Quarter 2 - Final Week

Click this link if the images don’t show in your email: http://bit.ly/nyetwu121619

Find the audio version of this update here: http://bit.ly/nye4kidstech

One week to go! You can do it! Be strong!

Over break, we are planning to finish the install of the new Floyd phone system, retool Lightspeed Classroom to sync automatically with IC, and inventory the schools where we plan to refresh computers this summer. Now that I think about it, this seems like a ridiculous amount for the four days we are required to work over break. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

Floyd folks, we aren’t removing your old phones yet, just installing the new ones. You might want to make room on your desk for the new phone. Or don’t…

Finally, remember that this week is still an instructional week, whether it is review and finals or just the end of the semester. Let’s keep our kids moving forward and send them into vacation exhausted from all of the learning. 😉

Have a great week! And, Merry Christmas!

My Best,

-Rob

P.S. I will still probably do these updates over break, but they’ll be thinner and easier to digest. However, I might skip the podcast version. :)

Week of December 9, 2019

Quarter 2

Click this link if the images don’t show in your email: http://bit.ly/nyetwu120919

Find the audio version of this update here: http://bit.ly/nye4kidstech

Folks,

Thing #1: I’m running low on items to create tips around. If you have an idea, please send it to me. Pretty please!

Thing #2: Please take a look at the “Things Rob Remembers Doing” section for information regarding the phone system at Floyd. This is a new responsibility to the technology department, and as we learn how to manage these systems as a team and keep documentation, this could create a huge financial savings for the district over the next several years.

Thing #3: State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jhone Ebert, will be in Pahrump this week on her #listeningtour. I’m hoping to I get a chance to meet her, but I’m not sure it’ll be possible with my schedule. She’ll be visiting classrooms and chatting with teachers and administrators. Please take a look here for a bit of information about her visit to Tonopah, and follow her here on Twitter: https://twitter.com/NVSupt

Final Thing this week: If you use Lightspeed Classroom to monitor your students on their Chromebooks, I’m working over winter break on changing the integration from Google Classroom to Infinite Campus. Please be aware that this change will break your current link with GC and require that you reset the schedules on your Lightspeed classes when you return from break. The advantage is that students will automatically added and removed from your Lightspeed classes each night once they are showing in your classes in IC. This will also mean that teachers can use Lightspeed Classroom without having to use Google Classroom.

That’s all for this week folks.

Have a great week and hang in there. Everyday, even these creeping closer to break, are teaching and learning days. :)

My Best,

-Rob

Folks,

Welcome back from Thanksgiving break! I hope everyone enjoyed their days off. My family had some unexpected downtime as we were all stricken with some sort of cold/cough/ache thing on Friday morning. Despite being ill, it was pretty nice to spend several days just laying around reading and watching the tube. I’m grateful that we had the time to be able to heal this way.

I encourage you to avoid the desire to start a “Countdown to Winter Break” situation in your classroom. First, despite being ready for the break as teaching is exhausting, we don’t want to inadvertently send the message that school’s end is the best part of school. Also, we have many, many students who need the security and safety of school. These kids don’t necessarily look forward to break.

Finally, if you’ve forgotten your new password, please consult with the school secretary first. School secretaries can reset passwords.

Have a great week and happy holidays!

My Best,

-Rob

Tip

Tech Issue Notifications via Hangouts

View this tip in Google Docs: http://bit.ly/ncsdtip120219

Folks,

First things first: Happy birthday, Eldon! He’s the big 39 again this year on Wednesday. Yeah!

Happy Thanksgiving week, everyone! We are now on the downhill side of semester two and moving into the heart of holiday season. Yeah! I love this time of year, and I’m sure I drive my family nuts with my desire to start Christmasing too early.

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Resetting Various Password

View this tip in Google Docs: http://bit.ly/ncsdtip112519

In case the mandatory change to your Google password motivates you to adjust the security level of some of our other systems, these directions show how to change passwords in Google, Infinite Campus, and iVisions.

Oddly, not a single one of these password change scenarios is very intuitive. If companies know security is important and password reveals are the easiest way into a system, why do they make changing a password so obtuse?

We’ll file this under universal mysteries.

With regard to last week’s update, I was asked several times if we were really in those snowman costumes. Sadly, no, but if I’d been asked, I would have definitely volunteered.

I hope everyone has a great 2.5 day week and enjoys the holiday.

My Best,

-Rob

This weekly update is just the highlights since I've been on vacation.

Here are links to the various things mentioned in the notes:

Actual written update: http://bit.ly/3580SZl

#Nye4Kids Technology website: http://bit.ly/nye4kidstech

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Winter MAP roster file upload on Thursday.

Winter window opens 11/18.

Please review this information about MAP testing: http://bit.ly/32VJd5w

Testing Calendars:

Google Sheet Schedule: http://bit.ly/32fcbyg

Google Calendar Calendar: http://bit.ly/2JAjY15

NDE One Sheet: http://bit.ly/2PpFOci

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Please review this three minute video for how to login to Chrome to keep your two accounts separate: http://bit.ly/2S6AFF7

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Week of 12/9

--- State Superintendent of Education, Jhone Ebert, in NCSD for her listening tour.

--- Follow Ms. Ebert on Twitter: https://twitter.com/jhoneebert and/or https://twitter.com/NVSupt

This weekly update is chalk full of information. It's a bit long and I'm going to do another podcast for the tech tip, which isn't the plan for every week, but the amount of information justifies it this week.

Have a great week!

Sorry, this tip is long and text-heavy, but I’ll post an audio summary here in the podcast section: http://bit.ly/nye4kidstech. Keep in mind that I sound pretty good and much funnier at 2x speed.

Sadly, because this is a time of shopping and generosity, it is also a time for scammers.

We are entering a season of ubiquitous online shopping, and therefore we are all expecting email and text notifications about our imminent package arrivals.

Here is a quick summary of the more specific advice below:

Do NOT give anything on the internet the benefit of the doubt AND be suspicious of everything coming at your from strangers, including strangers claiming to represent your friends and loved ones and companies you use.

I forgot to introduce myself, so this is a basic introduction to me. I'm sure I'll find this embarrassing later.

The one where I review the November 4th Weekly Update: Fall back, Wasting Time on the Internet, Zombies on the Moon, and more...

This is my first attempt at creating an audio file and putting it in a podcast feed.