Highlights from the January/February 2017 Technology Newsletter

New Brunswick is Becoming #FutureReady

New Brunswick Public Schools has taken the pledge to become a Future Ready school district. 

"Future Ready is an initiative lead by the Alliance for Excellent Education, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., alongside the U.S. Department of Education and more than 50 national and regional partners, that is free for schools. Our goal is to empower district leaders to systemically plan for high-quality teaching and learning accelerated through technology. To date, more than 2,000 school superintendents have signed the Future Ready District Pledge  and have committed to taking a stand for their district." 

~Tom Murray, Director of Innovation for Future Ready 

We started our Future Ready journey in New Brunswick by completing the district self-assessment that asked us to reflect on where NBPS is currently, in reference to each gear of the Future Ready framework:

The New Brunswick Public Schools Future Ready Leadership Team: Evan Abramson, Director of Technology; Dr. Vanessa Pellington, Supervisor of Professional Development; Marnie McKoy, Assistant Superintendent for Human Resources; Frank LoDolce, Director of Facility Design and Construction; Dr. Aubrey Johnson, Superintendent; Melissa Morris Inoa, Supervisor of Instructional Technology; Kathy Antoine-Smith, Assistant Superintendent of Pupil Personnel Services; Dr. John Anzul, Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction; and Richard Jannarone, Business Administrator, completing the district self-assessment. 

Next, team members from NBPS joined other school districts from throughout New Jersey and other parts of the country at at the Future Ready Summit in Newark, NJ. 

We spent two full days learning about, discussing ideas, and sharing different ways for each of our districts to keep personalized student learning at the center of all of our decisions regarding: curriculum, assessment and instruction; our use of space and time; maintaining a robust infrastructure; data and privacy; community partnerships; personalized professional learning; and budget and resources. 

Dr. Aubrey Johnson, Superintendent; Melissa Morris Inoa, Supervisor of Instructional Technology; Evan Abramson, Director of Technology; Dr. Vanessa Pellington, Supervisor of Professional Development at the Future Ready Summit 

Now, members from NBPS are joining other New Jersey educators by serving on Future Ready New Jersey task forces, continuing the work that we started at the Summit, and supporting the ongoing work of our district's strategic planning committees. 

We encourage everyone to become familiar with the Future Ready gears and framework and begin these discussions in your own schools and classrooms. 

For more information about Future Ready, please visit this site: http://dashboard.futurereadyschools.org/framework 

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Digital Citizenship: 

Copywriting Creative Work

After watching this video, please share your thoughts on the video and ideas for discussing these topics with your students and their families in our Google+ Community. 

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What's New in Google Classroom

• Individual assignments - Teachers can post work and announcements to
   individual students in a class.

• New teacher notifications - Teachers receive email and mobile notifications when a student submits late work or resubmits work.

• Classroom user metrics - Administrators can view Classroom usage reports in the Admin console.

• Coursework improvements for third-party developers - Third-party applications can programmatically create questions,  modify coursework, and add materials to coursework.

For more information about the Google Classroom updates above, visit this link. 

Link to original newsletter.

Highlights from the December 2016 Technology Newsletter

Featured EdTech Resources for 

Current Events/Nonfiction:

We've had several requests recently for nonfiction and current events resources, particularly leveled resources and resources available in both English and Spanish. Please find a short list of resources we have available to us here in the district that provide nonfiction and current events in a variety of formats and multiple languages. 

Discovery Education:  

http://www.discoveryeducation.com/

Discovery Education offers a portfolio of resources for teaching students in a digital age with digital content, interactive lessons, real time assessment, and virtual experiences.

• NBPS access:  Full District Access, K-12
• Resource types:

• • Videos
  • Images
  • Audio recording
  • Reading passages
  • Encyclopedia articles
  • Interactives
•  Languages:
• English
• Spanish

CNN Student News:   http://www.cnn.com/studentnews

CNN Student News is a ten-minute, commercial-free, daily news program designed

for middle and high school classes. It is produced by the journalists at CNN.

• NBPS access:  Free website, ideal for grades 6-12
• Resource types:
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Transcripts
• Languages:
• English

BrainPOP:   https://www.brainpop.com/

Engaging learning games, animated movies, an d activities. Designed with relevance, depth, and humor to encourage kids on their unique learning paths.

