#EMSISDITS Tech Talk

Techy Talk for Teachers

Follow us on emsisdits.blogspot.com to see bi-weekly news, tutorials, & more! We will email out news every other week offering you the latest trending tech topics! :)

The EMS Instructional Technology Team is excited to work with students, teachers, and administrators this year to support and enhance the great things going on in our district this year!

Golden Hashtag Winners

We are downright giddy that we had 70 participants (and 230+ tweets) in our first district Slow Twitter Chat. We definitely call that a SUCCESS! You can see the tweets by searching #EMSedchat - be sure to follow your fellow educators ... you won't regret it!

Check out these Superstar Tweeters who are now proud owners of a golden hashtag after their stellar participation and engagement in our first #EMSedchat Slow Twitter Chat.

Stay tuned for info about our next Twitter Chat ... there may be more GOLDEN HASHTAGS coming soon!

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Global Learning

The concept of global learning is not new. We want our students to appreciate and learn from other ideas and cultures around the world. Students have been doing this through letter writing, books and articles for decades. So what's new and fresh about global learning right now? Educators are beginning to see the power of tools like Skype, Flipgrid and Microsoft TEAMS to bring together groups of students seamlessly regardless of their location in the world. This gives students and teachers the opportunity to work together in real time and learn from each other on a much deeper and richer level. If you would like to learn more about doing a mystery Skype, using Flipgrid, or setting up a Microsoft TEAMS activity, contact your Instructional Technologist today.

“The 9 Hottest Topics in Edtech.” ISTE, www.iste.org/explore/Education-leadership/The-9-hottest-topics-in-edtech.

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There are more devices on the way!

Our district is the middle of a huge technology device roll out. Hopefully you have been able to take advantage of the increased device inventory on your campus. If you haven't, or it has still been difficult to obtain, have no fear, more devices are on the way. New devices (similar to last year's roll-out ... iPads and laptop carts) will be available at the beginning of the 2019-2020 school year. Your Campus Technology Committee will be meeting soon to plan for next year.

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Adjust your speed grader settings

You can adjust the settings in speed grader to sort students by name, the date they submitted the assignment, or by submission status. Here is how you do it:

Open SpeedGrader
Open SpeedGrader options

3. Select options and choose sorting options from the drop down.

4. Save your settings.

Use Ctrl+K when creating links to websites.

When you want to create a link to a website in your course, simply highlight the text you want to hyperlink, then press Ctrl+K. The following box will appear so you can easily add the link and information.

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Get control of your task bar.

Did you know that you can move, hide, lock and adjust what is visible on your task bar? Simply right click on any blank space in your task bar and choose task bar settings. From there you can choose to lock the task bar so that it is always visible or unlock it so that it only appears when your mouse hovers over the bottom of your screen. You can choose to automatically hide the task bar in desktop or tablet mode with one toggle. Also, you can right click on any icon on your task bar to remove it, or right click on any icon on your desktop and choose to add it to your task bar. Sweet!

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See what's on your Outlook calendar quickly and easily.

If you click on the time and date at the right of your task bar, not only will you see a monthly calendar, you can also see your calendar events. You can choose which calendar is displayed by clicking on the plus button and adding your favorite calendar.

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Digital Breakout at WMS

Students in Mrs. Dodd' and Mrs. Lara's ELA classes had a blast completing a digital breakout using OneNote. Oh yeah....and they reviewed for the STAAR test without even knowing it! Awesome!

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Our Slow Twitter Chat was a huge success!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our very first Slow Twitter Chat. We had fun and learned so much from each other at the same time. We can't wait for the next one!

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Science CLCs are great!

We loved joining these awesome science teachers in their CLC to demo some cool Ed Tech tools. We know you will be doing digital breakouts and using TEAMS with your classes in no time!

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Check us out ... Seriously, you can CHECK US OUT.

Did you know that the Instructional Technology department has a wide variety of technology tools available for check out for student/classroom use? We have everything from iPads to Merge Cubes to Augmented Reality goggles. See our current list of available items here.

When your submission is submitted, the IT team will verify that the devices are available at that time for checkout and will schedule delivery/pickup. You will receive an email with this information within 48 hours. If you don't hear anything after that time period, please email ITs@ems-isd.net to check the status of your request.

We would love to plan with you about how you will be using these devices, or even assist you in the the classroom with your students. How cool is that?!?!?

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EMS Single Sign-On

Sign in to sso.ems-isd.net with your district username and password on any computer or mobile device to have quick and easy access to many of our district digital resources.

Reserve an #EMSTechspert

We want to help you successfully infuse technology into your classroom. We would love to train you on how to create tech infused lessons, co-teach the lessons, or even share our favorite tech tools with you!

Email your IT today to set up an appointment! (Find contact info here.)