1. Thank you to teachers who facilitated tech classes
2. Change to Internet filter address
3. Air filter timer warning on projector
4. Wireless/wired network and student use
5. Jemtegaard drop in time - Thursday March 24 3-4 pm
6. Brainstorm or mind map with Inspriation software
7. Resources from tech integration classes on WSD Website
8. Need help? Please ask!
1. Thank You to Teachers Who Facilitated Tech Classes
A very big thank you to THANK YOU to Heidi Kleser, Rochelle Aiton, Kim Dillon, Jay Bennett, Cheryl MacIntyre, Trudy Tkach, Rebecca Woodings, Susan Nesmith, Philicia Weaver, Chelsea Meats, Scott Rainey, Ali Miller, Sean Elkinton, Rebecca Miner and Les Brown for all their hard work putting this year’s tech classes together. These teachers came up with some wonderful tech integration ideas and were instrumental in growing our staff development course offerings in technology.
The tech courses were a big hit! We had 177 participants total in the 12 classes. We offered a total of 24 clock hours to teachers who chose to participate in the 3 to 6 hour classes, and awarded 339 clock hours total in tech classes. About half of all district teachers took at least one tech class.
We will be sending out a survey in April to start the process of developing classes for the next school year. If you have a topic or idea for a class, e-mail Les and he’ll include it on the survey. If you are interested in co-facilitating a class, we’d love to have you participate! Just let Les and Rebecca know what you’re interested in teaching. We'll also be looking for any feedback you'd like to share about how we can make these classes more useful or better fit your needs.
2. Change to Internet Filter Address
For those of you using the bypass usernames and passwords to access the Internet filter, you may note that the address for the filter has changed. If you bookmarked the login/logout page, you’ll need to bookmark the new page, which is linked on the “For District Employees” page of the WSD website. Look in the left sidebar.
Remember – if you log in using your username/password to allow students access to a video, you must go back and log out when they’re done. Otherwise, that computer will retain access to YouTube and other streaming media sites for 24 hours. You can log out by going back to the login page (use the link above) and click the “logout” button.
If you don’t use one yet, teachers can sign up for a filter bypass which makes these sites available. To sign up for a bypass, please download the Filter Bypass Agreement from the WSD Technology page, and send it to Les after signing it. The bypass will let you into YouTube and other streaming sites, but does not bypass the filter for things like Facebook or MySpace.
3. Air Filter Timer Warnings on Projectors
If your classroom LCD projector is displaying a warning at startup that the filter needs to be cleaned, please contact Sean or Anthony, or enter a ticket into SchoolDude asking for it to be cleaned. Keeping air flowing freely through the projector allows the temperature inside to stay cooler, preserving the life of the expensive bulbs. Please don’t reset the warning without first cleaning the filter!
4. Wireless/Wired Network and Student Use
Neither the wireless network nor the wired network are intended for student use at this time. You should not be sharing the wireless passwords with students, and they should not be plugging their laptops into our network. Some buildings are starting to run out of network addresses due to students connecting iPods or personal laptops to the wireless network. The current network setup does not provide adequate protection to the district’s network and computers if students connect their own devices. Please do not allow students to physically plug in computers or connect to the wireless network. Student laptops can be a source of viruses that find and infect district computers.
5. Jemtegaard Drop-in Time
Sean Elkinton and Les Brown will be at Jemtegaard on Thursday March 24th from 3 to 4 PM to provide one on one help to staff who have technology questions. Teachers or other staff members interested in asking questions or getting help with specific problems are welcome to come. This is not a formal class or training, so there are no clock hours available.
6. Brainstorm or Mind Map with Inspiration
Do you do whole class activities to brainstorm topics or create mind maps? If so, consider using the Inspiration software on your computer hooked up to your projector to help your students organize ideas. Inspiration is an easy to use graphic organizing tool. You can have a student act as a recorder, typing in responses to a guiding question using the “rapid fire tool.” Next, use the create link tool to connect related ideas around a central topic or question. Building out from your central idea, connect all of the ideas on the page. Once you’ve made all the connections, click the “arrange” button, and you’ll have an organized tree or diagram of the topic or question. Inspiration is in the Applications folder on the Hard Drive of your Mac, or on the Start Menu/Applications folder on your PC.
Inspiration can also be used to build quick timelines, character maps, or explain the food web. Find example lesson plans on the Inspired Learning Community webpage.
7. Resources from Tech Integration Classes on District Website
Have you taken a tech class over the last year, and wish you could find a copy of a handout or guide you received? Visit the District website for Staff Development, on the Teaching/Learning menu of the WSD website, and click the name of the class in the left sidebar. You’ll find the lesson plans developed by the instructors along with their presentation materials, related links, and handouts they used. Didn’t take a class, but you’re still curious? You can read through the lesson plan for many of the classes and get an overview of how the application or skills taught are useful to teachers.
8. If You Need Help? Please ask!
As always, Sean Elkinton, Anthony Collver, and Les Brown are all available to answer tech questions via schooldude, e-mail, or the phone from 8:00 - 4:30. Even if Sean and Anthony are not in your building, you can get help from them over the phone or via e-mail. Les is available to do screen-sharing if you’re on a Mac, too! If possible, please use the School Dude system to track your request. You can find a link to it on the District website, under “For District Employees.” Click on the link in the left hand sidebar to get started. Contact Sean, Les, or Anthony to get the password.
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