Tech eNews 11-13-2011

1. Inventory is coming, Inventory is coming…
2. Thank you to Trudy Tkach
3. Intro to Word and Excel Class for Teachers or Classified Staff 11-15-11
4. Google Calendar for Sharing Event Calendars
5. Library of Congress Class 12/15/2011
6. Previous Recipients List in “Mail” on the Mac
7. Political Activities at Work Procedure on For District Employees Page
8. Using the UserBox on the new Konica Copiers


1. Inventory is Coming, Inventory is Coming….
Getting your classroom ready for the every-other-year district-wide inventory is simple and painless.  Here are a couple things that will keep your classroom from getting blanketed in yellow slips:
- Make sure any personal equipment is marked as belonging to you and not the district.  A sticker or note stuck to the equipment would be very helpful!
-  Make sure any new WSD equipment in your classroom has a tag
- Have your equipment at work!  You must get permission from your building administrator to check out any equipment.  There is a short form they need to keep track of while you have the item away from the building.
- If you have equipment on loan to another staff person, you should have it written down somewhere in your room, or document it with your building’s inventory designee.

2. Thank you to Trudy Tkach for Co-Teaching the iMovie Bootcamp 
A very big thank you to Excelsior Math/Science Trudy Tkach for her work planning and co-facilitating the six hour iMovie Class again this year.  Trudy’s experience as a teacher who has worked with students and video is invaluable, and she is a wealth of information on how to help students be successful with video projects. The feedback from the class was very positive, and participating teachers created some great, fun video projects to take back to their classrooms.

3. Word and Excel Class Nov. 15, 4-7 PM
There is still some space available in the Microsoft Word and Excel Class that Susan Nesmith and Rebecca Woodings are co-teaching on November 15th, 2011.  The class will be in the Excelsior Mac Lab, from 4-7 PM, and 3 clock hours are offered to teachers who attend via ESD 112.  Teachers may pay themselves to attend from their PD fund, if the class aligns with their goal and they have funds available.  Classified staff are invited, but there is not a mechanism to pay them to take this class.  If you are interested, please e-mail Les Brown to register.

4. Google Calendar for Sharing Events
WSD Teachers can get a free sign-up for the WashougalSD.org Google Apps for Education domain, which will let you use Google Calendar for free.  Google Calendar is a great tool for sharing calendars with your peers, or publishing a schedule or classroom calendar for parents to see as part of your classroom webpage. You could also create a PLC calendar to share with your grade level team, sharing ideas about the pacing for your classes.  You can create multiple calendars, and can make them public, private, or shared only with specific people.

5. Still Room in the Library of Congress Tech PD Class on Dec. 15, 2011
Gause Teachers Heidi Kleser and Cheryl MacIntyre are prepping for a great class on the resources available FREE to teachers via the Library of Congress website.  Both Heidi and Cheryl attended a packed session of a class on this topic at the NCCE conference last year, and they’re excited to help you bring these powerful, primary source materials into your classroom.  Three clock hours area available through ESD 112, and teachers can pay themselves to attend the class if it aligns with your professional development goals, and you have funds available. If you are interested in signing up, just let Les Brown know.

6. “Mail” Application Guesses Old/Non-working E-mail Addresses
For those of you using Mail on the Mac, you may have older or non-working addresses stored in your Previous Recipients list, that Mail will “guess” as you start typing a new message.  For instance, if you had a parent of a former student named Rebecca that you communicated with last year, but that you were no longer likely to e-mail, and you were now trying to e-mail Rebecca Woodings at CCMS, just typing Rebecca might bring up the older e-mail address instead of the one you want.  You can edit the list of e-mail addresses that Mail guesses from, narrowing it down to ones you currently use.  To do this, open Mail, then open the “Previous Recipients” list from the Window menu.  This will open up a small window.  You can scroll through the list, and highlight people you no longer e-mail.  Once you’ve got the old address you no longer want selected, click the Remove from list button.  This will make Mail stop guessing that name.

7. Political Activities at Work Linked on For District Employees Page
The Washougal School Board Policy 5224-p, Staff Participation in Political Activities procedure, is posted on the “For District Employees” page of the WSD website. To get started, visit the “For District Employees” page, which is linked in the upper right corner of the WSD Site.  As a reminder as we head into the new Election Year, staff are free to wear a button with the name of their candidate or position on a political measure, but at no time can they actively campaign for any candidate or issue during work hours on school grounds.  Staff should not use work related resources, including their work e-Mail, copy machine, or telephones, at any time for any political purposes

If you have a suggestion for something else that could be added to this page (check first to make sure it’s not already there!), e-mail Les Brown and he’ll look into adding it to share with everyone.

8. Using the UserBox on the new Konica Copiers
Sean Elkinton writes that The UserBox is a folder on the copier that stores your documents that you want to print.  It can hold all your print jobs you send there until you are ready to print them.  Once the UserBox is setup on your computer then it functions the same way as a printer so when you print to the copier it is automatically copied to your UserBox.
Here are Sean’s Directions to use the UserBox:
1) login with your code number
2) push the UserBox button
3) push the 2nd item in menu, "Use Document"
4) push "Search UserBox"
5) select your UserBox icon and select OK
6) select the document and push Print
7) push start button

Using the "UserBox" on the Konica Copy Machines

From Sean Elkinton, tech at Excelsior, Gause, Hathaway, and Jemtegaard.

For those of you in buildings that have the newer Konica copy machines: 

The UserBox is a folder on the copier that stores your documents that you want to print.  It can hold
all your print jobs you send there until you are ready to print them.  Once the UserBox is setup on your
computer then it functions the same way as a printer so when you print to the copier it is automatically
copied to your UserBox.




