ITC Newsletter
April 2016
Reach Students, Parents, and Staff With Text Reminders In Seconds!
In fact, we're going to start using it here at the ITC for sending out updates to staff when there are network, Synergy, and other emergency or maintenance outages, etc. Give it a try!
To join the ITC Remind, follow these two simple steps:
1. Create a new text message on your cell phone and in the TO: line put in 81010
2. In the message, simply type @csditc and click send.
Doing the steps above will add you to the ITC Remind automatically and from then on you will receive a text whenever we send out an important update.
To use the service for your students/staff, go to: www.remind.com and create your free account today.
Sandy's Grandson's Reveal the Memorial Bench
Sandy began working in the district 08/16/1993 as the Lead Secretary at Centennial High School until she moved to ITC in July of 2007. Both of her children went through the district and were also employees at one point. Sandy was a valued member of the Centennial School District family. She has been described as someone who cared about others and was always putting others first. The bench was hand-built by Frank Decker using premium Teak.
MacBook Pro Upgrades
We have already completed the upgrades on MacBook Pros from CMS and CPS. We will be upgrading the remainder of the machines this summer. More information on this will be coming out in May.
Below is a short video of Brian Hickerson, one of our in-house Apple Certified Repair Technicans, performing the upgrade process on MacBooks from CMS.
3D Printing at Centennial High School
Mr. Watts Metals class has had fun this year with the addition of 3D printing options. Did you know you can place orders with the metals class if you are looking to have some theme printing done? They have been working on all kinds of fun printing. They are currently making T-shirts for a skills USA competition they will be going to next month. The students have learned to etch glass work, stickers, coasters, granite designing, water bottles, and so many amazing other things. They have 5 computers set up for the students to work from and take turns using the two printers.
Your Print Shop: Effective Immediately - Changes to Booklet Printing Policy
When requesting booklets or comb-bound books:
- Documents with 100 or less pages will be made into booklet form only.
- Documents with more than 100 pages will be made into comb-bound form only.
CHS Lab Upgrade
SPAM, SPAM, SPAM!
- If it looks or feels like it's not legitimate then it probably isn't
- Look for language clues in the subject line and/or body of the message. Many of these types of emails come from overseas and are not translated correctly in English
- Any email saying it is from the IT department that asks for your username and password is not legitimate. The ITC will never ask you for this information via an email or even in a link inside an email that takes you to a website.
- If you don't know the person sending the email, it's likely not legitimate
- If the email has an attachment that is a zip file or other format and you weren't expecting the email or know the person sending it to you, it is likely not legitimate.
So what do you do with these emails? GMAIL can actually learn to block these emails if when you get them you click on the Report as Spam icon in your inbox. It's the little octagon icon with the explanation point in the middle.
Teachers: Have You Tried Our TeleParent Service Yet?
Here's how it works:
- Login at https://teleparent.net
- Click the TeleForm Link
- Choose your class from the dropdown list
- Click Notify All or choose individual students and categories
- Pick the message(s) you want to go out
- Click save
That's it! You don't have to do anything else. You can be assured that the messages will go out that evening to your parents. And the best part it, they go out in 26 different languages depending upon the Home Language that is associated with that student/parent in Synergy. The messages are recorded by an actual human translator too, not some computer translator or voice. For example, lets say you send a reminder message out to your whole class that there is a test the next day. If 5 of your students have a home language of Russian and 10 have a home language of Spanish while the rest have English, those parents will receive the pre-recorded message in their home language. It's automatic! You don't have to select any languages or do anything else.
So give it a try. I'm sure you will like the service and the parents of your students will love the extra communication.
If you don't know your password, simply click on the Forgot Password link on the page and enter your centennial email address.
Great Online Tools for Teachers & Students
Elementary: Tikatok
Publish a children’s book with Tikatok. Great option for primary grade teachers. Free teacher account allows teachers to create student accounts, create writing prompts & publish student work in traditional paper books.
Unique Feature: Student created storybooks can be saved as a pdf file that can be used on many e-readers.
Free to try. Subscription only $19 per year.
Middle: ReadWriteThink
High School: Padlet
Free for 30 days. $5 per month per teacher with unlimited student accounts.
Meet Our Technology Constultant
Pam Hellesto is our Assistive Technology Specialist who is 50% technology support for special education and 50% Instructional technology support for all education classes.
Pam is here to support teachers, students with special needs, and all education classrooms integrating technology into their instruction, allowing students to use technology to help gather information allowing them to demonstrate their knowledge in ways they cannot do with paper pencil.
Here are some of the ways Pam could be useful for you:
- Come in and meet with staff to help decide what you would like your students to learn about the technology.
- Conduct research, Paper writing, skill practice, collaboration with peers on a project, ect.
- In class training with student (she is the instructor)
- Training teachers and students on downloading, making files, saving, logging in to our technology
- Understanding access and using technology.
- Classroom activities, lessons.
- Google Classroom, Google Drive, and Google Docs training.
Her number one focus is to support our staff and students with feeling successful with new technology and learning all the wonderful options Google has at our fingertips.
Tech Tips from Suzanne Ginn: Choosing a Printer in Chrome
Once you click on Change you get the dialogue box that lists available printers. (Figure 2).
Finally you have chosen the printer you want it should have the new printer (Figure 3).
Instructional Technology Center
Executive Supervisor I.T & Assessment
Email: frank_decker@csd28j.org
Website: itc.csd28j.org
Location: 18009 Southeast Brooklyn Street, Portland, OR, United States
Phone: 503-762-3200