#C6edtech Resources
September 2016
Thanks to the prominence of smartphones, social media, and Wi-Fi saturation, there are countless ways for educators to connect with one another and share resources and experiences to help grow and support the amazing things happening in classrooms, schools, and communities around the world.
Here in the Fox School District, educators are encouraged to use social media to showcase how their classroom or school community is working to Create a Masterpiece in students. Please use the hashtags below when sharing on social media to add your images, videos, and thoughts to the larger dialogue about Creating a Masterpiece in the Fox C-6 community.
Instructional Innovation Incubator
In partnership with the Mehlville School District, the C&I Department is excited to announce a new PD opportunity, the Instructional Innovation Incubator (I3). I3 is a year-long collaborative program between the school districts to give educators in both districts an opportunity to learn and collaborate around the Design Thinking process. We are currently looking for teams of educators to apply for admission into I3. For more information and a link to the I3 application, click here.
Fox C-6 Chrome Academy
Fox C-6 Edtech Advisory Team
Teacher Laptop Pilot
The Fox C-6 Edtech Advisory Team is a group of teachers and administrators who represent all schools and grade levels and have an interest in technology integration. One of the goals of the this advisory team is to work to select a teacher laptop to serve as a 24/7 device to allow teachers to take their work wherever they go and give both teachers and students new ways to interact with classroom content.
Last spring, the Fox Edtech Advisory Team worked to identify the features and specifications needed on a laptop. After identifying features and specs, the team piloted three possible teacher laptops for the last few weeks of the school year. Once the initial pilot was completed, members of the Edtech Advisory Team, along with representatives from the Technology Department, and C&I narrowed the field down to one laptop, the Lenovo Yoga 260. The Lenovo Yoga 260 will be piloted by 170 teachers this school year. After this expanded pilot, the district will determine if this laptop is a good fit for us to purchase for all teachers or if we should look into something else. Then, we will determine a purchase cycle that will eventually replace teacher desktop computers with laptops.
In the coming weeks, approximately 140 teachers will be contacted to participate in the laptop pilot. We look forward to continuing to learn how our teachers will interact with these devices and how we can use them to increase both student engagement and teacher productivity. If you have any questions about the laptop pilot, feel free to contact JP Prezzavento.
Google of the Week - Google Drive Organization
Create a Workflow with Shared Folders
As more and more teachers and students begin using Google Docs and Drive to create, store, and share files and folders, it is important to think about how to organize all of those files and folders being stored and shared in Google Drive. It is helpful to create a workflow in Google Drive to organize all the files that users create and have shared with them. The image and video below demonstrate how to create a folder structure to save, organize, and share files.
Shared with Me AKA: the Junk Drawer
Teachers often ask me what to do about the pile of documents, videos, files, and folders sitting in the Shared with Me section of their Google Drive. I have a standard piece of advice when asked this question: Leave them there. Ignore the desire to purge your Shared folder of hundreds of documents. I give this advice for a few reasons.
- Once you remove a file or folder from Shared with Me, you lose all access to it. Even if you add the file to your Drive and put it in a folder, removing it from Shared with Me will take away your access to the item.
- Part of Google's Drive for Education initiative gives all teachers and students with an @foxc6.org account unlimited file storage in Google Drive, so you don't have to worry about storage limits.
Think of Shared with Me like the junk drawer in your house. We all have one (or two...or three...). Once something is put in the junk drawer, it stays there, out of sight and out of mind. Treat Shared with me the same way. If you need to regularly access a shared file, add it to your Drive and put it in a folder for easy access.
Contact JP
Email: prezzavento@foxc6.org
Website: tinyurl.com/c6edtech
Phone: 636.296.8000
Facebook: facebook.com/c6edtech
Twitter: @c6edtech