Holiday Highlights: Google PD, Gizmos, Securly, and More

It's the most wonderful classroom management of the year...

Wishing you the best as we barrel through the winter holidays and toward the next school vacation. Here are a few holiday heads-ups from your Technology Integration crew.

Google PD Recap

Matt and Sean ran two packed sessions of Google "Serenity Now" training on the November 8 PD day. We've posted the resources that we used in the session over in the Staff Training area of the site - head over to check them out. There's on-demand help in all of these areas:

• decluttering and organizing your Gmail and Drive
• managing Google Classroom classes
• creating digital task lists for yourselves or students

Many folks have asked us to run this and follow-up sessions in the near future. We are working on making that a reality. We're always excited to have time with in-person groups and to focus on skills that save you time and energy.

Securly Classroom New Features

You may have spotted an email from Securly highlighting a recent update to their platform. You can read the full list of new features if you like. Two updates stand out for us...

First, you can now "set and forget" default preferences for each class. For example, you may wish to always start a session with a Site Lock in place that limits student browsing to a small collection of websites. Now, you can set that up one time and it'll be in place every time you start a session.

Second, you can now share your custom block list with other teachers in your school. You can also copy and modify block lists that other teachers have shared to your school. This can be helpful when new teachers come on board and need a fast way to collect and block those sites that kids like to access in your building.

We don't see sharing your block list as a substitute for our districtwide content filter, so if you find a site that should be blocked everywhere, send a Helpdesk ticket to the Tech department and include the web address to be blocked.

Gizmos for STE...and also, M

During remote learning, Gizmos quickly became a powerful tool for science teachers who needed ways to complete experiments and simulations virtually rather than in person. However, Gizmos has been going strong since before the pandemic, and the number of Gizmos and STEM Cases on the platform continues to grow!

Do you teach science and teach or co-teach a math class?

Does your science class need a targeted math skill review for an upcoming activity?

For you, we want to take a moment to shout out the Math Gizmos. It's easy to miss how many great sims and manipulatives are on the site as well! Just check out this list of 3-5 Math activities, for example. Click on any one of them to preview it and check out the many teacher resources that come with it, to support in-person, blended learning experiences. If you're an MS or HS teacher, play with the search options on this page and check out the many Math resources available for your grade level.

When it comes time to use a Gizmo with students, don't forget to log in via the WRSD Clever portal. This will sign you and the students in automatically. Once you've created a class in Gizmos and your students have joined it with a class code, you can assign any Gizmo from any grade level - on, below, or above.

We've been watching teachers use Gizmos in all of these different ways:

• deep review and drill of previous-grade topics
• supplements to Great Minds or Reveal Math practice questions
• student choice or challenge work
• Gizmos STEM Cases for interdisciplinary projects

Gizmos also launched a new Educator Resource Hub this fall, and it has so much to offer. If you're new to Gizmos, there are Getting Started videos that help you set up shop and assign your first tasks to students. If you've been around the block, check out how to differentiate instruction, support ELs, or teach Algebra with Gizmos.

Take care out there! As always, reach out to your school's Tech Integration Specialist anytime you need digital learning support or advice.