Archived Updates

Update #7 1/10/23

Hopefully everyone has recovered from their turkey comas and started decorating their Christmas trees!

We have some updates to share with you as we enter into December. First, you can view our Digital Devil Newsletter here. We have shared some laptop care tips, digital resources to use in your class, and some photos of our super students using the Viewboards.

We have added a couple of resources to the "General Classroom Tools" page, under "Tools and Resources" that early elementary teachers may want to take a look at. We have shared a Google Folder with 4 videos of sightword practice (Requested by Kathy Clapper Jodi Perone!) that you can use with your students. Students will be asked to say the word, trace the word on the screen, then write the word on their paper. This was created for first grade, but could be used in others as well. There is also a Google Doc included in the folder with all of the words. We have also created an interactive Whiteboard file for students to practice spelling. You can cast the file to the Viewboard, then students can drag out letters to spell different words. Thanks to Whitney Newsom for the Letter Board!

If there are any holiday themed activities you would want to use in your class, send us an email and we would be happy to build it for you! This can be a Google type activity, or a Whiteboard file. We will help however we can.

Finally, if you want to meet or if you need anything, you can always fill out a Meeting Request form, or just stop us when we are in your building!

Winter break is now within sight!

With 2023 well underway, we felt it was time for an update. Our January 6 tech PD sessions were great, so thank you for your participation and engagement. We are looking forward to following up and supporting you as you implement Edulastic and the Viewboard into your teaching. Be sure to reach out as individuals or as grade levels/departments for additional support. We love to attend PLC sessions!

Here are a few things to keep an eye out for as January rolls on:

January 6 PD Survey
Tech Integration Specialist schedules for Parent Teacher Conference evenings
Pictures and stories from ZMS STEM Night 2023

And lastly, don't forget to give our Winter Challenge a try. The join code will remain active for the duration of the challenge, so if you change your mind, no worries! You can work entirely at your own pace. Early birds and procrastinators are all welcome! The question is...who will win the breakfast for having the highest percentage of full completion? 🍩 ☕

Update #6 11/29/22

Hopefully everyone has recovered from their turkey comas and started decorating their Christmas trees!

We have some updates to share with you as we enter into December. First, you can view our Digital Devil Newsletter here. We have shared some laptop care tips, digital resources to use in your class, and some photos of our super students using the Viewboards.

We have added a couple of resources to the "General Classroom Tools" page, under "Tools and Resources" that early elementary teachers may want to take a look at. We have shared a Google Folder with 4 videos of sightword practice (Requested by Kathy Clapper Jodi Perone!) that you can use with your students. Students will be asked to say the word, trace the word on the screen, then write the word on their paper. This was created for first grade, but could be used in others as well. There is also a Google Doc included in the folder with all of the words. We have also created an interactive Whiteboard file for students to practice spelling. You can cast the file to the Viewboard, then students can drag out letters to spell different words. Thanks to Whitney Newsom for the Letter Board!

If there are any holiday themed activities you would want to use in your class, send us an email and we would be happy to build it for you! This can be a Google type activity, or a Whiteboard file. We will help however we can.

Finally, if you want to meet or if you need anything, you can always fill out a Meeting Request form, or just stop us when we are in your building!

Winter break is now within sight!

Update #5 11/10/22

Hopefully you all had a good shortened week and are looking forward to a slightly longer weekend. We wanted to thank everyone again for participating in our Viewboard training on November 8th. We hope that you pulled some ideas from colleagues and found some useful tools that can be utilized in your teaching. If you missed the session and would like to see what we shared, you can view the recording here.

As a refresher. we discussed:

How to save files to your Google Drive
Different tools in the magic box
How to access different Viewboard Original backgrounds
How to record videos
How to favorite and use different Viewboard originals

If you would like one of the Tech Integration Specialists to come to a PLC session to go over more of these tools, have your department head or lead teacher sign up for a PLC slot.

Click here for the elementary link.

Click here for the secondary link.

Finally, we would love to see what you are doing in your classroom. We want to gather ideas and resources that teachers are using and share those with others. If you would be interested in allowing one of us to come into your classroom for a lesson, you can fill out our Pineapple Charts here. You can read a little blurb about them here.

Have a great weekend and get some extra rest.

As always. feel free to reach out if you have any problems, or schedule a meeting with us.

Update #4 10/28/22

Congrats on making it through the first quarter of the school year! We hope that you are starting to find rhythms and more ways to utilize the new technology in your classrooms that works best for you. We have been seeing some pretty cool ideas and ways to use the Viewboards over the past month and are excited to share some things we have learned with you during our PD Session on November 8th. Take a look at our November edition of the Digital Devil Newsletter here to see what's been happening and what's coming up in tech integration.

In the month of November, we will continue to be around in the buildings. As you are becoming more comfortable with the technology in your classroom, we would love to come into your room and observe, give any pointers we might see, and help out however we can. We will be launching something called Pineapple Charts during the November 8th PD Session. You can take a look here, but don't worry about filling anything out right now. We will explain everything on the 8th!

