CSDNR Instructional Tech Weekly

If you have not seen the list of District Approved Applications, please make sure you know the applications that can be used in CSDNR. These applications include software procured through LHRIC or BOCES as well as third party vendors who have signed our Parent Bill of Rights and Data Privacy Agreement, drafted by the District's attorneys. To ensure compliance with Ed Law 2D and Part 121, all vendors who collect student personally identifiable information (PII) must sign these agreements.

Vendors who sign the agreement take responsibility for student data. They adhere to certain standards to protect this data. If there is a data breach, the liability is on the vendor. New York State districts are required to protect their student data as well as teacher and principal APPR data. When using third party vendors, districts must ensure that these vendors are protecting data at all times.

The CSDNR Technology Department continues to try to work with vendors who are unwilling to sign Data Privacy Agreements. Some third party vendors have taken a couple of months to review and sign agreements. Unfortunately, many of the free software applications that had been used in the District are unwilling to sign our Data Privacy Agreement at this time. However, we will continue to reach out to these third party vendors.

If you are unsure if an application is approved, please refer to the the District Approved Software list, which is continuously being updated or contact Deb Fishman. If you want to get software approved, fill out this Software Approval Form. If you want training on an application that is on the approved software list, please fill out this Request for Training Form.

If students are having difficulty logging into applications, you will want to ensure that students are accessing the software correctly. If it is a Google Single Sign On, students need to use the Google Button to access the application. If they are merely inputting their Google credentials, they may not be able to access the District account.

IXL is now syncing with eSchoolPlus on a nightly basis. When students have changes in their schedule it will be reflected in the IXL rosters. This means that if changes are not added to eSchools immediately, students will not be on the correct roster. Additionally, one of the other issues is that not all students have an email address or a correct email address in eSchools. If a student does not show up on your roster, please check their eSchool profile. Put in a help desk ticket if they are missing this information or the correct information. Teachers will no longer be able to manually fix their rosters. As we continue to find errors, we are fixing them. This will help us roster automatically without errors.

If you are looking for fun games to use with your classes, check out Lumio. Lumio, formerly known as Smart Learning Suite Online, offers 12 game templates for teachers to use with students. Lumio is easy to use and is accessible in your Google Waffle. Take a look at this short video on how to create and launch a game.

Lumio offers many other features like online graphic organizers, quizzes, and interactive activities. Teachers can create lessons from Smart Notebook files, PowerPoint files and Google Slide Decks. In Lumio, it is easy to embed activities, formative assessments and videos. Students can access a teacher's lesson by going to Hellosmart.com and entering that teacher's code.

Common Sense Media offers digital citizenship skills so that students can fully participate in their communities and make smart choices online and in life. Their K–12 Digital Citizenship Curriculum is housed on their website and is comprised of free resources and lessons for all students. They address topics such as cyberbullying, digital footprints, online privacy and news and media literacy.

The District subscribes to Nearpod and its Digital Citizenship lessons for grades K-12. These lessons include topics such as keyboarding, coding, evaluating resources and staying safe online. There is a scope and sequence that includes all of the lessons Nearpod offers. There are over 250 lessons in all. Nearpod also offers an implementation guide for using the Digital Citizenship lessons in the classroom.

BrainPop offers a variety of resources on many subjects. Within their plethora of informational videos and materials, they address many topics pertaining to Digital Citizenship. This resource is comprised of videos, quizzes, primary sources and related readings. All of these materials can be assigned to students within the platform. The Digital Citizenship topics address cyberbullying, information privacy, copyright, malware, medial literacy and online safety to name a few. Take a look at all that BrainPop has to offer.

The Integrated Social Studies/ELA Curriculum from Putnam/Northern Westchester BOCES is a user-friendly curriculum created by teachers from the region for teachers throughout New York State. The site is updated yearly and the curriculum is based on the New York State Social Studies Framework.

To create your individual account, click here https://www.pnwboces.org/sselanew/registration. Complete the required fields and create your password. Passwords must be at least 6 characters long and must include a special character. You will receive a confirmation email to complete the registration process. Please check your Spam folder if not received in your Inbox. Open the confirmation email and select the embedded link to confirm your new account. The link will bring you to the Sign In page. Click the Confirmation button. After you click on the Confirmation button you can use your newly created credentials to login to the Enhanced SS/ELA Curriculum.

The District has access to a new writing program for grades 6-12 called No Red Ink. This program helps to build stronger writers through authentic writing experiences. There are four components in the application; Practice, Writing, Assessment and Standards & Tests. Practice includes skill and grammar work. The Writing section is comprised of Quick Writes and Guided Drafts. This section also includes Peer Review and Self Review.

To get started with No Red Ink, go to noredink.com and use your Google credentials to login. Choose your school to take you to the premium content. To learn more about the platform take a look at the Getting Started Section and Video, Video on Quick Writes or Diagnostic Assessments. Additionally, the Instructional Technology Team will provide training for teachers.

The Instructional Technology Website is always being updated. Recently, the site was overhauled to feature the professional learning resources that are available to all CSDNR faculty and staff. Last spring, the Team began vetting and creating resources to help educators learn how to use software applications. The resources include step-by-step videos as well as Google Slide Decks. There are also Google Docs and PDFs. Over the last year, we have added many resources to this collection.