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Educational Technology

Granite School District > Educational Technology > Blog > Jayanne Unander

Jayanne Unander

Educational Technology New Hires and Farewells 2018

This summer we say goodbye to several members of our team, while also  looking forward to welcoming new additions to our technology specialist roster for the 2018-2019 school year.

Farewells

Warren Child, Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Cyprus High School, who leaves us for retirement.

Colleen Hughes, Administrative Secretary in the Educational Technology office, who leaves us to pursue a new opportunity in another industry.

Tiffany Peoples, School Technology Specialist at Mill Creek Elementary and Sandburg Elementary, who has accepted a classroom teaching opportunity at Fox Hills Elementary.

Jayanne Unander, School Technology Specialist at Pleasant Green Elementary and one of our ETEP Trainers/Developers, who leaves us for retirement.

We wish each of you the best in your new endeavors and will miss your friendship and expertise.

New Hires

Tricia Fenton, our School Technology Specialist at Vista Elementary and Western Hills Elementary, will be moving into the Library Media Educational Technology Specialist position at Cyprus High School in the 2018-2019 year. Congratulations!

We welcome three new elementary school technology specialists to our roster in the coming year:

Kailie Nelson, coming to us from a 4th Grade classroom at Fox Hills Elementary.

Rebecca Vala, coming to us from a 4th Grade classroom at Spring Lane Elementary.

Margaret Yau, coming to us from a 4th Grade classroom at the Montlieu Academy of Technology in High Point, North Carolina.

Additional Information

You can find more information about our staff and their school assignments for the coming year on our directory pages:

Granite Presentations at UCET 2018

Last week the Utah Coalition for Educational Technology held their annual conference at the University of Utah. Sessions were led for and by educators, and many of Granite’s teachers and school technology specialists attended and presented at the conference. Below is a roster of the sessions shared by Granite teachers, along with links to resources from the sessions if available.

Granite UCET 2018 Presentations

Session TitlePresenter(s)
Don't Be Afraid of Technology: How To Establish Successful Classroom ProceduresMelissa White (School Technology Specialist, Oakridge El. and Valley Crest El.)
EdpuzzleEdna Habel (5th Grade Teacher, Western Hills El.)
Ross Pope (School Technology Specialist, Arcadia El. and Whittier El.)
Engaging All Students with Classic ToysQuinn Rollins (Social Studies Curriculum Specialist, Curriculum & Instruction Dept.)
Engage Students Like a BossTricia Fenton (School Technology Specialist, Vista El. and Western Hills El.)
Nicole Maycock (6th Grade Teacher, Plymouth El.)
Flipping out for Flipgrid!Krystal Plott (School Technology Specialist, Wright El.)
HTML Programming on Chromebooks in the Elementary/Middle School ClassroomAndy Misco (School Technology Specialist, Eastwood El. and Twin Peaks El.)
Hyperdocs: Engage, Educate, and InspireRebecca Baggett (School Technology Specialist, West Valley El.)
Anastasia Limantzakis (School Technology Specialist, Crestview Elementary and Roosevelt Elementary)
Tiffany Simons (School Technology Specialist, Driggs El. and Granger El.)
Learn and Play with OzobotsBrandi Gollinger (School Technology Specialist, Armstrong Academy)
Jayanne Unander (School Technology Specialist, Pleasant Green El.)
Makerspace: How to Build a Solar GreenhouseLaurel Udy (Special Education Teacher, Hunter El.)
Meet KIBO in this Hands-on Session for Robotics for PreK-2nd GradesJaneen Johnson (Kindergarten Teacher, South Kearns El.)
Jennifer Millett (Kindergarten Teacher, South Kearns El.)
Micro:bit by BitSherri Harris (School Technology Specialist, Wilson El.)
Kathleen Riebe (School Technology Specialist, Fox Hills El. and Frost El.)
Micro:bit CodingSarah Eyring (School Technology Specialist, Granite Technical Institute)
Samantha Mitchell (School Technology Specialist, Academy Park El. and Gourley El.)
Mixology: Structures and Strategies for Blended LearningPam Moeai (Specialist/Team Leader, Educational Technology Dept.)
Jennifer Peirce (Specialist/Team Leader, Educational Technology Dept.)
Online Library ResourcesTricia Fenton (School Technology Specialist, Vista El. and Western Hills El.)
Raspberry PiJohn Smith (School Technology Specialist, Bacchus El. and Plymouth El.)
School News Production and Film Made EasyJen Johnson (3rd Grade Teacher, William Penn El.)
3D Printing and Engineering Design in the ClassroomDave Pendleton (4th Grade Teacher, Armstrong Academy)
Teacher Leadership in Utah: Utah Teacher FellowsDeborah Gatrell (Social Studies Teacher, Hunter Sr. High)
UEN Canvas Modules for your classMikelle Gordon (1st Grade Teacher, Sandburg El.)

OverDrive Monthly Circulation Competition Update for November 2017

In November 2017, students and staff in Granite School District checked out over 14,700 ebooks and audiobooks from our OverDrive Digital Library. This is up 2,000 from last month. The infographic below reveals the top five schools for the month.

OverDrive Top November 2017 Circulation Infographic
OverDrive Top November 2017 Circulation Infographic

For 2017-18 the Granite Educational Technology department is sponsoring a monthly checkout competition between schools, with four traveling trophies awarded to the highest circulating elementary and secondary schools, as well as the “most increased” elementary and secondary schools.

