I.T.S. a Tech Update
October 2017
Wifi Access for Low Income Families
AT&T is offering low-cost home Internet service to qualifying households. Visit Access from AT&T for more information.
Clean up Unread Messages in Zimbra
Do you need to quickly clean out the unread messages in your EPISD Zimbra email inbox? This month's tip is to use the search bar located in Zimbra. Try typing is:unread into the text box. All of your unread messages will appear. Delete your junk mail and find other important emails that you may have missed.
October Schoology Update
Schoology has just released a new assessment creator. It has 9 new question types that will be of interest to all teachers but especially those that teach Elementary or Math classes. Please download the document below to learn more about this awesome tool.
- Apple Teacher Tuesdays -October 10 Encouraging Creativity with Garageband. October 17 Storytelling with iMovie. Check out Today at Apple for all other learning opportunities provided by our Cielo Vista Apple Store.
- New Campus Websites will be going LIVE on October 16th. Thank you to our new campus webmasters that have dedicated their time. This also means the old websites will be taken down. If you have information you would like to keep from your former teacher website, take a photo of it or copy and paste it into a Word Document.
- Digital Citizen Week or better known as Dig-Cit Week is October 16th-20th. Internet safety? Creative copyright? Fake news? You'll find resources for you and your students on the Common Sense Get Dig-Cit Ready page.
- Global Maker Day- October 24 Share any making event that you host on your campus that day. Create locally and share globally using #GlobalMakerDay in your Twitter posts. You can sign up to participate here or look for project ideas here.
- Be on the look out for information on our Skype Turkey Exchange that will take place in November. This activity will involve descriptive writing, creatively disguising a turkey and connecting with another classroom using Skype for Business.
EPISD-IPADS, EPISD, EPISD-SECURE
"I heard the EPISD-IPADS and the EPISD network will be shutting down." True.
As the network continues to be upgraded from campus to campus. You will notice that EPISD-IPADS and the EPISD network will no longer be available. It's okay. You will see the EPISD-Secure network in your wifi list. This is the network students and teachers will use to log onto the wifi with their assigned EPISD username and password. With a 1 to 1 environment in middle and high school, security and accountability are becoming more and more important.
As the network continues to be upgraded from campus to campus. You will notice that EPISD-IPADS and the EPISD network will no longer be available. It's okay. You will see the EPISD-Secure network in your wifi list. This is the network students and teachers will use to log onto the wifi with their assigned EPISD username and password. With a 1 to 1 environment in middle and high school, security and accountability are becoming more and more important.
Sharp School, School Wires, What about the Websites?
"I heard our teacher websites were going to disappear." TRUE! We will no longer have access to the SharpSchool version of our campus and teacher web pages by Oct. 15th. Please copy all information and documents that you need from the sites that you currently maintain. If you have linked a Weebly website, you will not lose any information. There are several alternatives, like Weebly or Wix, to create a class website if you are interested in getting started.
Breakout EDU
Breakout EDU is an immersive learning game platform. The Breakout EDU kit allows for the facilitation of games where players use teamwork and critical thinking to solve a series of challenging puzzles in order to open the locked box. Games are available for all ages and content areas.
Click Here for the Halloween Breakout EDU Featured Game
We discovered a Breakout EDU lesson in the Zach White Library. Students participated in a Dot Day Breakout Lesson. Students worked in groups to solve puzzles that required teamwork and figuring out codes to break messages out of a box. To learn more about Breakout EDU, visit https://www.breakoutedu.com/welcome.
Math Duel
Math Duel is a split screen mathematics game that pits two players against each other on the same device! Change settings for each player to level the playing field.
Assembly
Create stickers, icons, scenes, and other graphics using a fun and novel building-block approach.
The Radio Adventures of Dr. Floyd
Discover a new twist on "old time radio" featuring the adventures and exploits of the World's Most Brilliant Scientist, Dr. Floyd!
Exciting App Update
EPIC! is one of our most favorite apps to use in elementary. At the end of September, they added a feature that many of us have been waiting to see. TEXT HIGHLIGHTING! Now when students interact with a Read-to-Me book there are two options for highlighting: Magnify and Underline. Students will be able to visually follow along with the text. Another addition is being able to click on any word in a book to hear the pronunciation and read the various definitions for the word. Remember that EPIC! is an awesome tool to use with any subject area and especially when you've established your guided reading groups and centers.
Did you miss any of our newsletters? Check out the past issues below.
Aug./Sept.- www.smore.com/fc7bx
May- www.smore.com/xpxnu
May- www.smore.com/xpxnu
April- www.smore.com/bhkwd
March- www.tackk.com/501ea5
February- www.smore.com/bfja2Instructional Technology Specialists
We are Instructional Technology Specialists that serve all campuses in EPISD. We spend most of our time sharing ideas and teaching best practices for integrating technology as a seamless part of learning in the classroom. Please contact us if you are looking for a technology integrated session that would best meet the needs of the students in your classroom.