A P R I L 2 0 1 6
I S S U E # 6
the Newsletter
Office of Instructional Technology Mr. George Loper, CITO
http://www.desotocountyschools.org/ITDept 662.449.7295
"My idea of a perfect world really can't be designed by one person or even by a million experts. It's going to be 7 billion pairs of hands, each following their own passions." --Jay Silver
APRIL is Autism Awareness Month: In the spirit of Autism Awareness Month, Learn360 has loaded some great videos to educate yourself as well as your students. Here are a few great videos. Just click to view!
CONTENTS:
Autism Sibling Connection
♦ Apps of the Month
Creative Empathy: What Children with Autism Can Teach Us Marvel and Friends: Sharing and Taking Turns
♦ Frequently Asked Questions ♦ Tech Tips of the Month
Birds Can Shed Light on Autism Hernando High School on the show "Small Town, Big Deal"
♦ Computer 101 ♦ Website & Web Tip of the Month ♦ CEU Information
Focus Training Sessions in April Include:
♦ State Testing Windows & Information
Don't forget to let your students and parents know about Camp Invention! Click here for more details and registration
Google Apps for Education:
Google Drive, Forms, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Classroom and more! Don't forget to stop by and discover something new via your CTC...
TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Cassie's App of the Month : Elements 4D
Cassie Sanders, CTC
Center Hill & Horn Lake Zones
Part educational story and part game, the Elements 4D app offers a new, fun way to experience augmented reality and learn about reallife chemistry. Paired with either paper or wood blocks that are inscribed with the symbols of 36 elements from the periodic table, this app will instantly transform a simple, inanimate object into dynamic, dimensional, 4D representations of each element. Designed by DAQRI, the Elements 4D app enables you to: • Interact with 36 amazing, naturally-occurring elements and learn their names, what they look like, and their atomic weights • Learn unique, fun facts about each element • Combine two elements together and see how they react, including the catalyst, resulting compound and chemical equation • Get inspired about chemistry!
FAQ: Why is my MacBook running slow
Cassie's Technology Tip of the Month:
and freezing?
ANSWER: When you restart or shutdown your MacBook, be sure to remove the checkmark in the box that says, “Reopen windows when logging back in.” This will allow all programs to close out rather than trying to open back up along with everything else.
MultiURL MultiURL is your one stop shop for placing all your websites in one spot. You can name them and also assign websites to certain groups. This will help with differentiation, and certainly make your life a little easier.
www.multiurl.com
Follow Cassie on Twitter! @cassie_e
Mr. Sam Jones' U.S. History and World History students at OBHS learn about the electoral process.
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TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Tyler's App of the Month : ZipGrade Zip Grade lets you use your phone’s camera to grade scantron bubble sheets. The bubble sheets can be printed from zipgrade.com and have sections for 20, 50 or 100 question tests. When you’re ready to grade, you enter the key directly in the app and then as fast as you can flip a sheet of paper, your tests will be graded. Zip Grade will allow you to download scores on PDF or as a CSV and will give a broken-down item analysis. You can import your student’s names to zipgrade.com and manage class rosters there too. The free version is good for 100 uses, and the paid version has two tiers $2 for 1 month’s use or $7 for a full year.
Tyler Cummings, CTC
CTCW, DCAC/Magnolia & Southaven Zones
Students get immediate feedback from Mrs. Baltz and ZipGrade at OBMS.
FAQ: I saw something in a Tuesday
Tyler's Technology Tip of the Month:
Update last week. How can I find that?
Adding Your Picture to Office365
ANSWER: The old Tuesday Updates are stored
Have you noticed that some people have pictures next to their email addresses and others only have their initials? Your picture is only seen by those inside our email system, and adding it is easy. You will need to put a picture of yourself on your computer and then you will click on the initials in the top right corner of Office 365. When you do, you will see your initials again to the left of your name and under those initials it will say “change”. Click "change", choose the right file on your computer, and then click Save.