• NBPS access:  Freemium product -- limited access  available for free (full access district pilot in-progress)
• Resource types:
• Short, animated videos
• Nonfiction reading passages
• Primary sources (videos)
• Learning games
• Cartoons
• Languages:
• English
• Spanish

Newsela:   https://newsela.com/

Newsela Elementary:  https://e.newsela.com/

Newsela is a web application which provides leveled nonfiction and current event articles for students at the elementary and secondary levels.

• NBPS access:  Freemium product  -- limited access available for Free (full access district pilot in-progress)
• Resource types:
• Leveled news stories
• Leveled nonfiction texts: biographies, speeches, etc.
• Primary sources
• Languages:
• English
• Spanish

For more information about any of the resources above, please reach out to the Media Specialist or Literacy Specialist in your building, or contact Melissa Morris Inoa, Supervisor of Instructional Technology. 

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Digital Citizenship: 

Our students are becoming proficient in searching and researching online. It's also important for students to learn that their online work leaves a digital footprint which can in turn be searched by others. 

This short video can be used to introduce the idea of a digital footprint to students, start some conversations about what they do online, and what kind of (searchable) footprint they may be leaving behind.

After watching this video, please share your thoughts on the video and ideas for discussing these topics with your students and their families in our Google+ Community.

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Update on Online Unit Assessments

New Brunswick Public Schools continues to work with Performance Matters in pioneering new online testing features in the Unify online assessment platform.  

We appreciate the cooperation and feedback from all of our faculty and staff as we work to develop testing environments and online assessments for our 21st Century Learners. 

To leave feedback and suggestions about the online assessments,  please visit this form. 

Link to original newsletter.

Highlights from the November 2016 Technology Newsletter: Learning and Teaching with Digital Sources

Google Topic of the Month: 

Searching with Google

The words "Google" and "search" have become synonymous. Many times when we hear people talk about looking up something online, they say that they are going to "Google" it.

GOOGLE SEARCH:

Google Search is a helpful tool for locating digital content and is updated regularly with new features. Some of these features include:  clicking the microphone icon to search by voice, shortcut commands (like including the word "define" in your search for a definition or "weather" in your search for a city to find out the current weather conditions), and the ability to solve complex equations.

For an overview on the features of Google Search, click here. 

SEARCH TOOLS:

When you search in Google, you have a set of tools to help narrow down your search. You can filter your results to include recent news on your topic, related maps, only videos or images, and even narrow down the date that the results were posted.

To narrow down the date, you will click "Search Tools" and then get to choose from a menu of options that include results from the past hour, past week, or past year.

SEARCH OPERATORS:

You can use search operators to narrow down your results. For example, you can narrow down your search to a specific website, and find exact phrases in your search results by putting quotation marks around the phrase. 

For more information about search operators, click here. 

ADVANCED SEARCH:

If memorizing the search operator seems a bit daunting, take a look at Advanced Search. This tool filters your results based upon the information you fill out. Advanced Search asks you for things like the language you would like your results to appear, the region you would like to search, and a timeframe for your search results. 

For a link to Advanced Search, click here. 

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Digital Citizenship: 

Smart Online Search Tips for Kids

These days, most information we want access to is available online. It is important that our students know that not everything they find online is a valid or reliable source. When searching online, we have to prepare our students for encountering advertisements and information posted that may be inaccurate or intentionally misleading. 

Here is a video with some tips on how to guide students as they navigate online information. 

After watching this video, please share your thoughts on the video and ideas for discussing these topics with your students and their families in our Google+ Community. 

Link to the original newsletter.

Highlights from the October 2016 Technology Newsletter: Connecting and Collaborating

Featured EdTech Resource:

Discovery Education 

Did you know that resources and assignments in Discovery Education can be shared directly with your students through Google Classroom? With just a click of a button, you can share:

• videos
• podcasts
• images
• interactive maps and games
• primary source documents (and more!) with your students.

Building multi-media text sets and finding resources to meet

a variety of learning styles has never been easier.

With Discovery Education, you can guide your students as they learn to navigate digital content as well as create their own collections of digital resources.

To get started, contact the Library Media Specialist in your building or Melissa Morris Inoa, Supervisor for Instructional Technology, for support in learning about using these resources from Discovery Education.

