Updates

Welcome back to school! We’re excited to be back and learn with everyone this year. If you’re wondering who to contact for ideas, tips, or tricks in instruction this year, we have the updated Tech Ambassador list below. Each of these teachers is ready to help you brainstorm ways you can engage your students, whether you’re in person or online. We also have some ideas for new PD this year that will help you get up to speed and push your students while working virtually. Rebecca Dodd Beardsley Sondra Flora Beck Taryn Diaz De Leon Bristol Tanisha Miller EHS East...

This week, we’re going to change up the PD and PLC process slightly from weeks past. Kat and I have noticed a shift in the questions we’re getting and in the needs of staff across the district. To respond, we’re going to try an experiment with PD on Tuesday and the way we run PLC discussions on Thursday. All sessions are posted, and you can take a look now. Unified Professional Development Each PD session this week is geared toward general instruction and will include experts in ELL instruction, special education, high ability, and technology. The topics cover all grade...

Each week, Kat and Brian are working to provide a number of choices for PD, PLC discussions, and other support options each week. Our goal is to make sure you have the support you need when you need it. In this post, we’ll break down all three options at your disposal. Tuesday: All the PD Every Tuesday, you can attend any number of PD options available online. These are designed to teach a skill or tool to help you teach and communicate more effectively with students and parents. Brian and Kat split the load and offer sessions on the hour...

Okay, so it’s not quite a bracket but you have to admit the title is catchy. This spring our PD website is overflowing with options for Elkhart teachers! The Ambassadors have been working on several options to carry on the energy from the secondary institute on February 6th and to prepare for our next eLearning Day on April 1st, which will be the first eLearning day for the elementaries. (Seriously, it’s on April 1st, this is not an early joke.) We’re going to try a few new methods for offering PD that makes it easier on you to attend and...

It’s been a while since we’ve sent an update of upcoming professional development available. Here’s a list of the currently scheduled workshops for November and December 2019. You can sign up for all PD options on the PD website. November Date/Time Title Location Weds 11/20 @ 2:50 – 3:20 ECS Staff Site Overview Online Fri 11/22 @ 9:00 – 10:30 SIOP Module 3 Make Up PLC at the Admin Building Tues 11/26 @ 12:00 – 4:00 CPI Refresher Course PLC at the Admin Building December Date/Time Title Location Tues, 12/10, 7:30 – 3:00 CPI Full Training PLC at the Admin...

We’re gearing up for a lot of projects this year and we wanted to start by updating our list of Tech Ambassadors for each building in the district. There are some new faces and they’re eager and ready to start supporting you in the classroom. School Name Email Beardsley Kimberly Williams kwilliams@elkhart.k12.in.us Beck Sondra Flora sflora@elkhart.k12.in.us Bristol Kristi Haithcox khaithcox@elkhart.k12.in.us Central Neil Bahbah nbahbah@elkhart.k12.in.us Central Amy Stine astine@elkhart.k12.in.us Central Tanisha Miller tdmiller@elkhart.k12.in.us Central Laura Stauffer lstauffer@elkhart.k12.in.us Central Jennifer Higley jrhigley@elkhart.k12.in.us Cleveland Jayme Iannarelli jdiannarelli@elkhart.k12.in.us Daly Laura Reverman lcreverman@elkhart.k12.in.us EACC Traci Pankratz tpankratz@elkhart.k12.in.us Eastwood Billie Jo Etchason bjetchason@elkhart.k12.in.us Elkhart Academy Jennifer...

Last year, we experimented with creating online PD through Canvas so you can work on buildings skills on your own schedule. We had some success, but the major feedback was that the course was too big and felt overwhelming. This year, we’re going to build out some micro-courses which focus on single, specific skills or applications. To start, we broke out our Digital Instructor course into six micro-courses (three or four short modules each). This means you sign up for what you want to do, when you want to do it. All of the available courses are on the Elkhart...

If you’re looking for some summer PD, the website is full of offerings! From the ELA adoption workshops to Instructional Tech events, there’s something for everyone. Highlights ELA Adoption – Grades K-6 have a new ELA curriculum. A two-part workshop series runs all summer so you can get up to speed with the new materials. Elementary 1:1 Workshops – If you’re one of the buildings going rolling your iPads out in the fall, you have a two-day workshop to attend with your colleagues to get ready. Standards-Based Grading – If you’re interested in learning more about a different grading method...

The Tiny Edition, Part 2 We’re back from spring break feeling refreshed and excited about wrapping up the year on a high note. In this week’s tiny update, a reminder about Springappalooza and a better method for leaving audio comments in Seesaw. Springappalooza! Our April focus is rolling forward with a post this week on making sketches from copyrighted images. The original idea is from Brad Cogdell, who has run some great projects with this students with some great results. Don’t forget to leave a comment on the post or on Facebook to be eligible for the limited-edition Springappalooza sticker...

The Early Edition If you don’t remember that show, it was gold. With spring break coming soon, we wanted to make sure we got as many eyes on the update as possible. This week, we wrapped up our posts on videos for the month of March and introduced the April Focus. If you like the megaphone, you’ll love our next Chrome extension. Clips Our last post on using video in the classroom focused on using Clips as a great way to dip your toes into making movies. Take a look at the post for a short how to and some...

It’s April (soon) and we’re celebrating with a four-part series we’re calling Spring-app-alooza. These are not read-for-an-hour-then-struggle ideas. These are family friendly, low investment ideas to think through over the month. How will this work? Each week in April (yes, including spring break), a blog post will publish with something to take a look at or try out. All you need to do is read the post and take a look at the resource. Each one has been picked to help students think outside the box about their learning and equip them to communicate those ideas. If you participate on...

The Remote Edition We’re out this week at a conference with the Tech Ambassadors, so today we have a rapid-fire update with several recommendations from the conference to peek at. We’ll do a deeper dive into these (and more) in future updates. Quick Link Rundown ⚡️ Quick Tip: Student Information Lookup We added an article on the Tech website about looking up student usernames, passwords, and iPads. Use the Staff Site link on your iPad to open it quickly. We’ll be back next week with more updates for you to explore over spring break.

The We Were Teased Edition Yesterday’s windstorm was a nuisance, but it was 60 degrees and felt like spring was finally here. We’re back to cold air for the foreseeable forecast, so warm you up, we have reminders today on setting your iPad passcode, using video in learning journals, and adding icons to your Seesaw activities. iPad Passcodes Teachers, it is critical that you keep your computer and iPad secured with passwords. Your accounts have access to items that can not be made public by not having a code on your device. Your computer password is set automatically with your...