I.T.S. a Tech Update
December 2021
Welcome to December 🎁 🎄🎅🏻 🕎
Happy Holiday Season!
The holiday season is upon us and before you know it we will be on a nice long, winter break. In the meantime, we have lessons, tutoring, and fun holiday activities to do.
The Instructional Technology Specialists have created a 12 Days of Techmas Schoology course full of activities for your students and families to enjoy. You and your students can join this course by using the course access code - KX7C-VBDZ-ZX2QM.
We have activities like:
- 📸 Take your favorite holiday snapshot and share it on our community Media Album. Could be your' home or your neighbors. Go scavenger hunting for your favorite holiday scene with your loved ones and remember to be safe.
- 🌠 Create a digital holiday card by going to Canva.com. There are tons of free templates and images to make this possible. Share your holiday creation with all of us using the Media Album.
- Have fun trying to solve the Reindeer Breakout Game puzzle. Use the clues to solve this digital breakout and earn a holiday Schoology badge!
- 🎅🏻 Santa is just around the corner and you might want to keep track of the time until Christmas. With the Santa Tracker from Google, you can keep an eye on Santa's arrival and practice some coding with his funny reindeer. Take a screenshot once you finished and earned a Santa Tracker badge!
- Play a Jeopardy Labs game to test your knowledge of holiday traditions.
- ...And many more.
- Make sure to read our December Tech Tips below to learn how to be Technically Prepared, see the new features in Microsoft Reading Progress, and learn about a new tool that will help you schedule Schoology Updates in advance.
- Seesaw has shared new cue cards that will make showing students how to accomplish an activity that much easier.
- Don't forget to take a look at our Digital Citizenship wall as we give a happy shoutout to all those campuses who have completed their lessons and have been recognized as a Common Sense School.
As always, if you have any questions please contact your Instructional Technology Specialist.
Happy Holidays EPISD!
Technically Prepared 🖥 💻
During the school year, students and teachers practice fire drills at least once a month to prepare for the unexpected. In these crazy times, it makes it difficult to plan ahead for things like inclement weather, or extended time away from school.
With the Fall break and Winter break almost upon us, this is a great time to pause and make sure that all teachers and students are prepared for any more curveballs thrown in our direction. Here are a few tips to help and keep us thinking ahead.
- Run available updates on student and teacher devices. You will NOT be able to install Operating System (OS) updates like Big Sur or Monterrey on MacBooks, but there may be other system or security updates for the system your computer is currently running. On the other hand, YOU WILL be able to run iOS updates on iPads. Here are some helpful videos for running updates:
- MacBook: https://youtu.be/1gCn2LWfxWQ
- Make sure the apps that you are currently using on your devices are up to date. This means going into the Self-Service app on either the MacBook or the iPad and reinstalling apps that you and your students use or may need to use under special circumstances, such as Zoom, or Microsoft Teams.
- Take an inventory of your Schoology or Seesaw course to be sure it is updated. Are key materials available for students? Are the links that students use often located in a prominent place? Would students be able to find assignments in the event that they were absent?
- Make sure your students know how to sign in to programs they may not have used in a while, such as Schoology or Seesaw. Teach them to navigate these programs and to turn in assignments if they have not done so this school year.
- Practice using videoconferencing tools with your students. This may come in handy in many circumstances. We have seen teachers use video-conferencing apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams when their projectors, screen beams, Apple TV's or Promethean boards have stopped working in order to share content from their laptops to student devices. Practicing can make an emergency feel less stressful.
- Blended Learning Challenge: Week 1 -If you have not started using Schoology with your students, consider using our small steps, Blended Learning Challenge. Take the time to prepare yourself using our daily challenges to begin implementing blended learning into the classroom while becoming prepared for any curveballs that may come our way. Here is Week 1. (Click on the photo below to begin.)
As always, if you have any questions, please be sure to contact your Instructional Technology Specialist.
New Features in Microsoft Teams Reading Progress
0:13 Return marked up passages to a student in Reading Progress
3:46 OneDrive and Teams file picker in Reading Progress
4:43 Timed passage in Reading Progress
5:22 Edit draft assignment in Reading Progress
6:08 Keyboard shortcuts in Reading Progress
The video will start at 13 seconds and the Reading Progress information goes until minute 7:54. The video is over 13 minutes long and has other new features in Microsoft Teams, to include their new Reflect tool for SEL.
The Reading Progress new features will be coming soon and there will be some other features rolling out in December.
