In the Middle

The October 16th district staff development will follow an asynchronous format. All instructional staff will visit the DSD landing page to access the materials: bit.ly/AISDDSD. The due date for completions will be no later than 4pm on October 16th. Campus instructional staff will also need to complete the TEA required trainings (also accessible from the same landing page) by November 3rd. Look for the images below on the DSD landing page to join the courses!

Per Katy Roede: The training is for all campus-based staff including teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and clerical.

Reminders:

1. As you take the quizzes in Schoology, it will only display your best score from all of your attempts. Therefore, if you take it again and score lower, it will still display your "best" score.
2. You will receive your certificate for the PowerSchool trainings once you complete the survey. You should receive an email once you finish the Schoology course stating that you need to take the survey to obtain your certificate. Make sure you complete the survey within seven days to receive the certificate as well as a credit hours on your transcript. (see image below).

Download the document that will show you how to export grades from Schoology & import them into TAC. Or watch the video below!

Remember, this is only an option. You are not required to transfer your grades this way. You can also type them in manually if that is easier for you!

Next week, October 19th - October 23rd is Digital Citizenship Week. This year has shown us the importance of being a good digital citizen in all aspects of our digital lives.

Check out Common Sense Education has some of the best resources around with lessons and activities broken down by elementary, middle and high school.

Planet Nutshell NetSafe series of eighteen videos for K-12 students. There are videos specifically for elementary school and specifically for middle school and high school students. The videos cover topics like preventing cyberbullying, digital privacy, and the dangers of distracted driving.

Bri Stauffer with Applied Educational Systems has complied a suggested day to day ideas for the week , including understanding digital footprint and information literacy for middle and high schoolers.

Don't forget to our wonderful BrainPOP Digital Citizenship Unit and BrainPOP Jr. resources.

Did you know that Google Meet Closed Captioning has a translate feature? While in Meet, turn on Closed Captioning by clicking “Turn on Captions” in the bottom right corner. ​Once captions are turned on, right click on the caption icon and choose “Translate to English.” If you or the student need to translate to a different language you can go to the top of the Meet screen and click the Google Translate icon in the omni bar/address bar to choose another language.

Click Here for step-by-step directions!

If parents or students are having issues signing in to Schoology from Clever they need to be using the first link (black and blue) and not the second link (white and blue) while the Clever engineers are working to resolve the bug with the password vaulting program. Also, if they log in directly from aldine.schoology.com they will have no issues as this is only impacting signing in from Clever. Once this bug is resolved students will have the ability to sign in to Schoology from Clever once and never have to log in additionally after using Clever no matter what device they use.

We will continue hosting office hours as our schedules allow for those of you needing to pop in and ask us questions! We will be adding the days and times to our Google calendar and inviting our school groups, so be sure to check your Google calendar!! It will not always be the same days or same times each week, the times will be dependent on our availability. Be on the lookout!

The 10th Anniversary of TCCA is just two months away and we are going all out to bring you the absolute best speakers and curriculum focused EdTech sessions in the country! Make sure you get registered today! CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Don't hesitate. You must register in order to receive the live session links.

Click Here to join the Middle School Virtual Learning Group

If you haven't joined already, that is where you can access all the Resources from the training sessions that have been presented (last year during virtual learning and Aldine LIVE sessions in July). We will continue to add materials to this Schoology group for teachers to access.

*This group is for Aldine staff only, please do not share this group code/link with parents or students.

As you navigate this new role as a virtual teacher please know we are here to support you! If you have a question about a digital resource reach out to your designated DLS. You can also request help in ePortal (or click here)!

Chad Cochran--Drew, Garcia, Hoffman, Shotwell

@MrCtechme

crcochran@aldineisd.org

Hosea Pipkins, III--Jones, Lewis, Plummer, Stovall, Teague

@HoseaPipkins

hpipkins@aldineisd.org

Ann Waite--Aldine MS, Grantham, Hambrick, KEC, Mead

@AnnMWaite

amwaite@aldineisd.org

Location: 9999 Veterans Memorial Drive, Houston, TX, USA