EdTech Newsletter
ParentSquare
We had our first ParentSquare Webinar on October 2nd. Thank you to everyone who attended. If you would like to watch the video of the webinar, you can access that here.
The next Webinar is scheduled for Wednesday, October 8th at 4:00pm through Zoom. Enroll on Vector and sign up here.
Training courses can also be accessed here.
Canvas
With the return of collaboration time, many teachers have heard of the great assignments that peers are creating for our learners and would like to provide the assignment opportunities to their own students. How do we share these assignments within Canvas? Check out this step-by-step procedure created by Canvas on how to share assignments with one another AND how to find that assignment once it is shared.
eKadence
eKadence is an LMS that is being piloted in Vista Unified right now. If you are interested, you should already have access.
Go to Classlink
Find the eKadence tile and click on it.
Double check that your Dashboard gives you access to only your courses
Click on each course and ensure that you have access to your correct set of rostered students
You can even sync eKadence with Aeries and connect gradebooks
You can also perform a sync with Canvas to upload your courses from Canvas into eKadence if you are interested in piloting eKadence for the semester
For more information contact Craig Gastauer (secondary) or Taresa McSpadden (elementary) to get started.
eKadence also has Skrappy, an AI bot, that may help students with their learning process. Here’s a Hechinger Report article covering a Harvard Physics class that found AI bots, similar to Skrappy, may have positive impacts on student learning. It might be interesting to have learners try out Skrappy to determine if our VUSD students benefit from interactions with this AI bot.
*For full transparency, no decision has been made at this time to keep Canvas or switch to eKadence in the foreseeable future. The point of the pilot is to determine whether Canvas is meeting teacher and student need or if another LMS might be more beneficial to student learning. By piloting eKadence, VUSD will have more information on both LMS products to make an informed decision for 2025-26 and beyond.
Intellispark (Secondary Only)
We are in the midst of the first Intellispark Survey Window. As students access the surveys and answer the prompts, you, the teacher, can see the survey responses and use this information to better understand potential barriers to student learning as well as understand student strengths and areas in need of growth. To learn more about how to access and use student Intellispark data, check out this FAQ Document and this video on how to access students who have low belonging and/or well-being scores. You’ll find additional links to resources that may be able to support your efforts to better meet the needs of your learners.
And please remember for our English Language Learners whose primary language is Spanish, there is a way for students to take the Intellispark Surveys in Spanish. Share these steps with your EL students.
Finally, for those of you looking to see which students have NOT YET completed their Intellispark Surveys, check out this quick video so you can have one-on-one conversations with those students who may need a reminder to take all three surveys before the survey window closes.
Renaissance Place
FinalSite - Webmasters
We have finished our on demand training sessions and all videos can be found on this document. If you have any website questions or need help setting something up, please put in an IT Service Request and under Issue Type select Website. If you need more support, please add that to the IT Service Request and we can schedule a time to come and support you in person or through a Zoom meeting. If you are a site webmaster and not sure what your job tasks are, please work with your site admin to discuss what is expected of you in regards to edits and updates.
The front homepage of websites should be clean and organized. While we understand you want the most important information front and center, we can make some adjustments to keep that information organized and clean. One way to do this is create a “post” element in your news section and update any flyers as posts. If you want your S’More newsletters to be on the front page, please embed those in the News section as well so parents have full access. When embedding a S’More, be sure you don’t just add the embed element, this doesn't allow parents to access the entire webpage from their phones. They get stuck on just the newsletter.
All webmasters have access to the “training” portion on the FinalSite admin login. There are short clips that are extremely helpful, check it out! As a reminder, your login is single sign-on, the password is the same as your email.
Thrively
Every Child Deserves to Thrive! VUSD is proud to announce we will have access to Thrively for TK-12th grade students. This program will be accessible through ClassLink. Discover students' unique strengths, interests, and aspirations to build the skills they need for success in the classroom and beyond. We are in the process of generating grade level plans, more information coming soon.
PhD Science - Teacher Videos
Did you know PhD Science has teacher videos that show you what you’re going to teach and what students will learn for each module? Open up your Great Minds App, scroll down to the bottom and select “Video Library”. There are Getting Started Videos and Videos for each module for what you’re teaching and how you prepare.
Substitute (and Staff) Supports
Here is a doc for elementary substitute teachers. It explains a few bullet points for them and provides them with logins for Elementary Curriculum: Benchmark, PhD Science and Eureka Math.
Check Vector for more Synchronous and Asynchronous Training Options
If you don't have a Vector Solutions account, please contact amyrankin@vistausd.org
Vector Solutions. District ID: Vistausd
👉 EdTech Yearly Training Calendar 👈
Adobe Trainings - Flier 👉 Adobe Express TLC Resource Directory
P-3 Training Flier - Workshops are open to all Preschool - Grade 5 Teachers and Instructional Assistants. Timesheets are provided for VUSD employees.
Adobe Express TLC Resource Doc - All past trainings are recorded and added to this doc.
Adobe: AI Part 2: 10/16 - Zoom 4:00-5:00 pm
Adobe: Presentations: 10/30 - Zoom 4:00-5:00 pm
Canva TLC Resource Doc - all past trainings are recorded and added to this doc.
