VTSD Tech News
October Edition
A Note from the Tech Guy
I wanted to take a moment to say a big THANK YOU to all of you! September is such a hectic time and despite that, many of you have plowed forward with integrating technology in to your lessons! I am incredibly pleased and impressed at how much tech has been used so far this school year!
I know it is a lot to ask with all the demands that are put on educators today but we are averaging 200 teachers on Schoology a day (and about 850 students per day), many of you are successfully posting plans in Oncourse (don't forget the "post plans" checkbox!), and 31,000 google docs have been made so far this school year!
We plan to continue professional devlopment to support you in your technological endeavors but again, I just wanted to say how impressed I am - the Vernon staff never cease to impress me!
Schoology Update
I just wanted to share a few updates about Schoology as we have made some decisions and learned some best practices so far:
- Syncing Courses/Sections - to avoid overwriting your section names and a few other oddities, we won't update the courses and sections from Power School. If you have a student transfer out/in, you can just add/remove them from the Members section of your course (we will still sync the new users when they come to the district)
- Syncing Grades - with the help of a few brave volunteers, we have learned how to manually sync grades and assessments in to the Power School Gradebook - ask Janet or Jackie if you are interested in doing this
- Parent Portal Off - to give teachers time to get acclimated to Schoology, we have turned off all access to Schoology for parents. For now, if a parent wants to see their student's work in Schoology, they would have to use their child's account to log in.
CHAMPION SPOTLIGHT: Sue Nadeau
GM Chromebooks
RH Media Center
LiveStream
DID YOU KNOW: Microsoft Office for VTSD Employees
UPCOMING TRAINING
So far we have offered 17 Schoology workshops...but we are not done yet!
10/15 - Read and Write for Google: Supporting Students who Learn Differently part 1
10/22 - Read and Write for Google: Supporting Students who Learn Differently part 2
Keep an eye on MLP, more workshops will be announced soon!!! Don't forget, if you would like a one-on-one with a tech coach, just schedule time with Janet or Jackie via their Google Calendars!
Our newest IT Member: Steve Fitzsimmons
Steve is replacing Dave Bove who is leaving the district. Dave has served the district well but has a great opportunity ahead of him - Dave will be missed but we wish him well! Pete Van Gilst will be taking over as the district webmaster.
HELPDESK TICKETS: If it isn't in School Dude, it doesn't exist
If something is not working, enter a HELPDESK TICKET! You can click the HELPDESK TICKET button on the Faculty page of our website! All you need is your email and our super secret password: vikings
Don't want to enter a ticket yourself? You can still let your building secretary know and they will enter the helpdesk ticket for you!
Quote of the Month...
"I'm not concerned about your comfort zone or readiness for change. I'm concerned about the kids who just entered Kindergarten."
- Ian Jukes
VTSD Tech
Email: mshea@vtsd.com
Website: www.vtsd.com
Phone: 973-764-4272
Facebook: facebook.com/VernonTwpSD
Twitter: @VernonTwpSD