If you have any questions about this amazing fluency tool, please be sure to contact your Instructional Technology Specialist.
Schoology Update Scheduler by Herman Seufert
Update Scheduler lets you write, edit, and schedule your Schoology updates from one place, and you don't have to worry about accessing your computer to post them. All you need to do is login with our district's Schoology domain (episd.schoology.com) and you can create and schedule update messages.
Visit the Update Scheduler page at https://update-scheduler-production.herokuapp.com/ to access this free tool.
You can watch a short video tutorial on how to use this tool below.
CSEd Week December 6th-12th 💻 🖥. 👩🏻💻. 🧑🏾💻
You can access the resources by going to this link - https://tinyurl.com/csedepisd
New Seesaw Cue Cards
Visual cues help support all learners by making instructions and feedback clear. The following
icons can be found throughout the Seesaw app. Print and cut these Seesaw icon cue cards to
support your students in any learning environment.
Here are a few ideas...
● Hold them up during video meetings to guide students to their next step.
● Display these in your classroom for visual instructions in a multi-step project.
● Show the icon cue cards while demonstrating during a mini-lesson.
● Reteach and guide feedback during 1:1 conferences with students.
Pro Tips:
● Hole punch and add the cards to a ring for easy organization.
● Student leaders can use the cue cards to retell instructions or offer peers support.
December Virtual Learning Programs
There are many virtual learning opportunities for the month of December. Click on the links below for more information and registration.
Flipgrid Live Events - https://blog.flipgrid.com/upcomingflipgridliveevents
- Your Mind-Blowing Brain! (Recommended Ages: 10+) - Wednesday, December 1, 2021 - 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM MST/El Paso
- Behind the Game with Minecraft's Agnes Larsson and Afeez Bello (Recommended Ages: 9+, all are welcome) - Wednesday, December 8, 2021, 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM MST/El Paso
- What Makes You Light Up Inside? (Recommended Ages: All Ages ) Wednesday, December 15, 2021, 11:00 AM - 11:30 AM MST/El Paso
Connect2Texas - https://www.connect2texas.net/pages/home/events/
Connect2Texas Weekly Update Newsletter - https://www.smore.com/jx0fa-connect2texas?ref=email-content#w-3438099247
Note: You will need to register an account before you can register for an event. Not all events are free, but you can filter to only see free events, as well as, events that are still open for registration. Free events fill up fast so be sure to register early!
- Spotlight Session: Christmas Chaos - Presented by Don Harrington Discovery Center(Pre-K-4) December 06, 10:00-10:50 MST/El Paso
- Wintry Wonderland - Presented by Amon Carter Museum of American Art - (Grades: 1-4) - December 1, 3, 7, 8, 13, or 14. Various times available.
- America Goes to War: Industrial Production Key to Victory - Presented by National Museum of the Pacific War (Grade 5) December 2, 9, or 16, 10:00 a.m., 11:00 a.m., or 12:00 p.m. MST/El Paso
Discovery Education - https://www.discoveryeducation.com/community/virtual-field-trips/
- Making a Life: The Strength of a Refugee - Teaching with Testimony | USC Shoah Foundation (Grades 3-5) December 9 at 11 am MST/El Paso
EPISD@Home iPad Tips
EPISD@Home MacBook Tips
Three-Minute Quaranteaching Tips
- December 02 - International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
- December 03 - International Day of Persons with Disabilities
- December 05 - International Volunteer Day
- December 06 - National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women
- December 06 - Last Day of Hannukkah
- December 6-12 - Computer Science Education Week/National Influenza Vaccination Week
- December 07-10 - State Testing Window - December 7-10
- December 07 - Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day and National Letter Writing Day
- December 08 - Ed Tech/I.T.S. Appreciation Day
- December 09 - International Anti-Corruption Day
- December 10 - Human Rights Day and International Animal Rights Day
- December 14 - National Energy Conservation Day
- December 15 - Bill of Rights Day
- December 17 - End of 2nd Nine Week grading period/Early Release Students and Staff
- December 17 - Wright Brother's Day
- December 18 - International Migrants Day
- December 20 - January 03 - Winter Break
- December 20 - Games Day!
- December 22 - Mathematics Day
- December 23 - National Roots Day
- December 24 - Christmas Eve
- December 25 - Christmas Day
- December 26 - Kwanzaa
- December 28 - Pledge of Allegiance Day
- December 31 - New Year's Eve
Contact Us
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.