PFISD Elementary Tech Tips October

October 2024

Learning.com Digital Citizenship Contest: Oct. 14--Nov. 22

Students will use Learning.com's Tech Quest (lessons at the beginning). Once completed, students will appear as compliant on school & district e-rate reports.

Students login through ClassLink to get started!
Educators please refer to the CIPA for E-Rate Guide and the flyer below for more information:.

Jingle and Mingle is BACK!!

SAVE THE DATE for Thursday, December 4th 3:30-5:30

District Technology News

Epic will be blocked

We know that many teachers and students have been using the Epic app for independent reading for several years. Unfortunately, Epic is not in compliance with HB 900 which states that librarians must do the collection development for all library materials. Librarians cannot curate the books in Epic, nor can we be assured which books our students have access to. So, unfortunately, Epic will no longer be available as of October 1.

There is good news though! Teachers and students can access thousands of ebooks, audiobooks, and read-along books through Sora! Our PFISD librarians carefully curate the books available in this platform, and the access to the books is controlled for elementary, middle, and high school levels. So we can be assured that elementary students are only seeing elementary titles, and middle school students are only seeing middle school and below titles. Sora is available in Classlink in the campus library folder. It can also be accessed on any home device through the Sora app or through soraapp.com.

Beanstalk-October Challenge

Each month your students will be automatically enrolled in a new Beanstack challenge. The challenge for October is called Hallow-Read! When your students log their minutes read Beanstack they will be working to earn the Hallow-Read badges! Students and teachers can participate. Happy Hallow-Reading!

Skyward & Report Card News

This document will guide teachers through Dashboard and view setup
Bookmark the Skyward Teacher Training Website and check it often for updates!
Skyward Teacher Resource Booklet
1st 9 Weeks ends on October 18. Grades must be entered and complete by 4:30 October 23. Report Cards will go home on October 25.

Technology Integration Templates & Cool Tools

Halloween Themed Sight Word Mat

Engage your students with this fun digital sight word mat!

Mat Template (Google Slides)

Seesaw Template

Measuring Bats, Spiders, & Ghosts

Students can practice their measuring skills using this fun Halloween-themed math activity!

Activity Link

Halloween Roll A Story

Have fun creating your own Halloween story using this template! You will roll the dice to select a main character, setting, and problem. Then you will write or tell a story about the things you selected.

Google Slides English Template

Seesaw English Template

Google Slides Spanish Template

Seesaw Spanish Template

October Choice Board

Choice Board Link

Halloween Idioms

Check out this Halloween Idioms activity!

Halloween Idioms Trivia

Story Graphic Organizers

Hocus Pocus, What's the Story's Focus?

Spooktakular Book Review

October Reading Menus

Dive into reading with these techie reading menus for the month of October! This month we celebrate Walk to School Day, Techies Day, World Teacher Day, Indigenous People's Day, Halloween, and Digital Citizenship Month.

English Menu

English Seesaw Menu

Bilingual Menu

Bilingual Seesaw Menu

Art Land Halloween

Learn to draw some spooky characters during the month of October!

Link

Halloween Rebus Story

Students can create spooky Rebus stories using this Google Doc.

Template

Shout Out to Ms. Kelley's 1st grade class at Highland Park Elem. They learned to use Scratch Jr. to show setting and main characters of a story!! Not only are they covering their ELA TEKS but they are also using some of the new Technology Applications TEKS! 🎉

Shout out to DES!

Mrs. Self in kinder had the kids in stations and they logged into Amira on the Chromebooks and were using Seesaw on their iPads.
Mrs. Harris had students in ELA stations. The students used HMH online to respond to the text and logged into Amira!

Shout out to Mrs. Sloan at RES!

She was using Chromebooks 2:1, students worked in teams to do a matching activity in Nearpod!

Techknowledgements - See a staff member trying something new with technology? Fill out a TechKnowledgement form to give them a "shout out" for all they're doing with technology. They will receive a copy of the email and praise on the district's Twitter page. Get started here: https://goo.gl/TZk2ot

Help Desk-40212

Have a tech emergency? Need immediate assistance with a tech-related issue? Contact the Help Desk! Our friendly operators will assist in resolving your issue. Call (512) 594-0212

Submit a Help Request if you are having device issues, technology isn't working as expected, or are in need of technology training.

Classroom Tech Help

The Hub

Formerly known as "THE IGUIDE" the PfISD Integrations Hub has gotten a new name and a face lift! Check it out here!

Integrated Tech for Checkout

The Integration Services team has Bee-Bot kits, Osmo kits and Ozobot kits that are available for checkout. To learn more about these amazing devices, simply follow the link below!

Reservation Link

Beebots and Osmo:

https://youtu.be/XUTgELrykcY

AR/VR for Checkout

RobotLabs is an immersive education app that allows teachers and students to explore the world through over 800 virtual-reality (VR) and 100 augmented-reality (AR) tours. You can swim with sharks, visit outer space, turn the classroom into a museum, and more without leaving the classroom.

Our department has two kits available for checkout. To learn more click here.

Chance to win a sonic drink!

Did you try one of our October Integrations or Cool Tools?

Send us a picture of it in action for a chance to win a Sonic drink, delivered to you! 😊

Winners for September!

Shout out to our winners for September:

Sandy Gonzalez from PLES-She used Canva to create banners for her Canvas course!

Katherine Holding from HLES-She used the resources provided to create her student technology login cards!

Sarah Rabe from DRES- She used tiles on Skyward!
Melissa Lehman from RES- She did a Scratch lesson with her students during her RLA block to practice vocabulary and grammar.

Email us your Sonic drink! 😎

Elementary Instructional Technology Specialists, M.Ed.

What can we do for you?

Collaborate with campus admin. & facilitate campus PD on technology integration
Facilitate team or individual technology PD
Teach/Co-Teach classroom lessons
Assist with lesson planning
Model/Teach how to use software/technology

Contact Info:

Rita Aleman - (512) 594-9222
Angela Matthews- (512) 594-9225
Hoda Mohamed - (512) 594-0224

Website: https://sites.google.com/pfisd.net/thehub/
Phone: (512) 594-0212
Instagram: @PFISDIT