Tech Tips
November & December Elementary Edition
Introduction
Wireless Update
Starting next week we will be updating our wireless network in all buildings. All work will start at 3:15 and happen through 11:00 in the evening. That means there will be periodic outages in the wifi during those times.
The plan is to replace the high school ceiling access points with new ones starting Tuesday. Those access points will then be transferred to Meridian Elementary, Sanford Elementary, and Meridian Junior High. We will be adding additional access points to all of those schools and completely replacing the access points in SES and MES.
If you are here after 3:15, you may find that you need to plug into Ethernet at some times during the week. The outages should be short, but we can't say when they will happen.
success story!
Resources
1. Kathy Schrock has been a school district Director of Technology, an instructional technology specialist, a middle school, academic, museum, and a public library librarian. She is currently an online adjunct graduate-level professor at two universities and an independent educational technologist.
Here is her site to help you evaluate mobile apps:
http://www.ipads4teaching.net/critical-eval-of-apps.html
2. Here is a website that provides you with many different places to find free books! It is geared towards summer reading and vacations, but free books are available all year long!
http://www.kcedventures.com/blog/finding-free-kids-books-online-books-for-kids#_a5y_p=974615
3. Digital Citizenship - Here are five videos that you can share with your students to incorporate with a great digital citizen looks like.
http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/10/5-excellent-videos-to-teach-your.html
4. It’s hard to find time to look for new websites for elementary teachers when you factor in worrying about thirty kids (or more!) … Not to mention having to learn about the Common Core Standards, attend staff meetings, grade papers, and everything else that goes into being a teacher.
After all, you can only be pulled in so many directions at once, right?
Now, you don’t have to skim the results of millions of Google searches to find a handful of useable internet resources—I’ve already got 101 of the very best!
Click here for 101 Websites for Elementary Teachers: http://bestteacherblog.com/websites-for-elementary-teachers/
wing clips
APPLE ACADEMY
The Vanguard Program
In the Apple Vanguard program, educators participate in extended professional development delivered by an Apple Foundations Trainer (AFT) who also manages the program. The program's purpose is to develop educators who can become additional resources in their organization.
The Apple Vanguard program has two levels: Vanguard Member and Vanguard Coach. Each level reflects an investment in personal professional development time. A Vanguard member completes at least 24 hours of training on either OS X or iOS 7 plus a combination of any of these apps: iLife, iWork, iBooks Author, and iTunes U Course Manager. A Vanguard Coach will take the next step beyond that and spend an additional 12 hours assisting in the delivery of Apple Foundations workshops.
If you should be interested in being a part of the Vanguard Program, please contact me!