Granite EdTech Monthly Newsletter – June 2015
Our department’s monthly newsletter was recently sent out to all teachers in Granite School District. If you missed it you can also access it here.
This summer’s highlights include:
Our department’s monthly newsletter was recently sent out to all teachers in Granite School District. If you missed it you can also access it here.
This summer’s highlights include:
As you are exquisitely aware if you are a student, teacher, or parent in our community, today is the last day of school for the 2014-15 year. We would like to thank you for following us this school year and wish you a wonderful break.
We’d encourage you to continue following this blog and our social media channels during the summer. We will be slowing down the posting schedule, but we intend to continue sharing quality resources throughout the next months. In addition, we suggest that you get involved in other social media channels to find ideas and inspiration for the coming school year. You could explore some of the educational hashtags on twitter and follow or join in the conversations happening there. You can stay connected with your Granite Educational Technology colleagues and other Granite Educator colleagues who have presences on twitter. You can search, browse, and pin thousands of educational resources on Pinterest; our humble boards barely scratch the surface of what you can find there once you start looking. You could check out our sister site, Granitemedia.org, to find some great summer reading. Come back in August and share with us what you found (or share it with us immediately in the summer in any of these places.)
Looking forward, in 2015-16 we will be getting Digital Conversion under way with secondary English Language Arts teachers, starting another cohort in the Educational Technology Endorsement Program, and otherwise continuing to provide professional development, library services, and technology support throughout the district. On this site we will begin curating an interactive list of top apps and websites for teaching and learning. We will also be providing more online and blended professional learning opportunities and resources, and we have some exciting social media activities planned. More details on all of this to come with the new school year.
Thanks for following us and sharing with us! Have a great summer!
Teachers and parents: are you looking for great resources for summer reading for your students? In this post we round up programs from Granite School District, our friends at the Salt Lake City Public Library and Salt Lake County Library systems, and a few more resources from the web in general. [Read more…] about Summer Reading 2015
Jody Lynn Tolley teaches American Sign Language at Skyline High School, and is a member of the first cohort in the Educational Technology Endorsement Program. In this spotlight Ms. Tolley describes how having Chromebooks in her classroom has opened many new ways for her students to learn about ASL and Deaf culture. She also speaks to the value of the Canvas learning management system in keeping students up to speed when they miss her class, as well as giving them valuable skills that enable them to succeed in navigating future college classes.
Spotlight Author: Celia Powell, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Ms. Buck is an amazing 6th grade teacher at Upland Terrace Elementary. She incorporates technology in her classroom seamlessly. I had the opportunity to observe her class creating Kahoots to review math concepts that they had learned throughout the year. The students in her class use iPads to create their review quizzes.
This spotlight showcases the excellent instruction that Ms. Buck provides her students. Her lesson is so well organized. She lays out very clear instructions and encourages feedback from her students. Her students exhibit 21st Century skills; collaboration, communication, critical thinking, and creativity are happening in her classroom.
Spotlight Author: Heidi Meenen, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Google’s CS4HS is “an annual grant program promoting computer science education worldwide by connecting educators to the skills and resources they need to teach computer science and computational thinking concepts in fun and relevant ways.” More information on applying for these hands-on in-person and online training opportunities is available here. You can also watch the video below to get a basic idea of the goals of this program.
TumbleBooks is an easy-to-use online database with hundreds of media-rich electronic books for children. Their selections include story books, nonfiction, graphic novels, chapter books, and foreign language books. TumbleBooks is provided to Salt Lake County residents for home use (including all students and parents in Granite School District) thanks to the Salt Lake County Public Library System. [Read more…] about Featured Resource: TumbleBooks
The Educational Technology Department is offering a Chromebook Summer Camp for teachers in Granite School District. [Read more…] about GSD Summer Chromebook Camp 2015
PowerMyLearning is a free personalized learning platform that allows teachers and parents to design and assign custom activity playlists for students by choosing from thousands of games, interactives, videos, and simulations selected from across the world wide web. [Read more…] about Featured Resource: PowerMyLearning
In an effort to provide teachers and administrators with more information on possible funding sources for technology, with this post we commence a new series and category on grants. As we become aware of new grant opportunities we will share them here on our blog, and an archive of all grant opportunities will be accessible at this link: https://www.graniteschools.org/edtech/category/grants.
Google for Education provides a dynamic resource on technology grants in the form of this live document, “Device Grants | Google for Education.” [Read more…] about Grant Resources from Google for Education