Technology Times
Volume 3, Issue 2
Happy Fall Everyone! Go Bills!
This issue of Technology Times contains some very important and useful information so please consider reading. In this issue we will cover:
- Website Navigation and Communication
- 1:1 Device Distribution
- Preparation for Emergency Closing for PEC Students
- Google Classroom Guardian Summaries
Coming Soon: I will send out a newsletter dedicated to emergency closings such as snow days. You should expect that by the end of this month. We will discuss how to find emergency schedules and information about Google Meet and Zoom.
Website Navigation and Communication
My goal here is to try to help you prioritize your efforts when trying to locate important information specific information.
1. School Website: The school website should be considered your primary source of information. If you're looking for it, it can most likely be found here. Some common items of interest include:
- Superintendent's Weekly Communications
- Principal's Newsletters
- School Announcements
- Parent/Student Resources
- District Calendar
- Athletics Schedules and Information
- Lunch Menus
- Twitter Feeds
- Contact Information
- Various Forms
- Board of Education Information
- ...and much more!
I have included a video below to help you understand the overall structure and organization of the website so you can easily locate the information that you're looking for. It does look a little different when you are viewing from your phone. If you stay tuned to the end of the video, I will explain how that "condensed mode" works.
2. Mass Communication:
- Blackboard (Parent Link): Every district-wide communication coming from the Superintendent goes through Blackboard (which has parentlink in the address). The messages are posted on the website, twitter, and on Facebook using this program. They are also simultaneously texted and emailed to recipients. These messages are sent directly to you as they contain important information that you should have. This is also the method that I use to send out newsletters such as Technology Times; principals will use this when pushing out important communication; and it is how we announce emergency information such as snow days. It is extremely important that you have up-to-date email address and phone numbers in PowerSchool. If you don't you will miss vital information.
- SeeSaw: In the Primary and Intermediate buildings, SeeSaw is used similarly to Blackboard. Parents with students in these buildings should absolutely make sure they take steps to get those messages.
3. Social Media: The district maintains multiple social media accounts including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. In most cases information posted here is "nice to know" but not vital. If it is considered vital, it may be posted here but it definitely would have been sent to you in another method such as through the mass communication methods described above. It is your choice whether or not you want to take the time to subscribe and view these communications. An example would be a parent of an athlete. They may very much enjoy seeing posts, pictures and results for their team. Your level of interest will depend entirely on your situation.
4. Remind and Team Snap: Students participating in clubs and athletics will generally rely on these two platforms: Remind and Team Snap (for athletics). These platforms allow for quick, timely communications that only need to go to relatively small groups of students. You will get information about schedule changes, practices, etc. Make sure if your child participates in a club or sport that you inquire about these communication methods. Some teachers will also use Google Classroom for this purpose. If you're signed up for guardian summaries, this information will come to you directly.
Lewiston-Porter Central School District Website Overview
Lewiston-Porter Athletics Webpage Overview
Student Device Distribution
Students in different grade levels have had slightly different expections when it comes to traveling with technology. In general, students in grades 4-12 hit the ground running with taking devices to and from school daily. Students in grade 3 are phased in toward the end of October. Students in the PEC are never required to travel with devices, unless parents request them in preparation for emergency school closings. Continue reading for more detail.
*If your child is expected to bring a device to school daily, please support them in ensuring the devices are charged every night in preparation for the school day.
- Student in grades 4-12 have started off the year by bringing their chromebooks home on a nightly basis. This practice is necessary for homework completion and supporting learning outside of the classroom. As we get into the winter months, this also ensures that students always have a method to connect to virtual learning experiences in the event of an emergency closing.
- Students in 3rd grade are new to Chromebooks. With this in mind, we have been slowly acclimating these students to these devices and helping them to learn how to care for them and operate them. We will begin sending them home on a nightly basis no later than the first week of November. This will both support their learning at home and it will ensure they have access to virtual learning in the event of an emergency closing.
- Students in K-2 have all been assigned an iPad within their classroom. Students are not required to bring iPads home on a daily basis as their homework requirements do not necessitate this. Furthermore, we would like to minimize the risk of loss or damage as much as possible. With that being said, we do need to make preparations for possible emergency closing days. Please read the Winter is Coming.. article that is included toward the end of this newsletter.
Google Classroom Guardian Summaries
Did you know that you can get email summaries about your student’s activity in Classroom? Hopefully many of you are aware of this excellent resource and you've been using it for the last few years. If you and/or your child are new to Google classroom, this is definitely something you should consider if your child is enrolled in Google Classroom (typically between grades 3-12). Please confer with your teacher.