Here's a video with some of the new Discovery Education content just released this month:

You can also connect with the Discovery Eduction Community and join a supportive learning environment where you can share resources and collaborate on other educational ideas. Here's what other educators are saying about the Discovery Education Community:

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Digital Citizenship: 

Connecting and Collaborating Safely Online 

It's important for our students to learn how to connect and collaborate online with others. In this video, students share their own experiences communicating online and how they stay safe.

After watching this video, please share your thoughts on the video and ideas for discussing these topics with your students and their families in our Google+ Community. 

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NBPS Technology Academy

& other district resources 

NBPS Technology Academy - a collection of technology-related professional development resources for all NBPS faculty and staff. 

Technology Academy content is organized by individual projects, methods of instruction, or professional development opportunities and is updated periodically as materials change or new content becomes available. 

Shared Resource Folder

- a collection of files and resources for many of our district programs and technology resources. Add the file to your Drive so that you always have access to this content. 

Google+ Community - an online forum for NBPS staff to share resources, discuss ideas, make connections and collaborate. This is a private Google+ Community, and you must be logged in to your NBPSNJ Google account to access it. 

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Sharing & Collaborating in Google Docs

By design, the apps in the G Suite for Education (formerly known as Google Apps for Education) are collaborative. 

SHARING

Knowing how to share files with collaborators is the first step. This  resource from the  Goodwill Community Foundation  takes you step by step through sharing settings. 

We also have some helpful tips on sharing settings here in our NBPS Shared Resource Folder. 

COLLABORATING

Once you've shared a document with collaborators, the real important work can  begin. Here are some other resources and ideas for using Google Docs as a collaborative tool with colleagues and students. 

• "How to collaborate like a pro with Google Docs"
• Lesson idea: "Write collaboratively using Google Docs"
• "Collaborative Note-Taking with Google Docs"

Link to the original newsletter.

Highlights from the September 2016 Technology Newsletter: Back to School

Encouraging Digital Citizenship 

It's never too early to start talking to students about digital citizenship. 

Effective use of technology involves so much more than just knowing how to use a device or an application. 

Keeping our students safe and responsible online is a critical element in our efforts to successfully and effectively integrating technology as a part of everyday instruction.

This video touches upon some of the aspects of Digital Citizenship and will give you a few talking points that you can use with your students in the classroom and families can use at home as well. 

This video is also posted in our NBPS Google+ Community for Digital Citizenship. Please join this community and discuss your ideas about this video. Also, please feel free to start other discussions about digital citizenship within this Community and share resources for teaching digital citizenship. 

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Naming Conventions for Google Docs

There's nothing like the start of the school year! Supplies are all new and fresh...our Google Classroom folders are empty, awaiting the assignments that our students will submit.

Fast forward to just a few weeks into the school year and those folders can suddenly become cluttered, making it difficult to find the documents we are looking for. This doesn't have to be the case if you set up Google Docs naming conventions early in the year. 

Setting up naming conventions for yourself and with your students is a very important step in getting and staying organized for the school  year.

Keep in mind that there's no one right system for establishing naming conventions. You will have to find a system that works for you. The more you work with Google Drive and Google Classroom, the more you will decide what works best for you. 

If you are looking for some suggestions or aren't sure where to start, here is a helpful article from Alice Keeler on 

Assigning Naming Conventions. 

If you have any questions or require additional support with this, please reach out to Melissa Morris Inoa, Supervisor of Instructional Technology. 

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Coming soon...A New Student Portal

In the near future, a new portal for students will arrive on our district website provided by Clever. This portal will give students access to all of their district assigned programs without having to remember numerous passwords. 

By entering their gmail username and password, the student will enter a program called Clever which will house many of our district approved programs. Each student will then see only the programs that are made available specifically to them, giving them a personalized experience.  As additional programs become available in Clever, they will be automatically added by the technology department. 

Please click on the link provided below for a how-to guide. 

Clever Login Instructions

Please stay tuned to the newsletter for additional details and programs that are now supported.

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#ALLIN4NB

We're rapidly expanding our social media presence here at New Brunswick Public Schools and encourage all of you to follow us on  Twitter and  Instagram , while liking us on Facebook. 

Already on Twitter?

Share your Twitter handle in this form and start connecting with other educators in NBPS and around the world: 

  https://goo.gl/kzT0S8

Always remember that your online posts are an extension of the classroom and school community,  so there can never be negative remarks about students or colleagues. We look forward to seeing you online. 

Link to the original newsletter.