Tech Connect November 2025

Welcome to the latest edition of our Tech Connect. As the vibrant colors of autumn surround us and the end of the year approaches, this month offers a great opportunity for us to reflect on the progress we've made so far and recharge for the holidays ahead.

Let's continue to work together to make this a productive and successful November for all our students!

The Brisk Podcast Tool is an innovative, AI-powered feature built right into the Brisk Teaching extension, designed to instantly boost accessibility and student engagement in your classroom. Simply put, it converts your existing lesson materials—anything from a Google Doc, an online article, a PDF, or even a website—into a concise, narrated audio podcast. It does this in seconds, generating a voice recording with a synced, on-screen transcript. This seamless workflow is a massive time-saver for you and a game-changer for student learning.

How It Works and Why It Helps

The process couldn't be easier: open the content you want to use, click the Brisk button, and choose the "Podcast" option. This feature is designed to help you differentiate instruction effortlessly. The tool is especially helpful for your multilingual learners (MLLs) and students with diverse learning needs, providing auditory access to content they might struggle to read independently. Furthermore, students can use the audio to review lessons on the go, catch up on a class they missed, or reinforce key concepts in a format that feels more engaging than traditional reading. The content can also be easily translated into over 40 languages, ensuring every student has clear access to the core information.

What You Need to Know About the Free Version

The good news is that this powerful tool is available to all educators through the Brisk Educator Free plan. However, the plan does come with a key limitation based on the length of the audio you can generate. The Brisk Educator Free plan allows you to create podcasts up to 2 minutes of audio, which is perfect for quick pre-reading previews, bell-ringers, and lesson wrap-ups.

Once you've created a podcast, you can easily share the link with students and even click the "Boost" button to automatically turn that audio content into an interactive activity, like a quick quiz or discussion prompts.

I wanted to share a fantastic experience my class just had! I was in the Discovery Education Career Connect section and booked an incredible virtual guest speaker for 2 of my classes from Trane Technologies.

It was such a valuable session. The speaker was amazing and involved the students throughout the session. She focused on the whole ecosystem of a manufacturing company and how every single role is completely dependent on the others. They did an excellent job of walking the students through the process—from engineering and logistics to assembly and quality control—and really drove home the point that no one works in a silo.

My students finally grasped the "big picture" of a major operation. They saw clearly how a hiccup in the supply chain affects assembly, and how critical collaboration and communication are to the final product's success. It transformed the abstract idea of a "job" into a tangible, team-based effort.

Honestly, I highly recommend finding a connection through that platform. It brought a massive dose of real-world relevance right into our classroom, and I've already booked 2 more virtual speakers!

- Brooke Barham

CTE Teacher at Oak Grove Middle School

The easiest and most reliable way to maintain immediate access to GoGuardian Teacher is by launching it through ClassLink. Utilizing ClassLink as your Single Sign-On method automatically validates your identity, effectively bypassing the new MFA step and allowing you to open the application with a single click. Please make it a routine practice now to navigate to your ClassLink Launchpad first, and then click the GoGuardian tile. Adopting this simple sign-in method will prevent any potential interruptions or delays to your classroom technology usage once the new MFA requirement goes live in December. Starting this December, GoGuardian will be implementing mandatory Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) for anyone logging in directly using an email address and password.

To effectively run a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), our Tier 1 core instruction must be high-quality and deeply differentiated for all students. This is where adaptive digital curriculum truly shines. By integrating tools like Khan Academy as a regular instructional station, you can automate much of the heavy lifting of differentiation. These programs use algorithms to assess student performance in real-time, instantly adjusting the lesson's difficulty. If a student is struggling with the current content, the program proactively backtracks to fill prerequisite skill gaps, preventing a small issue from escalating into a Tier 2 need. Conversely, if a student quickly masters a concept, the tool automatically provides acceleration and enrichment, ensuring your most advanced learners remain challenged and engaged. This personalized approach not only boosts student ownership but also provides you with immediate, objective data on every student's skills, giving the MTSS team a powerful head start in identifying and supporting those who need additional intervention.

On Monday, November 10 at 4:00pm join NCDPI for their monthly Schoolnet Webinar. This webinar will go over all data reports in Schoolnet. They will discuss uses for each report and how to ensure you are getting the most accurate data from your assessments.

How much credit will I receive? .1 CEU which is equal to 1 hour of credit (10 hours of credit equal 1 CEU) for participating in the LIVE session of the webinar.

How will I receive credit? If attending a webinar, you must login to the LIVE webinar using the link sent to you after you register. Our webinar service will track who logs into the webinar and how long they participate. Within 5 business days after the webinar is concluded, a certificate of participation will be sent via email to those who participated in the LIVE webinar session.

NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN FOR WATCHING RECORDED CONTENT

Are you in need of Digital Learning CEUs? Do you want to learn how to use tools to help integrate technology into your instruction? If so, consider registering for the optional Fall Professional Development courses to effectively sharpen your skills and integrate new practices into your classroom. These flexible courses are a fantastic opportunity, especially if you are seeking to earn necessary Digital Learning Credits (CEUs) for licensure renewal. Each of these sessions is worth 1 Hour of Digital Learning CEUs. Here are the fall offerings:

• Monday, November 10 @ 3:30 pm - Using Video to Improve Student Writing
• Thursday, November 20 @ 3:30 pm - Promethean ActivInspire
• Wednesday, December 3 @ 3:30 pm - Canva Coding

Sue Tobin - suetobin@davidson.k12.nc.us

Allyson Medlin - amedlin@davidson.k12.nc.us

Libby Moretz - libbymoretz@davidson.k12.nc.us

Listed below are the schools that each of us serve - please feel free to reach out to us!