Town Center Tidbits

Friday, October 2nd

A big thank you to Kelly Matlock for planning today's teacher treats!

World Day of Bullying Prevention

Join CISD in wearing blue on Monday, Oct. 5, which is the World Day of Bullying Prevention. Each year on the first Monday in October, students, schools, and communities all over the world wear blue together to unite against bullying. It also kicks off National Bullying Prevention Awareness Month. Read more at www.stompoutbullying.org/world-day-bullying-prevention.

District Technology Update

The iPadOS 14 update is now available. If the software is not updated on district iPads, some of the apps that we have purchased may not continue to work properly because the app developers work to make sure their apps are compatible with the latest version of the operating system. This update has several features related to the Apple Pencil as well as some shape recognition and script to text tools. Check out the DLC’s iPadOS 14 Collection in Bulb for more information.

The update is available for download in “Settings” on all district iPads. The technology department is asking all users to update their devices as soon as possible. To do this, the user will go to Settings, go to General, touch Software Update, touch Download and Install. This will begin the process. The user will need to agree to the terms and conditions before the download begins. It should take fewer than 10 minutes to download the update, and another 15 or 20 minutes to install the software. If the update is not completed by October 19th, the device will lockdown until completed. Please plan accordingly to have it done well before then. Please aim to have all your students updated by October 14th.

A Note for 4th & 5th Grade Educators

Our 13th Annual Creative Writing Competition is now open for entries! The competition is open to all writers in the 4th-12th grades (Non-Coppell ISD students must be a CGA member to enter). The deadline for entries is December 4, 2020, at midnight, and entries must be in either our Story or Poetry categories. For all details, rules, and link for entries, please visit: https://coppellgifted.org/2020-2021-creative-writing-competition/

Our judges are looking forward to reading all of the entries! If you have any questions about the competition, please e-mail competition@coppellgifted.org.

Coppell Gifted Association Scholarships for Texas Association for the Gifted & Talented Conference

CGA is offering scholarship opportunities for attendance at the Virtual TAGT Annual Conference being held on December 3 - December 5, 2020. Please note the scholarship qualifications detailed on the application, as well as new instructions for registering for the conference.DEADLINE to apply is October 15, 2020. Application Link

Dyslexia Awareness Month - A Note from Kenyon

October is Dyslexia Awareness Month! Want to learn more about Dyslexia? Do you have learners identified with Dyslexia and need more information? Want to earn Flex hour credit? Schoology has 2 courses about dyslexia specifically for the classroom educator. Flex requests can be uploaded into Schoology.

Dyslexia Training & Resources: For the Classroom Educator

Access Code: JBSVB-5D89J

1 Flex hour

Texas Identification Dyslexia Academy: Dyslexia Foundations

Access Code: JBSVB-5D89J

3 Flex hours

Reminder from Dr. Applegate Regarding Zoom Logins

Please ask all learners to sign into Zoom with their @g.coppellisd.com account through the SSO button.

We are needing to pull guest access to our Zoom meetings (due to safety) and learners will not be able to access your Zoom meetings. We have recently learned that logging into Zoom using the Google Button doesn’t actually transfer their account into the district enterprise account. They HAVE to go through the SSO option in order to be counted in the CISD domain. We believe this may be the reason we still have approximately 6,000 learners that have not transitioned their account.

If you see a learner with (Guest) next to their name in your Zoom participant’s list, this means that they are NOT signed into their @g.coppellisd.com account in our Coppell Zoom domain and need to add their account to our domain by signing in with SSO. When you see learners with (Guest) please share the following help documentation with each of them.

A World Without Barriers

The video below was shown in last week's Strategic Advocated Meeting that Rachel Perry and I attended, and I wanted to pass along to you all. My favorite part of the video was seeing the surprise and joy the man in the video experienced through the intentionality of others. I hope it brings you a smile and gives you an opportunity to make your own connection to what this video means to you as an educator.