To use it:
1) login with your code
2) push user box button
3) push 2nd item in menu "Use Document"
4) push "Search UserBox"
5) select your UserBox icon and select OK
6) select document and push Print
7) push start button

Mis-routing calls going to Cape

Hi All,

If you dial what you think is an outside phone number, and you get someone at Cape, there's something easy-to-fix that is causing this.  You're not pressing the "9" first, to get an outside line.

So when you start dialing 360 xxx xxxx, it goes to someone at Cape with the phone number 3601, 3602, 3603, 3604, etc.

The fourth digit determines who gets it.  So if you are trying to dial a cell phone like 360-907-1111 without putting the 9 first, it'll  go to the Cape Library at 3609.

Hope this helps

Les

Getting Families Started with WESPaC Family Access

WSD Systems Coordinator Boo Stevens helped develop a handy, one page sheet that can be shared with parents and guardians to help them get started with WESPaC's Family Access.  This is based on a Frequently Asked Questions sheet provided by the Skyward folks, and include helpful information on what they can access, why they might want to get it, and who to contact for help.

Teachers interested in providing this sheet to families can download a printer-ready version of it here.

The Washougal School District Website offers directions for families in English, Spanish and Russian, as well.  Staff can direct parents to the address http://www.washougal.k12.wa.us/family/

If you have questions, please contact Boo at extension 3011.

Change Your Mac Login Password

(This change will change your password on all computers you log into, it changes the network account password)
Click on System Preferences icon in the Dock, or choose it from the Apple Menu.





Next, choose the Accounts Preference icon in the list of System Preferences.

On the window that comes up, click your account in the left sidebar, once, if it is not already selected.

On the left side of the screen, choose “Change Password.”

Now, Enter your OLD login password in the top box.  Enter the NEW password in both the New Password box and the Verify box.  Note: Do not enter a password hint.  When done, click Change Password and close the open windows.

Tech eNews for 11/3/2011

Topics for this Tech eNews 11-3-2011

1. Room for More Teachers in iMovie Class Saturday Nov. 5

2. Laptop Users: Retrospect Warnings About Backup

3. Thank you to Scott Rainey and Chelsea Meats

4. Google Docs for Collaboration and Sharing

5. 30 Websites in 90 Minutes Class needs participants!

6. Bullying Policy Linked on "For District Employees" Page

7. Music Through Your Classroom Sound Amplification System (K-5)

1. Room for More Teachers in iMovie Class on Saturday Nov. 5
There is still space for teachers looking to work with iMovie and video editing with their students. Excelsior Teacher Trudy Tkach and Les Brown have planned an active and hands-on class, where participating teachers will script, storyboard, film, and edit the next masterpiece of American cinema. The class is on this Saturday, and we’re still looking for a few more teachers to participate. There are 6 clock hours available through ESD for this class, and teachers can pay themselves to attend if they have Professional Development funds available and the class aligns with their Tech goal. You can register via e-mail by letting Les know you'd like to attend!

2. Laptop Users: Retrospect Warnings About Backup

Laptop users, your attention, please! If you are getting a pop-up from the Retrospect Client Application telling you that you are not getting backed up, please let Sean or Anthony know so they can check out your computer. If you have been getting this error for a long time, your files are not getting backed up, and it’s critical that you let us know.

3. Thank you to Chelsea Meats and Scott Rainey

A big thank you to Chelsea Meats and Scott Rainey for their work planning and co-facilitating the WebQuest Class again this year. The feedback from the class was very positive, and participating teachers learned some great new skills to take back to their classrooms.

4. Google Docs for Collaboration and Sharing

WSD Teachers can get a free sign-up for the WashougalSD.org Google Apps for Education domain, which will let you use a variety of Google Apps for free. One of these is Google Docs, which is a great tool for collaborating on word processing documents or spreadsheets with your peers. Several people can collaboratively edit a document, even simultaneously, and see changes and notes posted by others. Google Docs maintains a revision history and change log, so you can see how the file has changed over time, and which changes were made by specific people. If you attended the Google Sites class, the login is the same as the one you use for your webpage. If not, let your building tech know if you’re interested in a sign up.

5. 30 Websites in 90 Minutes Class Needs Participants

The 30 Websites in 90 Minutes Class doesn’t have enough folks signed up! This class, scheduled for Monday November 14^th from 4-5:30, is the first of our short Tech PD classes for the year. WHS Teacher Jay Bennett and Cape Horn-Skye Teacher Kelli Dizmang are hoping to share a wealth of cool teacher and student tools they saw at the Northwest Council for Computers in Education conference last Spring. If you are interested in signing up, just let Les Brown know.

6. Bullying Policy Linked on For District Employees Page

The Washougal School Board Approved anti-Harrassment, Bullying and Intimidation policy is posted on the “For District Employees” page of the WSD website, along with a training video. To get started, visit the “For District Employees” page, which is linked in the upper right corner of the WSD Site.

If you have a suggestion for something else that could be added to this page (check first to make sure it’s not already there!), e-mail Les Brown and he’ll look into adding it to share with everyone.

7. Music Makes Transitions Easier

K-5 Teachers, are you interested in trying out the concept of Transition Music with your students? Did you know you can plug an iPod or CD player into your Lightspeed Classroom Sound Amplification System that’s already in your classroom? If you’re interested, ask Sean or Anthony for the mini-jack connector, which you can use to plug a MP3 player or other audio device into your sound amplification system.