Parent Connections- New Site!

Parents Connections is a new website full of resources for parents!  This is a tool to assist teachers and parents in educating our students.  One of the main goals of the Parent Connections team is to inform parents and students about the importance of Online Safety.  Although technology provides many positive results, there are also dangers lurking if not used correctly.  Teachers can refer parents to this site to answer questions and provide useful and important information.

The features available for elementary teachers and parents include:

• K-5 Online Safety brochures and resources
• Skyward Family Access tutorials
• Pearson SuccessNet tutorials and information
• Homework resources
• Access to the I-Canyons Parent Tool Kit for report card information
• Information and guides for volunteering in the schools

The features available for secondary teachers and parents include:

• 6-12 Online Safety brochures and resources
• Skyward Family Access tutorials
• Homework resources
• Information and guides for volunteering in the schools
• Information about Google Apps for Canyons and Chromebooks
• Canvas Resources coming soon!

Come check out the resources available at the Parent Connections Website today!

CSDDocs on an iPad

A couple months ago, Dustin posted a bit about the district's new Google Apps for Education instance called CSDDocs. It is still in a sort of soft rollout phase, but is available for all Staff and Students (3rd grade and above). Everyone in the district from 3rd graders and beyond have CSDDocs accounts. Teachers talk to your EdTech to find our more and how staff and students access their CSDDocs accounts.

What CSDDocs allows us to do is have a platform for teachers and students to collaborate on and share documents, presentations, spreadsheets and files easily with one another. For example, a teacher could assign groups of students to create a report together. Instead of each member of the group working on their own copy, the entire group could work on one document in Google Docs, AT THE SAME TIME. CSDDocs can be accessed on the web, from a Chromebook and even from an iPad. I want to share with you how to access your Google Drive (this is where all of your files now live if you use Google Docs, etc.) from an iPad.

Hour of Code - Calling All Teachers!

In the month of December, Canyons School District classrooms (and schools across the state of Utah) will be participating in the Computer Science's Ed Week project called 'Hour of Code.' The Hour of Code project strives to involve all students, ages 6-106, in a "one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify "code" and show that anyone can learn the basics to be a maker, a creator, an innovator." Teachers and entire schools can sign up to participate and every teacher who completes an hour of code with students will earn an extra 10GB of Dropbox space! Schools in which every student participates are entered to win a mobile computer lab. Tutorials for students to use during the hour of code are available for FREE.  Teachers need not worry whether (or not) they know how to code as the tutorials are designed to be self-paced training students that complete on their own! If computers are not available for your class and you still want to participate many activities not requiring computers are ready as well - use the tutorials found at Computer Science Unplugged!   Sign up to participate today!

Not convinced you should participate? Take a look at these statistics!

• There will be 1 million more computing jobs than students over the next 10 years (adding up to $500 billion in salaries)
• More than 50 percent of all projected math and science occupations are in computing occupations.
• Computing occupations are among the highest-paying jobs for new graduates. Yet fewer than 3% of college students graduate with a degree in computer science.
• In 36 states, computer science classes don’t count toward math or science high school graduation requirements.
• A.P. Computer Science is taught in only 5% of U.S. high schools
• Fewer than 20% of AP Computer Science students are women. 
• Fewer than 10% are Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino.
• More statistics can be found at the CSEdWeek Pitch PowerPoint Presentation!

I-Canyons Parent Toolkit

The I-CANyons Parent Toolkit is a resource created by elementary educators in the Canyons School District to help parents with student academic achievement.  A parent and/or teacher can go to the web site and click on a specific subject and standard for each grade level to learn how to help students who have mastered or not yet mastered a concept.  There are many links that parents can download to work with their students at home.  Working together with their child's teacher, they will most assuredly help their student succeed and be college and career ready.

Click here to go to the Parent Toolkit

Buncee.com for Fun and Bouncy Digital Storytelling

Let's build a "Buncee"!

Check out this exciting and free new web app that allows teachers and students to build interactive digital presentations in a snap.  This tool is great for sending a simple message or creating a full-scale digital story.  Something as complicated as the Gettysburg Address can be shared online with a fun "Buncee".

Click here to see the full interactive Gettysburg Address Buncee

Much like a PowerPoint Slideshow or Keynote Presentation, a Buncee can be made with slides and images to tell a story.  But unlike the other two programs, a Buncee is free and easy to make online with digital resources straight from the web - images, movies, hyperlinks, and other interactive features can be dropped into the show right from the Buncee website.  Check out this story of Thanksgiving:

Click here to see the full Thanksgiving Story Buncee

Learn more about how to get started building your own Buncee with this short YouTube Video.  Then go to www.buncee.com to make your own free educational account for students and teachers.

App Feature: Red Stamp

Red Stamp is one of my favorite apps for creating beautiful birthday cards, thank you notes, invitations, letters, and more!  The app is free and does not require a login to create or send notes via email, text, tweet, Facebook or Instagram.  Red Stamp will even print and mail your cards for you (login and payment required)!  Some templates even allow pictures!

Ways to use Red Stamp in the classroom:

• Inform parents of upcoming events
• Thank you notes to students for a job well done
• Student Spotlights
• Introduce yourself to parents/faculty
• Class party invitations
• Class Posters

Templates are organized into categories on the main page and then subcategories on the next page.

There are over 600 designs to choose from and each design comes in several different color options.

You might even recognize some of these flyers hanging around your school!

 Try Red Stamp for free today!

Parent Communication has Never Been Easier, Thanks to Technology Tools for Teachers!

When I was teaching 5th grade I had many parents who were very interested in supporting their kids in school, but with demanding schedules and 30 students it was difficult to make individual contact with every parent regularly.  I found one year that a successful tactic in coordinating our efforts was to send a weekly email that outlined the major plans for the week, project deadlines and expectations, and supplemental resources that supported the classroom lessons and activities.  I was quite impressed with the quality of work I received from these students and how happy the parents were with being able to know what was happening in the classroom without having to dig it out of their children at dinner.

I found that I was a much more effective educator because I was no longer working alone.  My students' parents had more information and could ask more specific questions to target growth in their children.  The greatest thing about this development was how easy it was to do.  I simply used Outlook Contact Groups to easily email everyone at once.  The unpleasant duty of chasing down work was all but gone because parents were informed and reminded of deadlines.  They were not reliant on their children to let them know these important dates.  The parents were my allies in our common mission to help make the students successful.

I made sure to collect the emails of all of my parents at the beginning of the year and enter them as contacts in Outlook.  Skyward is a great resource in our district because the parents enter their emails when they enroll the students each year.  For about 30 minutes of work at the start, I was able to become a stronger teacher for the entire year.

For a Tutorial on how to create these contact groups click here.