New Teacher Devices are on the WAY!

 Keller ISD Technology has great things in store for the 😎SUMMER😎! 

1️⃣ Teachers in 5th through 12th Grades were notified by email on Friday, May 21st that it's time to refresh your laptop. You will be turning in your Dell laptop over the summer for a new Microsoft Surface Book 3 at your appointment. (Please locate your May 21st email for the link to the appointment bookings and availability.) 

The Surface Book 3 (13.5" screen) is a powerful device with great functionality for teaching and learning in your classroom.

💻 Open, detach and flip your screen to use your device as a tablet
💻 Ink on your screen with the Surface Pen

👩‍🏫👨‍🏫 Concerned about changing devices? That's normal. We promise you are going to love this new one. We have training ready to go and support by our KISD Geniuses at your appointment. Come ready to learn!

2️⃣ Teachers in Pre-K through 4th Grades will also be getting a new device SOON! Please watch your email for information on turning in your Dell laptop in exchange for your new Apple MacBook Air.

The MacBook Air with the Apple M1 chip is also a powerful device. 

💻 It nicely compliments your Teacher iPad and student iPads in the classroom.
💻 Each classroom will also be receiving an Apple TV to complete your Apple ecosystem of devices. 

 

👩‍🏫👨‍🏫 Concerned about changing from a Windows device to MacOS? We get it. You can start by looking at Mac tips for Windows switchers and What's it called on my Mac? prior to getting your device. We are currently hard on work developing training for this group and will be ready to support this switch.

👉What do YOU need to know?

• Wait for your email and THEN schedule your laptop refresh appointment with our team.
• Laptop Refresh will be conducted this summer by the KISD Genius Team at KCAL. Check your email for details.
• Prior to arriving for your appointment, please BACKUP all of your files from your Dell to Google Drive or Microsoft OneDrive.
• Be sure to ONLY come at your verified appointment time. We will NOT have your device ready if you 'stop by' without an appointment.
• Email any questions to edtech@kellerisd.net.

Who Should I Follow?

 

Summer can be a time of reflection and growth.... especially THIS SUMMER following one unique and trying year! Fortunately, professional development and learning can look so different than it did just a few years ago. Improvement and ideation for a busy teacher may happen with a quick scan of an edtech blog post in line at the grocery store. Learning may be a busy mom doing laundry while listening to a student-led podcast. This new "anytime, anywhere" learning could be a busy coach taking part in an online book study... or what about a few extrovert educators chatting during an informal #CoffeeEDU at a local coffee shop (hint... hint.... note that @EdTechKISD is hosting TWO #CoffeeEDU sessions this summer! Mark your calendar for June 24th and July 14th)?

In addition to the above mentioned alternative forms of PD, Twitter has become a place where many educators have begun to congregate and share ideas. One main problem with this atypical form of professional learning is - you need to know who to follow! Before you leave for summer break and consider using social media to take part in a little summer learning, we wanted to give you a starting place. Might we suggest a few of our favorites?

Jake Miller

@JakeMillerTech

Jake Miller has a ton of credentials but note that he was listed on the Top 30 to Follow in 2020 list!

Matt Miller

@jmattmiller

Known for his practical and creative ideas, useful templates, and his book, Ditch that Textbook.

Tony Vincent

@tonyvincent

Tony Vincent is an edtech enthusiast and often shares all things creative. He also offers online creative courses.

Desiree Alexander

@educatoralex

Founder of Educator Alexander Consulting; always sharing useful edtech tips and is so fun to hear.

Kasey Bell/Shake Up Learning

@ShakeUpLearning

Kasey Bell specializes in preparing educators for Google certifications and Google Workspace use.

EdTechKISD

@EdTechKISD

Our favorite follow of all; Content created by student geniuses and the Keller ISD EdTech team.

👉🏻Keller University attendees: Be sure to sign up for Janet Corder's Who Should You Be Following session (#286) happening June 8 @12:00pm to continue the learning on this topic!

Clean Up, Clean Up! LMS Everywhere

 

The end of the school year is nearing and we are starting to think about wrapping things up. Our learning management systems and other online courses need to come to and end and be saved for next year. Where do  you start? 

Seesaw 

If you have a KISD rostered class, there is no reason to archive! Your Seesaw classes will automatically archive! However, if you have a teacher created course, you will need to archive yourself under class settings.

District rostered classes will carry the student portfolio with the student to the next teacher. In teacher created classes, parents and students will need to download their past work before they lose it. 

Here is a quick link for families to download their student’s work. They have 60 days from the date the teacher archives the class to download the student’s journal. Seesaw will let families know when a teacher archives the class and items will be lost. 

Warning, if you had a student move mid year, their work might not follow them. 

Something to remember: Your classes are automatically rostered by the school district and when using rostered classes, the students and family accounts automatically carry over and connect one year to the next. So, if the previous teacher used a rostered class, portfolios will carry over, and families will automatically be connected to the new teachers. 

With the year winding down, you might have time to organize your lessons you spent this past year making and mastering. Seesaw allows you to make collections and organize them! Then you can share them out to your school library to create that school wide community of amazing Seesaw content! 

Google Classroom

Classroom makes it so simple to archive classes at the end of your term or school year! It is best practice to archive Google Classrooms so students cannot continue to get into them and exploit the stream while the teacher is not explicitly monitoring the online content. Once you archive your class, do not fear! Google allows you to go back into your archived classrooms and make a copy to use all of the wonderful content you made this year and use it in your new school year! 

Canvas

If you are using a rostered class from the district, then your class will manually conclude at the end of May. Teacher created courses should also conclude at the end of May if you set your class timeline to  “Term”  in settings when the course was created. 

Your content is not gone when you conclude a course! It will now live in “Past Enrollments” which you can get to in the navigation menu on the left under Courses -- All Courses -- Past Enrollments.

When you are ready to reuse the content, find the previous courses in Past Enrollments and make a copy of the course to your new district rostered course! 

Viola, you are ready to go enjoy the summer sun and outdoors! 

TCEA Free Membership!

TCEA stands for Texas Computer Education Association, and it is a membership-based group dedicated to the advancement of technology in education. The organization's main emphasis is on incorporating technology into the PreK-16 community and providing participants with fantastic conferences, seminars, lunch and learn sessions, newsletters, and other resources.

Join TCEA or renew your membership for a year, but please don't wait. You have until 5:00 PM on Friday, May 7, 2021, to join for FREE!  

PLUS: Educators who join or renew this week will receive a free ebook! 

Members receive access to the following: 

• TCEA Online Community
• Professional Learning 
• PD Library
• ... and so much more!

Please be sure to follow us on Twitter @EdTechKISD, like us on Facebook EdTechKISD, and follow us on Instagram @edtechkisd 😀.