Welcome to a new school year! At the start and end of each school year I find it helpful to share out the following checklist that was inspired by a practice from when I was a classroom teacher. This checklist is designed to ensure the effective and professional use of various ICT elements and support your growth in the 2023/2024 school year. Please note that not all checklist elements may apply to you depending on your position within the division. The checklist itself has each task hyperlinked which leads to a tutorial or video providing more information on how to complete the… Read More
Summer 2023 Tech PD
Happy New Year! For those involved in education, fall time is our new year and we are ramping up for the whirlwind that is September. When it comes to the ICT Department, my technicians have been hard at work ALL summer: performing maintenance on all infrastructure and hardware inventorying and setting up new equipment setting up classrooms and new office/education spaces As we approach the end of August, we are also preparing for our summer PD series which will include: Maximizing Office 365 Overview of the platform: features, log-in tips, navigation, mobile apps, new updates for the 23/24 school year… Read More
ICT Team Overview 22/23
It is hard to believe that I am wrapping up my fourth year here at MVSD as Coordinator of ICT. I strongly feel that, after 3 years affected by Covid-19, I finally hit my stride this year and am feeling much more confident in the role as a whole. My enjoyment in this role has a lot to do with the team that I get to work with. With a combined experience of over 80 years within MVSD, our team is the ONLY department in the entire division that did not see any position changes through the Covid-19 upheaval and… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Summer Holiday Tech Prep
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. We are pushing right through this last week of school for 22/23 and this week’s tech tip aligns with a section of our Year End Tech Checklist. I recommend turning on your automatic replies on your email indicating that you are in holiday. (I’ll include a tutorial below for those who operate within Outlook) If you previously had your work email on your Smart Phone or personal devices consider removing it for the break. Alternatively, you… Read More
Time to Recharge
On Mondays I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. Guess what!? Today is the LAST Monday of the 2022/23 school year! This time of year is always chaotic for those in education but this year feels especially heavy. For one, our students are in school full time until the end of the day on Friday, June 30th with no dedicated “admin day” to close out the year. This was in response to calendar changes made around September 30th and Christmas scheduling. Our community has also been in a state of… Read More
Proposal Preparation
*This post has been written as part of my journey as a Ph.D student through University of Regina In December of 2022 I officially completed the required course work for my Ph.D program at the University of Regina! (If you are interested in looking back at some of that work you can check out the “university” or “ECI388” tags on this blog). With that component completed, the next stage of this journey involves the formation of a committee which will review my preliminary research proposal. Once approved the committee will then assign me three questions. These questions, which will expand… Read More
Year End Tech Checklist – Part 2 – File Organization
On Tuesdays I share a Tech Tip on our social media pages to assist our staff in their use of technology as it relates to their role. Earlier this month I introduced the 22/23 Year End Tech Checklist and kicked off our implementation by looking at Learning Management Systems (LMS). As we progress through the month we are now shifting focus to digital file organization. Check out the video below for an overview of this topic: Now that you’ve watched the video you may notice some overlap between this section and the information shared out in January for Clean Up Your Computer… Read More
Don’t Stop Accommodations at Exams
On Mondays I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. Final report cards will be sent out in less than three weeks and, for our high schools, graduation events start as early as next week. With this in mind, our schools are in final assessment mode. For some, this looks like the completion of final projects and observations while for others this means final exams. I don’t want to pick on high schools but I find that when it comes to “final exams” there continues to be an unspoken routine stepped… Read More
Follow Friday – #ISTEsla
On Fridays I share what I believe to be a notable person/organization/school on our social media pages to assist our staff in the development of their online Personal Learning Network. With summer on the horizon ISTE is once again offering their Summer Learning Academy! ISTE U’s Summer Learning Academy, the PD educators around the world loved last summer, is back with new content, a flexible format and a focus on the edtech topics you’re most interested in! Over the course of 13 weeks, you can participate in four self-paced ISTE U courses and eight interactive webinars – with support from expert edtech… Read More
WOW Wednesday – Gilbert Plains Elementary
On Wednesdays I highlight some of our amazing MVSD staff on our social media pages. Everyday our staff are using tech in new and exciting ways, are learning new skills, and are sharing ways in which ed tech is assisting them in their practice. I am very excited to share that Gilbert Plains Elementary has expanded their Minecraft EDU deployment! Minecraft is now available in their dedicated lab space, as well as on student laptops and compatible tablets. Exploration with Minecraft EDU has been lead by Megan Porter and allows for: student choice for creation and assessment options, as well as during… Read More