Welcome Back
August 1, 2023- #122
Welcome Back Teachers
School is back in session! I hope you all had a great summer and I am ready start the new year with you!
Welcome to your first Tech Tip Tuesday Smore. Every other week, I will bring you information about helpful tools, websites, resources, or other news to help spark ideas about what you can do in your classroom to integrate technology to engage students, transform learning, or encourage collaboration.
Google Classroom 101
If you participated in the beginning of the year PD or need a refresher for Google Classroom, check out the overview of Google Classroom features below:
Google Classroom Rostering
High School Teachers
You should have Semester A and Semester B classes in your Google Classroom class. Semester A classes are from August- December and your Semester B classes are from January- May. Feel free to archive your Semester B classes until January.
Also, please know that while students are continuing to register and change schedules, that your class list is not finalized.
Elementary to Junior High Teachers
Your classes are complete; however, students could still be going in-and-out of your class until the first day of school.
Don't forget you can add a co-teacher to your Google Classroom class by going to the people tab ---> click on the addition symbol ---> type in the teacher's school email.
Grade Passback
- Google Classroom to Skyward. Start at the 13:35 min. mark.
- Canvas to Skyward
Google Tips and Tricks
Email within Google Classroom
Unfortunately, we cannot use that method to email the students because the feature requires all users to be on the Gmail platform. As teachers and staff, our email platform is Office 365.
Here is a workaround that might be helpful- Send Notifications. Click here.
What Can Parents See in Google Classroom?
If you send Parents an invitation to your Google Classroom...
Guardians must receive and accept an email invitation from the teacher before they can receive email summaries (must have a gmail account to change frequency of emails received). Parents will only receive weekly summaries, but can change to daily if they create a Google account. Only teachers and administrators can send these invitations to parents.
Parents have 120 days to accept an invitation before it expires.
- The teacher emails an invitation to a parent for a particular student. You can send it to any email address.
- In the parents email program, they open your email invitation and Click Accept.
- If they are not the guardian, they would click "I’m Not The Guardian".
- The parent only receives weekly emails, but can change to daily by creating a Google account and changing the frequency in the settings.
Parents can unsubscribe or remove themselves from Classroom at any time.
Guardian Email Summaries Include:
- Missing work—Work that’s late at the time the email was sent
- Upcoming work—Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or work that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails)
- Class activity—Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers*
Special Education & 504 Accommodations
Don't forget that some students will need to access the accessibility features on a Chromebook. Definitely check with your Special Education teacher and admin on your campus to get further clarification and/or to see if special arrangements have been made.
Please check out this Google Slide that talks about the Accessibility Features on a Chromebook.
Don't forget that there is closed captioning on YouTube videos, Discovery Education Experience DEX videos, and closed captioning when using the presentation mode in Google Slides.
EdTech Tools in the District
Nearpod (50 licenses)
MWISD has purchased 50 teacher licenses for Nearpod. Nearpod is an interactive tool that allows teachers to create interactive lessons in minutes. Teachers are able to choose from thousands of lessons that have been approved and accepted by Nearpod. You are able to launch lessons instantly and receive comprehensive student feedback. You are able to synchronize and control lessons across all student devices.
Click here for all of their Nearpod Updates
Click here to fill out a Google Form for a license
Quizizz (District-Wide)
Quizizz is a Learning platform that offers multiple tools to make a classroom fun, interactive and engaging. As a teacher, you can create lessons, conduct formative assessments, assign homework, and have other interactions with your students (for all grades) in a captivating way.
EdPuzzle (District Wide)
EdPuzzle is a platform where you can make any video your lesson. The teacher can find video lessons created by other teachers and through the different channels within EdPuzzle. Teachers can add questions that are required before students move on. You can see who watched the video, their understanding of the video, and their results.
Discovery Education Experience DEX (District Wide)
MWISD has a district-wide subscription for Discovery Education, now known as Discovery Education Experience, DEX. DEX has 34,000 text resources, 641 channels, and 9,000 audio resources. They have updated their video player that now includes a transcript which increases accessibility for users who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. You can also choose your language, and you can break the video up into segments. You are now able to take a video and add questions throughout, start discussions, and poll your students- click here. Click here for DEX updates.
Flocabulary (Houston, Travis, JH)
Flocabulary is a library of songs, videos and activities for all grade levels. Flocabulary uses educational hip-hop music to engage students and increase achievement across the curriculum. The Flocabulary lesson consists of a video, vocab. cards, vocab. game, read & response, and quiz.
Mote (Travis Campus)
Mote Extension is a great tool to record your voice and provide a quick and easy feedback to students right from the Chrome browser. Mote works seamlessly with the Docs, Slides, Sheets, and Classroom to save you time and improve engagement with learners. For more information about Mote, check out the Mote Tech Tip, here.
Kami (Junior High Campus)
Kami is an online document annotation and markup tool. You can highlight, underline, and strikethrough text in PDF and other document formats. You can also add text boxes, shapes, and images. Kami works with Google Drive and Google Classroom. Junior High campus has a paid version through their campus administration. If you would like to use the free version, click here to see what the free version has to offer (keep scrolling down).
MWISD Instructional Technology Specialist Mission:
As the Instructional Technology Specialist, I will strive to serve the academic and digital needs of our students and provide equitable opportunities to prepare students for our ever-changing global community.
I will strive to assist teachers in appropriately incorporating and implementing technology in their classroom by being available for one-on-one meetings, PLCs, staff meetings, and providing professional development that meets our teacher's technology needs.