in the Sites app on Office 365. Go to Office 365 and click on the honeycomb of blocks on the top left corner. One of the options will be “Sites” - Click on Sites and then click on the DCS Team Site. You’ll find all of this school year’s Tuesday Updates in case you missed one. Follow Tyle r on Twitter! @tylercummings
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TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Shelby's App of the Month : DocsTeach
Shelby Elmore, CTC Hernando & Lake Cormorant Zones
Created by the National Archives, DocsTeach is a great way to incorporate Primary Sources into your instruction. Here you will find thousands of primary sources and ready-made learning activities. Students can choose a historical era or find an activity based on primary source documents like the canceled check for the purchase of Alaska or Thomas Edison’s Patent drawing for the light bulb! Teachers can register online for a free account and use many of the activities, historical documents and photographs on their Interactive Whiteboards. Create a DocsTeach.org classroom and share with your students using a unique generated code. Activities include: Focusing on Details, Making Connections, Finding a Sequence, Mapping History, Weighing the Evidence, and Seeing the Big Picture. You can use ready-made activities or create your own.
FAQ: How do I turn off notifications on
Shelby's Technology Tip of the Month:
the iPad?
ANSWER: •
•
•
•
First, go to your iPad settings by launching the Settings app. This is the icon that looks like gears. This will take you to a screen with a list of categories on the left side. Notifications are near the top, just under the Wi-Fi settings. After you choose the Notifications setting, you can scroll down the list of apps. Tap the app you want to manage. This will take you to a screen that allows you to tune your notifications. Just flip the "Allow Notifications" switch to off.
Follow Shelby on Twitter! @ctselmore
So you’ve got this cool Apple TV that lets you magically beam your iPad, iPhone or Macbook onto your projector screen. As soon as you power it up and hit menu, some racy movie ad flashes across the screen. In a panic, you scramble to turn the projector off before your students start snickering. Did you know that there’s a way you can keep those movie ads from scrolling across the top of your menu screen? To get rid of those movie posters, you need to enable Restrictions.
Click on Settings>General>Restrictions. You’ll be prompted to enable the Restrictions setting with a passcode. Make sure you use a passcode that you will remember. Once that’s done, click on “Purchase & Rental” to display “Hide”. Now those movie ads are replaced with the Apple TV logo. Don’t have an AppleTV? This would be a great DonorsChoose item!
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TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Stacey's App of the Month : Math Concentration By yourself or against a friend, match whole numbers, shapes, fractions, or multiplication facts to equivalent representations. Practice with the clear panes or step up the challenge with the windows closed. How many socks can you win? Stacey Moultrie, CTC
Lewisburg & Olive Branch Zones
FAQ: Who do I need to contact to add
Stacey's Technology Tip of the Month:
additional apps to the cart iPads?
ANSWER: Contact your Classroom Technology
If your Macbook is not automatically connecting to Coach by email or through the Red Help Button on the DCS_DEVICES wifi network, click the wifi symbol and click on the DCS_DEVICES network your desktop if you would like additional apps name. If it asks for a password, please let your added to the school iPads. computer tech know. Follow Stacey on Twitter! @staceymoultrie7
April CEU Sessions Weebly Websites for Education: Making Your Teacher Website Sparkle!
TechFusion-Putting it all Together Shelby Elmore Hernando High School Library April 7 and 14, 2016 Time: 4:30 - 7:00 pm Target Audience: K-12 Teachers
Tina Streeter Hernando Middle School April 12 and 19, 2016 Time: 4:30 - 7:00 pm Target Audience: K-12 Teachers
Helping Students Create Compelling Presentations with Keynote using an iPad
School Status/Analyzing Student Data
Stacey Moultrie Olive Branch Middle School April 12 and 19, 2016 Time: 4:30 - 7:00 pm Target Audience: K-12 Teachers
Pete Hicks and Michael Putnam County Office Computer Lab April 21 and 28, 2016 Time: 4:30 - 7:00 pm Target Audience: K-12 Teachers, Counselors, & Interventionists
“Not Another APP??!!”