In email summaries, you can review:
- Missing work—Work not turned in when the summary was sent.
- Upcoming work—Work that’s due today and tomorrow (for daily emails) or that’s due in the upcoming week (for weekly emails).
- Class activities—Announcements, assignments, and questions recently posted by teachers.
Note: Email summaries do not include grades. For grades, please contact your teacher or refer to the Parent Portal. If there’s no activity to report or if a teacher turns off email notifications, you might not get an email summary.
See an example guardian summary below.
Google Classroom FAQs
How do I get started?
Lewiston-Porter has an automated process that sends out invitations to all guardians that have valid email addresses loaded into PowerSchool for each child. You should have received your invite about two weeks ago. Another invite will go out by this Friday 10/21 to anyone who has not accepted or declined the invitation. If you did not see the invitation, please keep a lookout for a new invite this week.
To get email summaries of your student’s work, you must accept an email invitation. You can unsubscribe from summaries or remove yourself as a guardian at any time.
- In your email program, open your email invitation.
- Click Accept.
If you’re not the guardian, click I’m Not The Guardian. - Click Accept to confirm.
When you accept an invitation, you and your student get an email confirmation.
Do I need a Gmail account?
You can get email summaries sent to any email address. However, to view or update email summary settings, you need a Google Account. With a Google Account, you can change the frequency of your emails, update your time zone, see the students connected to your account, and unsubscribe from email summaries. For details, go to Create a Google Account.
If you unsubscribe from email summaries, you’re still connected to a student as long as you have a Google Account. Otherwise, unsubscribing removes you as a guardian.
What if I'm not getting the invitation?
If you have not seen an invitation hit your inbox, please try the following:
1. Check your spam
2. Make sure your email is correct for each child in PowerSchool. You can do this by updating information in Parent Portal or by calling the main office of each school.
3. Fill out this form and we'll continue troubleshooting for you. Fill out a form for each child and each guardian as needed.
How do I manage summaries (only with Gmail accounts)?
- In your email program, at the bottom of any email summary, click Settings.
- If you haven't already, sign in to your Google Account.
- Under Frequency, click the Down arrow and choose when to get summaries:
- Weekly
- Daily (Monday–Friday)
- No summaries
- Under Time Zone, click the Down arrow select your time zone.
Winter is Coming...
The following contains information for PEC Parents (K-2) only.
As we approach the beginning of November, we need to ensure that all students have the ability to participate in virtual learning experiences in the event of an emergency school closing.We understand that some parents are NOT interested in taking on the responsibility of having a device come home every night with their young child just for this purpose. We also understand that some parents will require this device if their child is going to be able to participate in virtual learning if/when that occurs.
With that in mind, we will allow parents the opportunity to request or decline an iPad based on their needs and preferences. Please keep an eye out for this letter that will be coming home with your child. Please fill it out and return it to the teacher as soon as possible.
- If you accept the iPad, it will be sent home nightly just in case there is an emergency closing the following day. It will NOT be sent with a charger since iPads are capable of holding a charge for about 10 hours of use and for weeks while in standby. It will have more than enough charge to get you through up to 2 consecutive snow days. We need to keep the chargers in school so the iPads can be charged for class.
- If you decline the iPad, just make sure that you have any device at home that is capable of connecting to the internet where the student can access Google Meet, SeeSaw, etc. PCs, Macs, most tablets, chromebooks, or even smart phones are capable of getting a student through one of these days. Your child will still maintain their assigned iPad but it will stay in school.
- Avoid packing the iPad AND a water bottle in your child's backpack. It will likely spill and damage the iPad.
- Avoid using up the charge on the iPad when not required. This could impact your ability for the child to have a charged battery if there is an unexpected school closing. It is best to just leave it in their backpack with the power off.
- Avoid entering any of your personal information or accounts into the iPad. Only students' school accounts should be on the iPad. We can not guarantee your privacy and security if you do this.
- Do everything that you can to ensure the iPad is kept out of harms way. We've seen iPads that were left on the floor or on chairs get cracked when someone accidentally steps on them or sits on them.
- If your device is damaged, please let us know as soon as possible. We will do our best to work with you to alleviate some of the cost of repair.
If you missed the previous issue....
- Technology Forms, Policies, and Agreements
- Parent Portal
- Updating Demographic Information
- Digital Equity
- Technology at Home
- Requesting a Mobile Hotspot
Nicholas Hill
Lewiston-Porter Central Schools
Email: nhill@lew-port.com
Website: www.lew-port.com/technology_services
Phone: (716) 286-7295
Facebook: Facebook.com/LewistonPorterCentralSchools/
Twitter: @lewportcsd