I have officially finished my 5th year here at MVSD as Coordinator of ICT. Given the placement of the maternity leaves of my two children, this is the longest single stretch of employment for myself in the field of education and I am incredibly thankful for the role that I have. I have been able to work alongside the same ICT team since I joined the division and my enjoyment in this role has a lot to do with the strength of this group. We are continuing to add new initiatives (esports, data literacy, increased infrastructure, etc) and this group ensures… 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. It is the LAST week of our End-of-Year Checklist series. If you are jumping in now, you can check out the previous posts: Here in MVSD, the remaining items on our formal checklist are almost exclusively internal reminders for our staff. These include things like what to do with their devices if they are heading into a leave of absence (LOA) or changing roles, how building renovation schedules may affect tech access/storage in their spaces,… 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 2024/25 school year! This time of year is always chaotic for those in education. When I shared this graphic last year I commented on the fact that the spring of 2023 had been a challenging one for our communities. At the risk of coming across as a “Debbie Downer”, 2024 has also not been easy. Our school division has been highlighted in various media outlets throughout the spring such as: While I… Read More
Follow Friday – The Chey and Pav Show
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. Here in Manitoba, we are very quickly approaching summer break, with our last day with students being June 27th. As we step back for an opportunity to recharge and connect with activities that bring us joy, I know that many of us are looking for easy and accessible PD opportunities. Podcasts can be the perfect way to build in both PD and entertainment as they can be played: Current stats for Canadian… Read More
End-of-Year Checklist – Part 3 – Social Media
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. It is week two of our End-of-Year Checklist series. If you are just jumping in now, you can check out the previous posts: This week we are focused on social media, specifically the professional accounts that represent our schools/classroom/and extracurricular programs. In our division, we have over 60 accounts sharing via social media platforms (learn more HERE). Check out the video below for further information:
Data Dunkers Visit MVSD!
It has been an action-packed week here in MVSD as we welcomed the Data Dunkers team to our division! You may recall that I had an opportunity to learn about this program in the fall of 2023 as I attended a session at CyberSummit. At the time, I had made note of what a cool opportunity it could be for students, but they had shared that their work had been in major cities; of which MVSD is not. Fast-track to May at Riding The Wave and I was pleasantly surprised to connect with Katina and the Data Dunkers team again.… Read More
End-of-Year Checklist – Part 2 – 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. It is week two of our End-of-Year Checklist series. If you missed Week 1, check back to THIS POST to get the background information about this project and learn about Learning Management Systems. This week we are focused on Digital File Organization, including our MVSD Outlook email and any digital files that we use in our role. Check out the video below for further information:
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
End-of-Year Checklist – Part 1 – LMS
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. The end of the school year means a very standard routine for educators: time to clean out your classroom! For many of us this includes removal of any unnecessary clutter that has accumulated, archiving and filing, furniture movements, revamping bulletin boards, and perhaps the beginning of an update to certain decor elements. Guess what? This should be happening digitally as well; especially with the increased use of digital tools/files! When I taught at Ste Rose our secretary… Read More
June ICT Newsletter
With the start of a new month comes a new monthly ICT newsletter. These newsletters are designed to serve as an outreach to all MVSD staff and provide: These newsletters are sent out to staff via our divisional email but are also shared through our social media pages and divisional website. June 2024 ICT Newsletter by Kirsten Cali