As always. feel free to reach out if you have any problems, or schedule a meeting with us.

Update #3 9/16/22

We wanted to share some updates with you from this week.

Remember, if you missed our PLC Session, you can go watch that video and see all handouts and how-to's from the PLC Sessions tab at the top of the page. Thank you for your participation in the discussions we had this week during our session on the SAMR Model and tech integration. We hope you found some interactive websites or thought of some ideas that will be really beneficial in your classroom.

Classwize: We are getting closer to having Classwize fully figured out and are almost ready for full implementation. You are okay to start or keep trying to use Classwize and make us aware of things that are not working quite right. Here are some findings we wanted to pass on to you this week:

You can only view students when they are in your class for that period. To make this work for everyone, you need to end the class on time or earlier. Classwize can only set end times in 5 minute intervals. This means that if a class ends at 9:09, you need to set Classwize to end at 9:05, or else you will get an error message.
Scheduling feature: The scheduling feature to start and end classes at a certain time is not working yet. You will need to manually select start class, and select an end time for your class every period.
Creating rules: In Classwize, you are able to create rules to block certain websites for an individual student, or the entire class. This allows you to block a certain website for a class period, or permanently. This is a function that has been spotty. It has worked for some teachers, but has not worked for others. This is something we would like updates on if you try it out.
Focus Time: Like creating rules, Focus Time allows teachers to keep students on a specific website, say ALEKS, for the entire class period, and they are not able to go anywhere else. I observed this tool in a couple of classes, and it worked when I saw it, but it may not every time. Again, let us know if you try it and find success or have struggles.

Looking Forward: You will be receiving and email in the near future about PD sessions this year from Mike Emmert. There will be a survey that you can fill out to give your preferred options. The PD committee discussed some options at their meeting earlier this week, and Mike wanted to hear from teachers to get opinions.

Hopefully, you are getting settled into a routine with your classes. We would love to start coming into classrooms and seeing how you are using technology. We can just observe, give helpful observations of what we see, be an extra set of hands, help plan the lesson, whatever you may need!

As always, feel free to reach out if you have any problems, or schedule a meeting with us.

Update #2 9/9/22

Remember, if you missed our PLC Session, you can go watch that video and see all handouts and how-to's from the PLC Sessions tab at the top of the page.

Classwize: We are still working out some kinks with Classwize. Jake sent out an email earlier in the week with an update on how we will move forward. Keep trying to use it if you want, just don't rely on it as of right now. We would love feedback on Classwize. If you are using it, let us know how it is working. If it isn't working, let us know what problems you are seeing.

Eureka Math Embarc Files: After showing all of the elementary math teachers how to access the Embarc files from Google Drive, we have discovered that most of the movable objects were not working as they should. Our solution is for math teachers to use ActiveInspire, as you have done in the past. Jake will put this program on your laptops and we will have instructions on how to proceed. You can continue to use the .olf files in the Google folder until then, but it may be frustrating to try to move objects in a lesson.

Looking Forward: Next week during our PLC sessions, we will be looking at the SAMR Model for technology integration. We want to share some resources with you, as well as give you an opportunity to brainstorm ways to integrate tech into one of your lessons. You do not have to have anything prepared, just have an idea of a lesson that you will be doing in the future and we can discuss ways to implement technology for that lesson.

As always, feel free to reach out if you have any problems, or schedule a meeting with us.

Update #1 and Newsletter 8/26/22

We hope you had a successful first few days of school. We have really enjoyed coming around to your buildings and seeing how you are coming up with ways to use the new Viewboards. We wanted to update you on a few things that may help you in the future.

We have received some questions about SMART Notebook files working on the Whiteboard app. You are able to use SMART Notebook files by opening them through the Magic Box (Cardboard box with shapes coming out), selecting where they are saved, and double-clicking the file. These files do need to be on your computer to open them currently. After the first time you open the file, we suggest saving it as an .olf (Olaf) file and uploading it your Google Drive or saving it on your computer. You can do this by clicking on the file folder (beside the Magic Box), clicking "Save As" (The floppy disc with the pencil), selecting where you want to save the file, then naming the file. We will show you how to link your Google Drive to the Viewboard in our PLC time next week.

If you are still having issues with sound, please refer to the One Pager that is on our Viewboard Resources page, or see the email that Jake Fisher sent to you. After selecting the Virtual Audio Cable, you will have to stop casting, then recast for it to work.

To clean the Viewboard, DO NOT use Clorox wipes or other cleaners. You should have a microfiber cloth on the back of your Viewboard. You should wet the cloth with water, then wipe down the board. If you want to disinfect the board, spray the cloth with rubbing alcohol and wipe down the board.

Finally, for elementary math teachers, we are working on creating a shared Google Drive with all of the Promethean flip charts uploaded as Whiteboard-readable files. This will take time, but should be done in the near future. If math coaches could let me know what Modules they are starting on, I will get those finished first.

Let us know if you need anything. Please keep using our Scheduling Tool to set up meetings with us!