Tech In Ten
Tools and Resources for our K-12 Teachers and Staff
Issue #26 06-15-15
Happy summer vacation everyone! We wanted to take a few minutes of your time before you leave to let you know of some important changes coming this fall.
Also, as a friendly reminder, please don't remove any computers, phones or other technology from your classroom and remember to back up any personal data prior to leaving for the summer!
Coming This Fall...
New School District Website
We are very excited to announce that a new district website will be unveiled later this summer. We are working with Schoolwires, a Blackboard Inc. company, to create the new site. Schoolwires is one of the leading educational website, hosting and content management providers to K-12 schools and districts.
Here are just some of the highlights:
- A responsive design, (perfect for most mobile devices).
- Single sign on capabilities.
- Parent portals for customized content.
- Social media integration to maximize delivery of important content.
- A sleek new layout so you can find what you need quickly.
- Accurate directory and contact information.
- Improved alert and emergency communication tools.
New Teacher Websites
New teacher sites will be included with the unveiling of the new district website. Your old sites will remain active for a period of time yet to be determined. Teachers who used 3rd party sites such as Google Sites and Wordpress will still be able to link to those sites.
Training on the new sites will occur during the teacher in-service in September.
Gmail For Students
Gmail access will be available for students in grades 7-12 for the 2015-2016 school year. The email address will be the same as the student network username. For example, a student named John Smith who is graduating in 2016, will have a Gmail address of 16jsmith@cheltenham.org. School secretaries can pull this information from Powershool Admin. Teachers should ONLY USE THE STUDENT DISTRICT GMAIL ACCOUNT when emailing with students.
SMART Notebook 2015
SMART Notebook version 15 was released earlier this year. Included with this release are some greatly enhanced features and tools. Our district is in the process of obtaining a new site license which will allow us to upgrade to this new version. We hope to deploy this to all required machines sometime this fall.
Highlights of this upgrade include:
- New pen tools to automate common tasks.
- New add on tools such as GeoGebra.
- SMART Blocks
- Browser improvements.
- Concept Mapping
- Lesson Activity Builder
- much, much, more...
More Chromebook Carts
We will continue to add Chromebook carts throughout the district this summer. The goal is to deliver approximately 30 new carts for the start of the new school year.
How To Contact Us
Dana and Lisa are Technology Staff Developers for the School District of Cheltenham Township.
We are available to come to your school or classroom.
Email us at dwalker@cheltenham.org and lrock@cheltenham.org
We'd love to hear how you are using technology in your classroom.