Lots to share! Grab a cup of coffee and read on....
Program and Website updates...
Culture Grams Subscription - Our one year subscription to Culture Grams is up and running. The link is under For Students. When working within the district, the link will take you right into our subscription. If you are working off site, then you will need to enter in our username and password. (See image example to the right)
username: happyhollow
password: 01778
I have added this information to the teacher username and password google doc.
Steam Connection: Just game across this cool website called Babble Dabble Do. You may find some fun and interesting activities on this site.
Google Chrome - Some of you may have seen a message that your Google Chrome is out of date. Several teachers have been successful in updating Chrome on their own. To do so, click on the 
(3 lines) in the upper right hand tool bar, this will open the Google Chrome control window. Then select "About Google Chrome" (see image). Chrome will automatically look for any updates. You will be able to update the browser in this window. Once the update is complete, you will need to close Chrome and reopen the browser for it to finalize the installation process.
Steam Connection: Just game across this cool website called Babble Dabble Do. You may find some fun and interesting activities on this site.
Google Chrome - Some of you may have seen a message that your Google Chrome is out of date. Several teachers have been successful in updating Chrome on their own. To do so, click on the (3 lines) in the upper right hand tool bar, this will open the Google Chrome control window. Then select "About Google Chrome" (see image). Chrome will automatically look for any updates. You will be able to update the browser in this window. Once the update is complete, you will need to close Chrome and reopen the browser for it to finalize the installation process.iPad Updates:
iPad Cart - Are you interested in borrowing a cart of 25 iPads? If so, I have a cart in the computer lab. I have a paper calendar on the iPad cart that you can use to sign out the cart. Colleen and I will be using the cart with some of our classes. The iPads and slots have all been labeled (25 different ice cream flavors). Please be sure that the iPads are returned to the proper slot and all apps that your class uses are closed out. I am a little concerned about headphone use, as we have several iPads and computers in the building with broken headphones. You know your students and their iPad use - if they cannot manage using headphones on their own (plugging and unplugging) then please do not use headphones with this cart.
I am slowly building the app list on this cart. As of now these are the apps available on these iPads.
30 Hands
Camera tool
Destiny (Library Catalog)
Destiny (Library Catalog)
Fotobabble (take a picture of something and then create a short narrative for the picture; I used it above for the iPad video.)
Garageband
Garageband
iMovie
Lexia
QR Code Reader
QR Code Reader
Raz-Kids
Scratch Jr.
Scratch Jr.
Starfall (More)
Symphony Math
ToonTastic (for story writing)
If an app does not require a student login, then remember any student can access the file. For example, camera roll or files created in a variety of apps such as Scratch or iMovie are accessible to all. Please remind your students of LARK and not accessing other students work without permission.
New iPad App (SeeSaw) - Thank you to Deede for sharing and to Susan for filling out the software request form - we have added a new app to our approved app list called SeeSaw. SeeSaw is an easy to use app for creating online student portfolios. You will need to get parent permission or give parents an opt-out option as you will be creating student accounts. Here's a quick video explaining the possibilities of the SeeSaw app. If you plan on using the SeeSaw app you will need to let me know so that I can have the app installed on your classroom iPads.
ToonTastic (for story writing)
If an app does not require a student login, then remember any student can access the file. For example, camera roll or files created in a variety of apps such as Scratch or iMovie are accessible to all. Please remind your students of LARK and not accessing other students work without permission.
New iPad App (SeeSaw) - Thank you to Deede for sharing and to Susan for filling out the software request form - we have added a new app to our approved app list called SeeSaw. SeeSaw is an easy to use app for creating online student portfolios. You will need to get parent permission or give parents an opt-out option as you will be creating student accounts. Here's a quick video explaining the possibilities of the SeeSaw app. If you plan on using the SeeSaw app you will need to let me know so that I can have the app installed on your classroom iPads.
Printer Pro App - Joe has made his way to all classroom and SPED iPads to setup the Printer Pro App. This app will allow you to print to the black/white printer in the building. There are several ways to print. You may use the print functionality in the app or use the printer pro app itself. Here's a quick video demo from their website. I'd be happy to show you how to use this tool either now or when the need arises.
This and that...
PARCC: Thank you to everyone for your flexibility during PARCC testing. It was quite an endeavor, which affected many of our routines. From a tech standpoint, we had a few technical issues but nothing major (phew)! Thank you to Kristin for being an amazing PARCC Administrator.
Printer Stations: Printer stations have been messy lately. If your class is doing a lot of printing, please send one student to check the printer and collect all papers. We are on year two of using a printer service. They automatically send us toner when it's needed and we are charged per page that we print. We have seen an increase in our printing this year and may be over our budget for printing. In these last few months, please be mindful of your printing. It's always cheaper to printer to a copier and to the black and white printers. Please check your printer options and choose the most appropriate printer for your needs.
Saving to Network - We had a close call a few weeks ago with a teacher almost loosing all of her files that we ONLY saved locally on her laptop. Please make sure that you are saving important files up to the server. Do not save pictures, music and videos back up to the server. We do not have enough server space to save these types of files on the server. Multimedia type files should be backed up to an external drive.
Here is a video with directions on saving to the server from within a program (I used Word for this example).
Here is a video with directions to check where the folder is saving (on your computer or on the network/server)
Here is a video with directions on saving to the server from within a program (I used Word for this example).
Here is a video with directions to check where the folder is saving (on your computer or on the network/server)
Tech Committee Notes - The Tech Committee met on Thursday, March 19th. Here is a link to our agenda notes. Please let me know if you have any questions (some of the information in our notes is repeated in this blog post). Our next meeting is May 21st - all are welcome to join. If you cannot join us and have any questions or issues, please speak with your grade level rep or send me an email.
As always if you have any questions or need assistance, please let me know. Have a great week!
As always if you have any questions or need assistance, please let me know. Have a great week!