Technology FYI
Jordan School District November, 2016
Here comes the holiday season!
Jordan Ed Tech Endorsement
The Educational Technology Endorsement Program (ETEP) is an intensive 1-2-year professional development program provided to a group of Jordan teachers by the Jordan Educational Technology department. It comprises a blend of evening face-to-face sessions and online learning in which teachers explore ways to leverage classroom technology in a constructivist, student-centered approach to increase instructional effectiveness and student achievement.
Objectives for this project include:
- Enhance teacher instructional practices by using technology seamlessly in classrooms
- Emphasize project-based learning, constructivist approaches, and student-centered classrooms
- Enrich instructional effectiveness
- Increase student academic achievement
This program is intensive, with participation in a 3 credit hour course required every semester. Each course includes 5-6 face-to-face sessions as well as an online component. At the successful completion of the program, participants will have received 18 credit hours (USOE or UVU) and also receive their Educational Technology Endorsement.
The district provides the following for each participant:
- 18 hours of college or lane change credit.
- Participant must pay for UVU credit. USBE credit is free.
- Educational Technology Endorsement on teaching certificate. (Participant must submit paperwork and pay fee to USBE.)
An informational meeting will be held November 15, from 4:30 to 6:30 pm in the ASB Auditorium. If you have any questions about the ETEP program please contact Raimee Jensen 801-567-8158 in the Educational Technology department.
Hour of Code
Hour of Code is Coming
Over the last three years the Hour of Code has reached more than 100 million students in over 180 countries. Last year, you helped make this the largest learning event in history, with record participation from girls and underrepresented minorities.
This year, help us reach every student with the opportunity to learn.
Sign up your classroom today and get ready to do an Hour of Code with your class!
Teachers who join the movement early will also get a free kit with inspirational posters featuring young tech entrepreneurs for their classrooms!
iPads Coding Apps
The Hour of Code now what?
Tynker: Tynker is the easiest way for children to learn programming. Solving fun puzzles to learn coding concepts, easily build games and publish them to the community are a few of this apps features.
ScratchJr: With ScratchJr, young children (ages 5-7) learn important new skills as they program their own interactive stories and games.
Scratch Maze: Scratch Maze app contains a number of video tutorials which will guide learners through creating their own maze game.
Hopscotch: Learn to code by making things you enjoy playing.
Cargo-Bot: Is a puzzle game that challenges your brain and helps you learn programming concepts.
Lightbot: Is a programming puzzle game whose game mechanics require using programming logic to solve levels.
Google CS First: CS First is a free web-based program that exposes students to computer science through video tutorials and modules that students participate in as after-school, in-school and summer programs. Designed for grades 4-8, the clubs teach students about computer science and coding in a hands-on, learning-by-doing way.
New Video Content in Kids InfoBits!
Gale is pleased to announce that we’ve added approximately 560 educational videos to Kids InfoBits, with dozens more to come in the next few weeks.
Focusing on STEM concepts for elementary students, the 1-3 minute videos cover topics such as the sun, Earth, minerals, simple machines, water, plants, energy, and many more. The videos can help children who are visual or audio learners, and can be incorporated into elementary classroom instruction.
Full text transcriptions accompany each video to allow students to read along, get correct spelling, and quote the message. The videos are done in English, but the text transcriptions can be machine-translated into over 20 languages.
Additionally, in response to numerous customer requests, Kids InfoBits now has a larger default font size, making it more appealing and approachable for younger students.
A new button lets users change the size of document text. The font change will persist throughout the session as users move from document to document.
For more information, please visit the Gale blog.
Professional Development Opportunities
Fall Elementary Courses
Multimedia Projects with iPads
The iPad’s powerful collection of multimedia tools provide new and innovative ways for students to demonstrate learning through creative and motivating projects. This professional development is designed to help educators effectively integrate this technology into a project-based educational framework. Participants will learn to utilize the iPad to plan, teach, manage and evaluate a variety of student created multimedia projects tied to the core curriculum.
Classes will be held in the ASB Computer Lab
Dates: November 9 , November 15, November 30, December 6
Time: 4:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Google Tools
This courses introduces teachers to Google Apps for Education which is available for students in grades 3-12. Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is a suite of secure web-based and collaborative applications that includes Documents, Slides, Sheets, Forms and Classroom. It allows students and teachers to work and learn together anytime, anywhere, and on any device. GAFE is hosted by Google, and is managed by Jordan School District. When students log into their school google account, they are seamlessly connected to the GAFE suite of productivity and collaboration tools.
The first class session will be taught in person in the ASB to introduce you to Jordan District's Canvas online learning system, and Google Tools. The reminder of the course work wiill be completed online.
Classes will be held in the ASB Computer Lab
Dates: A Track - October 14
B Track - December 7
C Track - November 28
D Track - November 2
Time: 8:00 am - 4:-00 pm
Fall Secondary Courses
Improve your tech skills and have some fun too!
We have several options for Technology Professional Development this year.
Hybrid courses are half face to face and half online over four weeks. (relicensure or option of USOE credit)
Online courses will start with a one-hour introduction followed by six weeks of online instruction. (relicensure or option of USOE credit)
These are available to all secondary teachers and administrators. See JPLS for dates and times. Registration is required in JPLS.
Online - Secondary Google Tools - Starts on Wed (choose only one):Oct 5, Nov 2, Dec 7, 2016
3:30-4:30
ASB Room varies (follows up w/ six weeks online)
This course introduces teachers to Google Apps for Education. Google Apps for Education (GAFE) is a suite of secure web-based and collaborative applications that includes Documents, Slides, Sheets, Forms and Classroom. It allows students and teachers to work and learn together anytime, anywhere, and on any device. GAFE is hosted by Google, and is managed by Jordan School District.
Hybrid - Secondary Chromebooks and the Cloud Classroom - Wed Oct 12, 26, Nov 9 and 30 (4 meetings).
3:30-5:30
ASB Room 113
Bring the Cloud to your Classroom! This Professional Development is designed to help educators effectively integrate Chromebooks and Cloud tools into a project-based educational framework. Participants gain experience using Chromebooks, evaluating online tools for educational use, and exploring strategies for teaching with this technology.This course is a hybrid course with 4 weekly in person sessions and online discussions and assignments
Contact your Curriculum Technology Specialist with questions
Nancy Lagerberg (nancy.lagerberg@jordandistrict.org)
Jay Eads (jay.eads@jordandistrict.org)
Harrison Beckett (harrison.beckett@jordandistrict.org)