The Monday after Halloween… who is more tired – students or teachers?! 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: general ICT updates (software changes, divisional ICT timelines, tech-themed holidays) upcoming PD for the month tech tips divisional highlights These newsletters are sent out to staff via our divisional email but are also shared out through our social media pages and divisional website.
WOW Wednesday – O365 Bookings for Parent-Teacher Interviews
Every Wednesday 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. The use of Office 365 Bookings has streamlined our Parent-Teacher Interview Process in multiple ways: our secretarial, admin, and teaching staff are no longer required to manage incoming appointment times our teachers know automatically when their bookings are as they sync to their Outlook calendars Teams video meeting links are autogenerated for every family who requires… Read More
Strengthening the Ed Tech Capacity of the Community
If you are a social media user you are probably familiar with the Throwback Thursday trend where users participate by sharing a memory (recent or distant). I was reminded on my ICT social media accounts that this time last year was the kick-off to our community outreach program (see Instagram post below): When I entered this position last September I was pleasantly surprised to realize that although I didn’t have “my kids” (students) anymore, I now had an extended network of over 4000 new “students” to support. This group includes MVSD students, teachers, admin, support staff, and our MVSD families.… Read More
#TechTipTuesday – Virtual Parent-Teacher Conferences
Every Tuesday 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. November brings about the first round of report cards in Manitoba and, traditionally, this has also meant an open opportunity for parents/guardians to visit the school and discuss student progress with their teacher(s) face-to-face. However, admist the Covid-19 pandemic, having multiple visitors in our school buildings is not ideal (and in some cases not possible). As such, virtual options have been built in for families with connectivity. For those with access, these tools… Read More
#MantraMonday
Every Monday I share a different ed tech quote on our Thompson Classroom social media pages for our staff to consider. This week’s Mantra is: This week is parent-teacher interviews for many of our schools. How are you using technology to bring your stakeholders closer? Check out the stories on our Instagram/Facebook accounts for tech tips related to parent-teacher interviews!
School Tech Tips Displays
One of my favourite things is helping our schools to strengthen the digital capacity of their entire community (staff, students, and families). One strategy that we are trying is to display informative and eye-catching displays in central pick-up locations. These displays include: – parent/guardian tech tips – school/divisional social media contacts – PowerSchool app information – Canadian youth media research – QR codes for easy info access Some schools have displays that are easily movable and chose to have them up during high-traffic events like parent-teacher while others have more static displays in their lobbies/central hallways. … Read More
Parent-Teacher Interviews Round Two
On Monday of this week our second round of report cards went home and officially kicked-off spring Parent-Teacher Interview week. Being that we are a K-12 school, our K-7 teachers scheduled and organized their own meetings which ran throughout the week. In the 8-12 end, our school secretary scheduled our meetings for us which were primarily held on Thursday after school and Friday during school-hours (there were no classes on Friday). Compared to the 30+ interviews I had first semester, this round was a breeze with only 20. I think last semester I had a lot of interviews because… Read More
My 1st Parent-Teacher Experience
On Monday of this week our first round of report cards went home and officially kicked-off Parent-Teacher Interview week. Being that we are a K-12 school, our K-7 teachers scheduled and organized their own meetings which ran throughout the week. In the 8-12 end, our school secretary scheduled our meetings for us which were primarily held on Thursday after school and Friday during school-hours (there were no classes on Friday). Thursday marked a full day of teaching from 8:50-3:30 and then straight into interviews beginning at 4. By the time I had straightened up my room and ran… Read More
An Open Letter To Parents
Dear Parents/Guardians, As I sit here, reflecting on my first parent-teacher experience, I want to share the following thoughts that have been infiltrating my mind more and more. First, I would like to thank you for sharing your children with us:– for allowing teachers to have the opportunity to be a part of their lives… – for allowing us to witness their personality and appreciate their quirks…– for allowing us to be there on the good, bad, and out-right crazy days…– for allowing us to be a part of their development (academically, emotionally, etc)…– for allowing us to be… Read More
Making Time…
This past month has been a weird one for me as it has been the first month in almost two years where I haven’t been blogging regularly. They say that if something is important to you, you will find a way to make time for it…. My viewpoint towards my blog has not changed. In fact, my time away from my blog made me realize how much it truly meant to me. So much has been happening in my teaching-life over the past few weeks and there has been several times where I have wanted to share it with… Read More