Tech Bytes

 Handwriting Practice using Jamboard     Do you have students who need to practice their writing skills? Do you wish you had a way to support that without just hoping they have paper at home and know how to take a picture of it to send to you?     Struggle no more! Use these templates to make a Jamboard for students to use with their iPads! Easy and fun for students...and gives you a chance to collect their work through  Google Classroom.      Check out this video from Alice Keeler.      Alice Keeler's Jamboard templates and blogpost 

 IC New Look and Features Control Center      Starting today, you will be able to change to the new look of your Infinite Campus Control Center. This new card-style design will let you personalize your courses for example name, assigning icons and colors.  Gradebook      Adding assignments will also now look different, yet have a more user friendly style with fewer clicks. A side panel in Gradebook provides all the necessary options in a vertical, plain language view for adding and editing assignments. There are convenient defaults that are always editable, of course.  Check out this side by side comparison to see how much easier the new format is. Click here for your own copy of this PDF

 Help for Readers! Easy and Empowering      If you use Flipgrid, and even if you don't, your students can get easy access to Immersive Reader, Microsoft's well-loved app for struggling readers.      Create a free account with Flipgrid.com , if you don't have one, and simply cut and paste the text you want your students to access into a grid. With the click of one button, students have access to all the tools Immersive Reader provides to help them read and understand the content you've provided.              Read the blog below to get more information. Then reach out to any of your Ed Tech Coaches to find out how easy this assistive tool is for you, your ELs, special needs students and all of your class! Flipgrid and Immersive Reader

 Use Virtual Math Manipulatives in your Classroom      Every teacher, and learner, knows that visual images help understanding. Students who have access to blocks, cubes, graphs and other visual aids can work through math concepts and see connections. There is no need to send home lots of paper cutouts or bags of classroom supplies - use virtual manipulatives!       Use this website and their large variety of virtual math manipulatives: unifix cubes, ten frames, algebra tiles, spinners, dice and more.       "Our kids are growing up in a digital world where their ability to use digital tools such as these will be far greater than we can imagine at this moment in time." Didax - Virtual Math Manipulatives