Washington Tech Tidbits

Awesome Squiggles is a global art project where classrooms create original art based on four squiggly lines and then share their artwork with others.

There are 2 levels of participation from which you can choose:

• LEVEL 1 - Students create the artwork, and the teacher shares it via Twitter using the hashtag #awesomesquiggles. NO COLLABORATION is required at this level.
  
• LEVEL 2 - Classrooms will be partnered with another similarly-aged classroom to share artwork through Google Hangout or Skype.

For more information on the project, including the printable squiggles, click here.

If you were unable to register by March 24th to collaborate with another class, you can still participate by sharing artwork to Twitter with the hashtag #awesomesquiggles.

This year's squiggles are pictured above. :)

This Wednesday, March 29 is Teacher-Directed Collaboration from 3-4:30pm.

A few ITCs will be hosting a Google-a-palooza at Lincoln. They will cover topics, such as how to utilize Google Classroom with your students, how to sync and archive your pictures with Google Photos, and how to organize content in Gmail and Google Drive. For more information, please click here.

Brittney and I will be hosting a session on Genius Hour that afternoon in the Washington LRC.

To "sign up" for one of these sessions or to look at the other offerings, click here.

If you're not finding a Google Slides theme that fits your presentation content or your personal style, check out Slides Carnival. You can search by categories, such as formal, inspirational, creative, simple, and more. After you find a theme that you like, click the button under the preview that says "USE AS GOOGLE SLIDES THEME", and your new theme will pop up in your Google Drive. When it opens, click File > Make a Copy, and start creating!

For more Google Slides tips and tricks, check out this blog post by Maria Galanis.

Here is a great how-to sheet about the phones in your classrooms. This guide can also be found on the D64 Staff Portal under Technology > Phone System Reference. If you need further assistance with your phone, please put in a ticket with Pat at wasupport@d64.org.

Washington teachers, please remember to back up your computers as soon as possible, in preparation for your new devices.

Files and folders that exist on your MacBook (Desktop, Downloads, Documents, Music, etc.) must be backed up before handing in your old device.

We highly recommend you back-up to Google Drive, which has unlimited storage and can be accessed from any device.

If you have any questions, please contact Pat or me.

Here is a link to the doc that you can share with your students, so they can access important PARCC resources, like tutorials and practice tests. Testing begins on April 10.

If you are interested, check out this test preparation toolkit by Edmentum. It provides various test-taking tips and strategies for students.

Finally, if you were unable to attend one of the grade level PARCC sessions with me, please let me know, so we can work out a time to go over the tutorials and resources together.