November 2017 Top Circulations

In November 2017, Beehive Elementary and West Lake STEM Jr. High held their spots at the top and therefore keep the trophies which they were awarded for winning the September 2017 competition. Members of the Educational Technology Department still visited them with treats.

West Lake Jr. - Top Secondary Circulation November 2017
West Lake STEM Jr. High maintains their status as the top circulating secondary school, and 2nd place overall. Pictured: Connielyn Perkins, Media Clerk; Craig Edwards, Library Media Educational Technology Specialist.
Beehive Elementary - Top Circulation November 2017
Beehive Elementary is the top circulating school in district for the third month straight. Pictured: Misty Butterfield, School Technology Specialist; Susan Wilkerson, Media Clerk; Classroom of enthusiastic digital readers.

November 2017 Most Improved

We are excited to announce two new winners in the “Most Improved” category: congratulations to Pleasant Green Elementary and Kearns Senior High! Pleasant Green’s improvement was the most dramatic, moving from zero checkouts in October to 4th place overall in November.

OverDrive November 2017 Most Improved Infographic
OverDrive November 2017 Most Improved Infographic

 

Pleasant Green Elementary Most Improved November 2017
Pleasant Green Elementary showed the most dramatic single month improvement of any school in November, going from zero checkouts to 4th place overall in one month. Pictured: Sharon Prescott, Principal; Jayanne Unander, School Technology Specialist.

 

Kearns High - Most Improved November 2017
Kearns Sr. High had the largest growth in circulations of any secondary school in November 2017. Pictured: Jennifer Peirce, Educational Technology Team Leader and former LMETS at Kearns Sr.; Nancy Heckenliable, Media Secretary at Kearns Sr.; Cindy Moyle, District Library Supervisor for Secondary Schools; Aimee Duran, Library Media Educational Technology Specialist at Kearns Sr. High.

Granite OverDrive Circulation Site

Alyssa Carraway, secretary in the Educational Technology department, tracks these checkout numbers and has used Google Sites to create a simple but beautiful website to share this data with our district throughout the year. She uses Canva to convey the data in infographics, such as the year-to-date information shared below. You can check out the full site for more details on Granite OverDrive usage per school, as well as monthly updates on our OverDrive checkouts competition winners.

 

(Granite’s OverDrive provides free access to ebooks and digital audiobooks for all students and staff in Granite School District. Granite’s OverDrive can be accessed on the web at http://granite.lib.overdrive.com or via OverDrive apps designed for various mobile devices. For more information or help getting started with OverDrive, visit https://www.graniteschools.org/edtech/overdrive.)

Infographics and Granite OverDrive Circulation Site created by Alyssa Carraway, Administrative Secretary, Educational Technology Dept. OverDrive posters designed by Cindy Moyle,
Secondary Library Media Supervisor, Educational Technology Dept.

2017 Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code Coming Soon

Computer Science Education Week is December 4-10, 2017. Many schools, educators, and students participate in an Hour of Code during Computer Science Education Week.

Hour of Code

Last year, students at Farnsworth Elementary and Woodstock Elementary tried out computer programming by participating in Hour of Code activities. In the video above, a few of these students share their work and their thoughts about the coding activities with Joell Wilkins, school technology specialist.

Hour of Code is a worldwide initiative to introduce young people to the basics of coding and computer science through 1-hour coding activities. These activities are especially promoted during Computer Science Education Week, but can be done at any time throughout the year. If you are interested in hosting an Hour of Code event, these how-to guides provide assistance for activities ranging from school-wide events to at-home family coding activities.

Check out these awesome Pleasant Green Elementary students learning to code during their Coding Club. Thanks to Jayanne Unander, school technology specialist, for sharing!

If you host a coding activity please share it with us! You can leave a comment below or share pictures via social media including Twitter or Instagram, using the hashtags #gsdedtech and #HourOfCode.

About Computer Science Education Week

Computer Science Education Week (CSEdWeek) is an annual program dedicated to inspiring K-12 students to take interest in computer science.

Originally conceived by the Computing in the Core coalition, Code.org® organizes CSEdWeek as a grassroots campaign supported by 350 partners and 100,000 educators worldwide.

CSEdWeek is held in recognition of the birthday of computing pioneer Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (December 9, 1906).
–from “About CSEdWeek” (https://csedweek.org/about)

Why Learn to Code?

See what the developers of Microsoft, Dropbox, Twitter, Facebook and others have to say about learning to code.

Post created by Teresa Bruin, district educational technology specialist and team leader. originally appearing in our November 2017 Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter for Teachers. Hour of Code spotlight video created by Joell Wilkins, school technology specialist at Farnsworth Elementary and Woodstock Elementary, and originally featured on this blog last year.

Teacher Spotlight: Jayanne Unander, Pleasant Green Elementary

Jayanne Unander is the school technology specialist at Pleasant Green Elementary. In this spotlight video we see her introducing Ozobots to students in the school’s coding club. For this activity students use tablet apps such as OzoGroove and OzoDraw to interact with the ozobots, learning fundamentals of computer coding in the process.

In addition to her work with students and teachers at Pleasant Green Elementary, Jayanne is also a developer and trainer in our district’s Educational Technology Endorsement Program.

Spotlight Creator: Kristen Johnson, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist