your dashboard.

• Seesaw: 

If your class is in Skyward, it will automatically be created in Seesaw. Your students are enrolled for you. Any families that have previously used Seesaw will be there as well. You will need to invite new families. To do this, simply click on the +Families button at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Seesaw now has a new feature: Messages. Seesaw Messages now allow you to have secure communication with families and students. We have enabled this ability, but only when the communication is started by the teacher. You can also control whether or not families and students can reply or if the communication is one-way. For more information, click here.

• BrainPop:

BrainPop is back and you should have access to it with the same login you used last year. If you or your students need help logging in, send me their district username and I will reset their password for them.

• New Data Privacy Laws:

There are new data privacy laws that we must adhere to. We need to provide families with information about any apps or websites we use that collect any student data. We are working on a list. If you are unsure if an app or website can be used, please contact me for more information.

• Flipgrid has a new name!

Flipgrid is now Flip. It is essentially the same product as before with some updates. For more info on what has changed, click here.

What Happens When Teachers Take Creative Risks?

According to a Solution Tree article by Elliott Seif, there are five questions all teachers should ask themselves to continuously improve their teaching. They are:

What can I do to:

• Develop a positive classroom and school climate, culture, and environment for learning?

• Focus student learning around relevant, meaningful, important, and significant content and vital skills?

• Help students apply and deepen learning and become independent learners?

• Help to broaden and enrich student experiences, interests, and talents?

• Help students meet high-quality standards and share their learning and work with others?

As we look at the answers to these questions, there are many ways to approach them. One approach is to ask how technology might help with these goals.

1. Technology may not directly help develop a positive classroom and school climate, but how we model and teach students to interact with technology can. Make sure you are modeling positive interactions with technology and taking time to teach students how to use technology responsibly. This might mean a few minutes a day or a weekly check-in, but be sure to schedule time to address technology issues.

2. Technology can help focus students around relevant, meaningful, important, and significant content and vital skills. We need to recognize that a major part of preparing students for the world they will graduate into is to help them be critical thinkers when looking at sources of information. Multiple sources with multiple perspectives are vital to showing students how to determine what information is most reliable. Providing a variety of websites, books, articles, and videos is a great way to do this. 

3. Using online tools to guide direct instruction as well as independent learning can help in multiple ways. It allows students to build independence by giving them choice and self-paced options. At the same time, it frees the teacher up to respond more to individual student needs in the classroom.

4. The Internet is a deep, rich source of information. It is also a connection to broad experiences. Virtual tours, webinars, connecting with authors, experts, and other students are all opportunities for students to broaden and enrich their experiences, interests, and talents.

5. When students share their learning with a broader audience and receive high quality feedback, they are more invested in their learning. Online portfolios, interactive notebooks, blogs, and websites are all ways for students to share their work beyond the classroom. Consider ways to amplify their voices. Technology also provides ways to give ongoing feedback. Think about how comments in a Google Doc may give more consistent feedback to a student's writing than paper and pencil. 

Technology can be challenging to manage in a classroom. But it also provides so many important opportunities for learning. Ask yourself these 5 questions often and see if you can use both technological and non-technological solutions to answer them! 

• Some of you have reported issues with Apple Classroom.  The tech office is aware and are actively working on it.  Please submit a helpdesk ticket if you are having issues. 

• BrainPop is up and running now.  Students can log in with their district username and password.  If you have a student(s) that need accounts, please email their names to me. If you are setting up a class in BrainPop, directions are here.

• Keyboarding Online has been off to a rocky start this year. My apologies! We are working with the company to get it up and running. Currently we are working to reset their progress from last year. This should be ready to go by Monday, Nov. 1.

• New Macs have a more fragile screen and we have seen some broken ones already.  Please be very careful when you put your laptop into your book bag or tote.  Do not put papers between your laptop screen and keyboard as this can damage the screen. 

• If students report that their iPad is dropping the wifi, please refer to this fix. 

• Be sure to check out the SMART page for some pre-made, ready to go activities! 

• Be sure to check out the Reflector page as I have updated it for Reflector 4

• Remember to restart your machine often!  I would do it daily to avoid issues. 

• Screencast-o-matic has not been working on our new laptops. I highly recommend you make your screencasts using Loom or Canvas Studio.