Canva: Session 1: 10/24 - What’s new with Canva! - Zoom 4:00-5:00 pm
Canva: Session 2: 11/6 - Ways to capture student learning - Zoom 4:00-5:00 pm
ParentSquare
Wednesday, October 8th, 4:00-5:00 Zoom - Enroll in Vector
Outside VUSD Training Opportunities:
ADOBE - August Newsletter
A full ACE (Adobe Creative Educator) Level 1 & Level 2 Certification Opportunity [Register Here]
Meetings from 4:15-5:45pm once a month on Wednesdays throughout the fall semester (9/18, 10/9, 11/6, and 12/4).
One-off Adobe Express sessions [Register Here]
10/8, 4:15-5:45pm: Creative Projects in Social Studies with Adobe Express
10/15 4:15-5:45pm: Creative Projects in Math with Adobe Express
10/22, 4:15-5:45pm: Creative Projects in Science with Adobe Express
SDCOE EdTech Calendar of Events
Saturday, October 5th 9am-12 (in person) - ESports Coaching Clinic (October 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th)
Wednesday, October 16th 4:00-5:00pm (Virtual) - Empowering Inclusive Learning: Leveraging EdTech to Meet UDL 3.0 Guidelines
Thursday, October 17th 4:00-5:00pm (Virtual) - Tech-Driven Health Innovations: BL for Science and Math Classrooms
Tuesday, October 22nd 4:00-5:00pm (Virtual) - Curious About Quantum Computing and AI in EDU
Thursday, October 24th 4:00-5:00pm (Virtual) - EdTech for LIttles: Robotics, Coding and Computational Thinking
Wednesday, October 30th 4:00-5:00pm (Virtual) - AI to Go: Ready-Made Slides for Small Group Exploration
StudentSquare
Student Invite Emails were sent on 09/05/2024 to all Secondary Schools (6-12)
StudentSquare is an easy to use and secure communication tool for students and staff.
What you can do with StudentSquare:
● Receive messages from school by email, text or mobile app.
● Send messages to your teachers and staff at school.
● Stay in the loop regarding late start days, extracurricular activities,
and class projects.
● Subscribe to calendars, RSVP to events, complete forms, use sign-up
sheets and participate in groups.
Learn to use StudentSquare
Introduction to StudentSquare English
ParentSquare
There are a variety of parent and staff resources to ensure an effective launch at each school.
ParentSquare Resumen - Espanol
Here is a video and documentation on Creating a Group.
Staff members received an account activation email for their ParentSquare account during the last week of school.
If Ed Specialists and Counselors need access, please contact your administrator.
Training courses that can be accessed here.
MAP and i-Ready Assessments
Middle schools and some elementary schools are using iReady assessments, while other elementary schools are using MAP assessment. Please see the list of MAP and iReady schools below.
Teachers and students access iReady on ClassLink, and administrators use login.i-ready.com. Teachers and students access MAP on ClassLink, and administrators use teach.mapnwea.org.
The assessment windows are available on the Elementary Assessment Calendar and the Secondary Assessment Calendar. Staff may record support needs on the MAP and iReady Troubleshooting Document.
MAP schools: Bobier, Casita, Foothill Oak, Grapevine, Hannalei, Monte Vista, THE Leadership Academy, VAPA.
iReady schools: Alamosa Park, Breeze Hill, Empresa, Lake, Maryland, Mission Meadows, Madison MS, Roosevelt MS, VIDA, Vista Magnet MS
i-Ready Resources: i-Ready How to Teacher Video, i-Ready How to Administrator, i-Ready Central, Find a Book based on Lexile, AR Level vs Lexile
MAP Resources: Teacher Toolkit, Resource Center
Adobe Express
All Vista Unified staff and students have access to Adobe Express for Education. Adobe Express enables students in all grade levels and subject areas to quickly create unique graphics, design custom web pages, record and edit video presentations, and more.
Students can even make animations using the animate-from-audio tool.
Go to: express.adobe.com/a/vistausd.org
To get started, log in and check out a few templates!
Google Storage
Google changed its policy of offering unlimited storage to a limited amount of 100TB storage shared as a pool across the organization. To maintain compliance with our Google contract, on April 8, 2024 we = implemented a 100GB storage limit per account. Google automatically applied a 100GB storage limit for shared drives during the 2022-2023 school year.
The files included in the count include, but are not limited to, Google Drive, Gmail, and Google Photo files.
In order to prepare, we need you to review your current storage usage and delete any unnecessary files in Drive, Gmail, and Photos. ➡️ Click here ⬅️ to follow the steps you need to take.
ClassLink
You can access ClassLink on the website or through the VUSD folder on your bookmarks bar.
(For Teachers)
Quick Start Guide: A student must login one time in order for QuickCards to generate if they are new to the district.
Changing student passwords and Quick Cards
How to add an app in ClassLink
If you have any questions, please contact the IT Department Monday - Friday from 8:00am - 3:30pm at servicedesk@vistausd.org or 760-726-2170 extension 92500.
IT Service Request/Service Desk
The IT service request can help with technology set up (printers, monitors, etc) and account support. Go to your Class Link and select IT Service Request if you need support.
If you are locked out of your district account/can't remember your password, contact IT-Service Desk. You can call ext 92500 from any district phone or email them servicedesk@vistausd.org.
Contact Us!
TOSAs
Taresa McSpadden (Elementary) ext 92117
Craig Gastauer (Secondary) ext 92116
Contact: ZenDesk Service Request
Visit our website: https://www.vistausd.org/departments/businessservices/information-technology/educational-technology
Email: edtech@vistausd.org