CSDNR Instructional Tech Weekly

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 adopted by the Board of Regents in 2014. This site integrates the New York State ELA and Literacy Standards with the Social Studies Framework and uses an Understanding by Design (UBD) template.

The site contains materials for grades K-8. Every grade level includes units of study for the school year. The units consist of complete lessons for teachers, handouts for students, informational texts, technology links, and a C3 inquiry. The site also contains assessments and there are some materials in both English and Spanish. The curriculum is accessed through teacher specific usernames and passwords.

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.

For the past couple of weeks, some teachers and students have been experiencing issues logging into BrainPop, primarily in the middle schools. There was a glitch on the vendor side, but it was fixed yesterday. Teachers at both middle schools should be able to access BrainPop now. Students should also be able to login using their Google credentials. Please contact Deb Fishman, dfishman@nredlearn.org, if you are continuing to experience problems logging into the site.

If you have not used BrainPop, consider exploring this application to see all that it has to offer. This resource includes animated movies that provide a creative way to explain difficult concepts to students. BrainPop also includes a variety of learning tools available to teachers and students. Within the platform, students can create their own movies and play games to foster and assess their understanding of new concepts. The application also promotes critical thinking.

BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. offer movies and primary sources on a variety of subject matter in grades K-12. There is also a section on social-emotional learning and health. BrainPop also include materials for educators that are comprised of lesson plans and pacing guides. Additionally, there are quizzes built into every lesson, which are aligned to standards.

The District has access to a new writing program for grades 6-12 called No Red Ink. No Red Ink

helps to build stronger writers through authentic writing experiences. It includes interest-based curriculum, adaptive exercises and assessments. 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. There is also a section on diagnostic assessment, which includes complete tests or items from a variety of topics.

The Quick Writes include a plethora of prompts that are searchable by grade level. Some of these prompts include reading excerpts to which students respond. The writing assignments include excerpts from authors such as Amy Tan, Trevor Noah, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The passages are included in the platform as well as multiple prompts for each text.

Students respond to the writing within the platform and teachers can create rubrics or use rubrics provided. Teachers can also provide personalized feedback to each student within the application. Writing prompts can be assigned through Google Classroom.

No Red Ink also offers professional learning and resources within its platform. There are many helpful articles to get started or learn more about this software. The Instructional Tech Team will be providing training, but if you would like to start sooner, login to the site and take a look at the help section to get started. To login go to noredink.com and use your Google credentials to sign in. 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.

Did you know that Nearpod offers 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 and the lessons meet standards for CASEL, ISTE, as well as state-level digital citizenship and literacy standards. The lessons use the Gradual Release of Responsibility and the Guided Inquiry instructional framework. Nearpod also offers an implementation guide for using the Digital Citizenship lessons in the classroom. You do not have to wait for Digital Citizenship month in October to provide your students with important lessons on this topic.

Ed Law 2-D requires New York State districts to carefully vet all software used and third party providers. While the law is focused on protecting student PII, it also emphasizes the cyber security of third party vendors, since public school districts have been easy targets for cyber criminals. Ransomware attacks against K-12 school districts have been on the rise. These attacks can interfere with online learning and compromise data. In some reported cases, data was stolen from schools and published online; including personal information belonging to students, staff and faculty.

Going forward, all software, free or otherwise, will need to be approved by the District. In order to be compliant with the law. We will no longer be able to allow software that has not been properly vetted for data privacy as well as cyber security. There is a process for vetting in place and it begins with filling out a Software Approval Form. Also, please take a look at the District Applications that are already approved.

The Instructional Technology Team provides ongoing professional learning. Using this new form Request for Professional Learning Form, teachers can ask for training on a variety of applications. Just fill out the form and be sure to include details about specific goals you would like addressed in the training. We will do our best to accommodate your professional learning goals.

Specific applications are listed, but there is also an "Other" category as well. If we cannot provide training, we may be able to contact the vendor to provide professional learning 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.