TechBytes

• September 28-October 23: Epic Reading Challenge! (Elementary)
• September 28-October 30: Kindergarten Beginning of Year Diagnostic
• September 28-October 23: Panorama Survey Open
• October 12: Secondary Grading Window Opens
• October 13-November 13: Middle School Science Benchmark 1
• October 14-28: Amira Progress Monitoring Window for Kindergarten
• October 19-23: DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP WEEK!
• October 20: Elementary Grading Window Opens
• October 21: Secondary Grading Window Closes
• November 2-20: CHKS Survey Open
• November 9: Elementary Grading Window Closes

In a world filled with AI-generated content, helping our students become independent, critical thinkers has never been more important. Use the free Digital Citizenship Week lessons below to help your students build the human, offline-thinking skills they need for a world that's increasingly online.

• Find Your Grade Band: Explore suggested 20- to 40-minute activities below. Concepts build upon one another, but lessons can be taught individually or combined into a single session.

• School-Specific Plans: Check in with your site TechLeader for site-specific events.

• Extend the Learning: These activities are pulled from Common Sense's K–12 Digital Literacy & Well-Being Curriculum. Find all standalone and integrated PUSD Scope & Sequences, including the new Digital Literacy Scope & Sequence, in the PUSD Curriculum Drive.

Join Cat Ninja’s October Reading Challenge from September 28 to October 23!

How to Participate:

• Daily Goal: Have 80% or more of your class read for at least 20 minutes each school day to log a "Qualifying Day."

• Track Progress: Monitor your class's daily progress directly on your Educator Dashboard.

• Win Perks: Unlock weekly class perks as you log days!

Grand Prize: The class with the most Qualifying Days at the end of the 4 weeks wins an exclusive in-person visit from Cat Ninja on October 30, plus student and teacher prize packs! (Note: If there’s a tie, the winner will be decided by total minutes read.)

How to Enter to Win: At the end of the contest, download your dashboard log and submit it by end of day on October 23rd. Check back in the TechBytes for updates and the link to send in your submission!

When sharing files in Google Drive with staff, changing the access setting to "Everyone in Pasadena Unified School District" includes students. If a document contains sensitive student information, choosing this option makes it accessible to thousands of people across the district.

How to Check Your Drive:

1. Navigate to My Drive and click the search bar at the top of the screen.

2. Click the Filter icon (the lines on the right side of the search bar) to open the advanced search.

3. Under Location, select Visible to anyone in Pasadena Unified.

4. Review the results. If any files containing sensitive data are shared district-wide, update their sharing settings immediately.

Best Practices Moving Forward:

• Specific Individuals: Share files directly with the email addresses of the specific people who need access.

• District-Wide Staff: If all employees require access, share the file with the Employees Group rather than using the district-wide setting.

When a teacher takes attendance, Aeries shows an "Attendance submitted" message but still flags the class as missing attendance. In period-based schools the class stays on the Missing Attendance report even though attendance was taken; in daily schools the "missing" warning remains on screen after submitting. Aeries is aware of the issue and is working on resolving it.