TechBytes

February 20, 2024

Upcoming Dates

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February 13: Elementary Grading Window now open
March 4: Elementary Grades due
March 15: 3189 Loaner Chromebooks will be deactivated
May 31: Deadline to input Physical Fitness Scores

Updates

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Aeries/Report Cards

As a reminder, Aeries may have to perform maintenance during non-school hours, which may cause the application to be unavailable. If you encounter an error outside of school hours, please be patient and try again later, as their maintenance periods are generally short-term.

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Elementary Chromebook Reconciliation

The Elementary Chromebook reconciliation is now complete and we are in the process of deactivating missing devices. Your school site library coordinator and/or Destiny contact will be notified when the deactivation takes place, which will be either before or after school to avoid complications with testing. If a student or teacher turns in a locked Chromebook, please forward that device to your library coordinator or Destiny contact. They will submit a ticket to get the device enabled and retain the device for student use only.

For clarification, staff members should be using their assigned PUSD device. This includes subs. If a staff member is in need of a device, please forward them to gopusd.com/newdevice to submit a ticket to request a device.

Secondary Student Chromebooks

EdTech is working with secondary librarians to ensure all students receive an updated (5400/3100/3110) device for testing. Devices not assigned in Destiny or being used by staff members will be deactivated. If a student turns in a locked Chromebook, please forward that device to your librarian to get unlocked.

Our goal is to ensure all students receive a Chromebook compatible for state testing prior to Spring Break. Your attention to this matter is greatly appreciated.

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Physical Fitness Testing

The Physical Fitness test (PFT) needs to be administered to all 5th, 7th and 9th grade students between Feb 1st and May 31st, 2024. The results for the test will be recorded into Aeries.

For more information, including training videos, please visit the link below.

2023-24 PFT Information

Beware of Phishing Scams

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Although we do our best to reduce access and opportunities for students to be targeted in Phishing Scams, we encourage teachers to teach lessons on Phishing to help students be on the lookout for future schemes. Please see the links below for lessons and reach out to edtech@pusd.us if you need additional resources.

EdTech Tools: Formative Assessment

From Common Sense Education

Formative assessments —periodic check-ins that lead to modifying instruction—are a great way to measure true understanding of specific topics. Plus, there are lots of ways that formative assessments can be really fun!

Luckily, you can create formative assessments without much extra effort. There are useful features built into tools that you might already be using. And there are even classroom tools that are backed by AI to try out.

Here are some classroom tools that can help you create formative assessments quickly:

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This teaching assistant tool has a bunch of handy mini generators within it. Here are some cool things you can do:

Build multiple-choice quizzes geared to specific topics or standards, and customize the level of difficulty and question types.
Draw up unique reflection prompts.
Create text-dependent questions to assess students' understanding of a passage.
Generate math word problems.
Use the Real World Connections Tool to make relevant, context-based questions.

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This interactive quiz tool is beginning to integrate AI, and allows teachers to assess kids using a multimedia approach:

Create and adapt quizzes, slides, lessons, and more.
Upload existing materials and personalize them, or pick from premade content.
Use YouTube video links to generate questions to test comprehension.

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This popular tool injects some competition with simple quizzes:

Create a question set and host customized games for students.
Promote collaboration—and a little friendly competition—while checking in on students' development.

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This real-time assessment tool empowers teachers to create assignments that let students demonstrate learning in a variety of ways:

Type, record audio and video, enter numbers, draw, upload an image, and more—or explore a library of user-generated content.
Give students immediate feedback to guide their learning process.
Encourage iteration—and learning from failure—by allowing students to retry and resubmit responses.
Save yourself time with an integrated AI component that can help you generate content.