"Making the Most of Your iPad"
Jennifer Klinger and Cassie Sanders Center Hill Elementary April 5 and 12, 2016 Time: 4:30 - 7:00 pm Target Audience – K-12 Teachers
Tyler Cummings Greenbrook Elementary April 11 and 18, 2016 Target Audience: K-12 Teachers 5
TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Jennifer's App of the Month : Fry Words Pro - Read It, Build It, Trace It, Write It
Jennifer Klinger, CTC CTCE & DeSoto Central Zones
Fry Words Games includes 100 lists of the top 1,000 Fry Words used for teaching reading, writing, and spelling. To make learning the Fry Words fun, simple, and easy, they have broken all 1,000 Fry words into unique sets of 10 words each and created over 10 fun and engaging games to keep kids interested and wanting to learn more. Some of the Fry Words Games included are: flashcards, matching, tracing, missing letters, memory cards, bingo, word searches, and a spelling bee.
FAQ: How can I temporarily hide the
Jennifer's Technology Tip of the Month:
dock on my MacBook?
ANSWER: The Mac OS X operating system features a dock bar that normally appears at the bottom of your MacBook's display. Through the main System Preferences menu, you can modify the settings on your MacBook to automatically hide this dock bar. Once you activate this setting, the dock bar will only appear when you move the mouse over the bottom of your MacBook's display. • Step 1 - Click the Apple icon located on the main toolbar menu. • Step 2 - Select the "System Preferences" option. • Step 3 - Click the "Dock" icon. • Step 4 - Select the option to "Automatically hide and show the Dock." You can also temporarily hide the dock with the shortcut, Command+Option+D. Using the same shortcut will bring it right back!
Splitting Your PC Monitor Screen into Two Working Spaces
These directions do not work for a MacBook How nice would it be, with two quick steps, to dock two windows on one monitor! Here's how: • Click on the first active window (Word, Excel, Gradebook, internet, etc) you want split-screened on your monitor. Click the Windows logo key and the right arrow key (or the left arrow key, depending on where you want the screen to be placed) If you want a second window or program to be docked on the other side of the screen, repeat the same steps and choose the opposite arrow key from what you chose above. •
Follow Jennifer o n Twitter! @dcsctc
Students in Mrs. Catherine James' class at HMS test their knowledge with Kahoot.
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TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Tina's Website of the Month : NetSmartz
Tina Streeter
Webmaster/Learn360 Coordinator
Follow Tina on twitter at: tinastreeter2
The fast times of social media is definitely upon us. Students are changing the apps they use so fast, it seems as though we can never keep up. Once we get to know one platform, they'll switch to another with the blink of an eye. That's why it's so important to teach them the basics of internet/social media etiquette at EVERY age. We can't assume they know these rules and laws anymore. That's why there is Netsmartz to the rescue! Netsmartz has one goal...to keep our kids safe. From videos, quizzes, and games, to educator downloads, posters, and presentations, Netsmartz will keep you and your students in the loop. Every aspect of the Netsmartz website can be used with your interactive whiteboard, iPads, BYOD devices, etc. to educate your students in a quick and efficient manner. The three buttons below can get you started:
Website Tip of the Month: Did you know that our district has many videos in Learn360 that we created? We are also able to add Youtube videos in the platform for your students to view! How can you find this Custom Content within the Learn360 website?
1. Go to learn360.infobase.com (if you are inside the district you don't have to log in). 2. From the "keyword search" box, type in desoto and hit enter or click the search box. 3. You can also browse all the Producers in Learn360 by clicking the Menu button and choosing "Producer Index".
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TECHNOW NEWSLETTER
APRIL 2016
ISSUE #6
Computer 101 with Mr. Hicks : Keyboard Shortcuts Keyboard shortcuts are combinations of two or more keys that you can use to perform a task that would typically require a mouse. Why should I use shortcuts? Shortcuts can help you save time. They can also help you multi-task by increasing your efficiency. For example, instead of scrolling with your mouse to select a large amount of text, you can instantly select it all by using the CTRL + A command on your PC. Here are several keyboard shortcuts for PC and Mac. Try incorporating them into your daily computer use and see how much they can help you!
Pete Hicks Asst. Director Instructional Technology & Testing
Upcoming State Assessment Windows
4/7/16- 5/12/16 Kindergarten Readiness Assessment Post Test 4/25/16- 5/17/16 MAP
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