Hall County graduated our first cohort of Microsoft Innovative Educators (MIEs) October 2nd and 3rd.
53 Hall County educators, representing 22 schools in the district, earned their MIE badge. MIEs use Microsoft tools in the classroom and have learned the fundamentals of applying technology in education. This is the first step on an exciting journey of joining a professional network of enthusiastic educators who come together to learn, share, and grow.
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Participants learned about: Microsoft Office 365, Forms (Surveys & Quizzes), OneNote, and the Educator Community and self-training opportunities online.
Network with your BLaST members to learn about future training opportunities (check out our calendar on the home page). Consider working with one of your above colleagues to learn more about the opportunities available to Hall County educators through their Windows 10 operating systems on their teacher laptops.
Learn how you can become an MIE! You can work independently to gain this recognition., online and at your own pace.
Nearpod training is September 12th for middle and high school teachers and September 14th for elementary teachers. We hope to offer training again in the Spring.
Nearpod is a K-12 subscription this year for the first time in Hall County Schools. We have added a tile on LuanchPoint for the teacher which currently presents the chance to login via Google account (make sure you select your HallCo email). For students, the icon takes them to the screen where they can “join” a Nearpod lesson.
Canvas Integration is a big deal for our district. We have already made Nearpod available in your Canvas Course and you can add Student-paced Nearpods as Canvas Assignments. Check out these step-by-steps Nearpod provides – select Canvas Guide.
Check out all of the Nearpod Getting Started Resources.
Nearpod is an engagement tool that allows teachers to send content to student devices in real time and give students the opportunity to send teachers responses to questions in the form of interactive activities. See the video below which shows how to launch a session and the view the students will have on their devices.
Watch the video below and consider how Nearpod could enhance your curriculum.
The subscription service of live webinars on Canvas topics offered this summer – Canvas Training – has been extended through this school year!
The training is live webinars with question and answer is staffed by Canvas experts who can help gain a deeper understanding of Canvas. This subscription now runs now to June 30th. This will continue as a link under the Help menu in Canvas.
If you want to sign up now, please follow the directions below:
Learn about Canvas Training:
BLaST (Blended Learning Support Teams) leaders have been designated by the Principals and added to the 18-19 BLaST course. We are currently collecting BLaST member names from leaders and Principals. These team members will be added to the BLaST course.
This year, training is offered to any BLaST members to attend, please coordinate with your BLaST teammates. While seats may be limited, we are willing to provide substitute forms for any BLaST members in attendance at our district-level trainings. Whole group BLaST meeting will not be the man way information is shared. Communication on training will still go through the BLaST Leader, but watch the BLaST course and this web page for training dates.
This year, eLearning will make a concerted effort to work one-on-one with each BLaST leader. BLaST leaders have unique expertise on their school and eLearning hopes to guide them in navigating the early days of the school year to set the school up for success. This means that each team can get individualized support and enjoy individualized accountability for the goals which they set.
One thing eLearning has already worked on with your BLaST leader and Principal on is the minimum Canvas expectations for your school. Reach out to your BLaST leader for information on the starting point for a Canvas course in your school.
The eLearning group was honored to meet our newest employees on the second day of New Employee Orientation 2018-2019 at the Academy of Discoveries.
Teachers in elementary were able to spend more time exploring than 6-12 teachers, but all teachers were exposed to the important components of educational technology in our district.
This is the presentation delivery by eLearning:
LaunchPoint v 3.0 is now available to students and staff.
Use our HallCo credentials at go.hallco.org to log into this upgraded experience.
LaunchPoint includes district-level and school-level applications on delivery in the My Apps section. The end user can also add application tiles and opt to have their passwords saved for them within LaunchPoint. Users can configure apps into folders, change the sizes and shapes of apps, and enjoys some choices for their background.
While we strive for true Single Sign-On (SSO) where the end user clicks it and then is immediately logged in, there exist a variety of experiences right now. Applications like Canvas provide true SSO, an application such as Nearpod offer a simpler sign-on, with the intermediate step of logging in via Google with HallCo credentials, and finally adding your own apps may require you to store your credentials in the ClassLink Browser Extension.
The My Files section offers both teachers and students the opportunity to access documents from a variety of cloud storages: Dropbox, Google, Office365.
LaunchPoint was reviewed at the New Employee Orientation and Blended Learning Support Team (BLaST) leaders will be trained August 2, 2018, at the Instructional Support Center.
