Tech & Media Newsletter

In 1926, Dr. Carter G. Woodson began a weeklong celebration that has since grown into an entire month dedicated to remembering the achievements and contributions of Black Americans. He created tools that teachers can use in school to teach Black history during the month long celebration. Below is a virtual calendar that you can use as you celebrate Black History.

Black History Activities for Everyday of the Month

Many of you have received emails this month from an email group titled "IT" and used the words "urgent" and "security violation." That email asked you to change your password. Last month you may have received one from an unknown sender "mailadmin@mailsystem.services" notifying you of undeliverable mail. These are part of our ongoing training program to help us all become better at identifying phishing attempts and improving our security practices.

If you click or respond to any of these emails, you will receive a pop-up suggesting steps you can take to better protect yourself and your information.

The "IT" one may have looked legitimate but be careful with any email from a sender you have never received email from using words to try and scare you...such as "urgent" and "security violation". These want the recipients to feel pressured to take immediate action. However, if you look a little closer and check our group email lists, you will see we do not have one titled "IT."

The phishing email coming from "mailadmin@mailsystem.services" may have been easier to spot since that was not coming from within our domain: lexcs.org

When in doubt, take a screenshot and submit a tech ticket with the screenshot attached. Never reply nor click any links unless you are confident the email is legitimate and from a trusted sender.

Thank you for helping us improve the security of your data and information!

Everyone is born full of creativity, and as educators, we can help students unleash theirs. As students develop their creativity, they also become better problem solvers & communicators and learn how to leave their mark in the world.

To further develop your students' creativity and strengthen their problem solving skills, try using a different activity each month from Apple's Everyone Can Create Book. To help you get started, we have curated some great lessons for you below. To view additional lessons, you can download the book relevant to the grade level you teach. It is already in the Teacher App on your iPad: Teacher App > My Resources > Documents.

This month we focus on drawing as a fundamental form of creation and communication. People draw to express themselves. A drawing can tell a story, inspire, and describe without using a single word. Drawing can be used in any grade at any age and in any content area to deepen the learning experience, so take a look at the lessons below and give one a try.

Things

Why it matters: To draw something - anything - you have to look at it closely. When students learn how to see the lines and shapes in objects around them they can turn those lines and shapes into simple sketches.

Tips for drawing things

• It's easier to draw objects around you if you can recognize shapes in them.
• Use Markup to outline the shapes in an object.

Integration Ideas

• ELA: Draw a letter of the alphabet, then turn it into a picture of something that starts with that letter.
• MATH: Explore shapes around you with a geometry scavenger hunt. Search for specific lines and shapes from a list and take photos of them. In Photos, use Markup to trace and label each line or shape.
• SOCIAL STUDIES: Look for a road sign, such as a stop sign or a crosswalk sign, in your neighborhood. Draw the sign and the symbols on it using shapes.
• SCIENCE: Gather leaves or other simple objects from nature and sketch them, focusing on sizes, shapes, textures, and colors. Use text to label what you sketch.
• ENCORE: Using shapes, draw a robot designed tot do a specific job. What job does the robot have? How does it know when it needs to be done, and how will it do the job?

Landscapes

Why it matters: Landscape drawing helps students develop observational skills and introduces them to concepts of depth, perspective, and point of view.

Tips for drawing landscapes

• Look at the landscape from different points of view and frame your landscape.
• Add depth using perspective.
• Add details and color.

Integration Ideas

• ELA: Illustrate a landscape scene of a physical environment described in a book. Add detail and color for a realistic appearance. Add depth through perspective and point of view. Add descriptive captions describing elements in the landscape.
• MATH: Demonstrate understanding of scale by drawing a landscape scene. Determine actual distance between points of interest, then calculate the scale for your drawing against the real object. Include a measurement key at the bottom of the drawing.
• HISTORY: Create a before-and-after landscape scene depicting changes over time. Choose a historical place and create a landscape as it might appear 100 years in the future. Add detail and color for a more realistic appearance.
• SCIENCE: Sketch a landscape scene that demonstrates seasonal weather conditions and the impact on the area. Use observational skills and point of view, add detail and color for a more realistic scene.
• ELECTIVES: Work with students to apply point of view to landscape drawings.

Sketchnoting

Why it matters: Doodle drawing can help students think about information more visually and conceptually, enabling them to remember core concepts.

Tips for creating a sketchnote

• Use simple sketches or doodles.
• Emphasize meaningful ideas through bold or varying fonts, bright colors, frames, ect.
• Add titles, connectors, numbers, banners

Integration Ideas

• ELA: Build reading comprehension by sketchnoting while reading a piece of literature by visually capturing the big ideas, story elements, characters, ect.
• MATH: Visualize and remember common math concepts. Sketchnote a collection of meaningful symbols and doodles that you can use as a reference.
• HISTORY: Capture the impact of a historical event by sketchnoting a timeline to show what happened leading up to the event and the impact after.
• SCIENCE: Document a process through a series of sketches combining key words and arrows to demonstrate how the process changed over time.
• ELECTIVE: Create a bank of symbols, boxes, arrows, etc. so students have a collection of drawings to pull from when sketchnoting.

Black History Week was designated during the second week of February to coincide with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. President Lincoln was the 16th U.S. President and paved the way for the abolition of slavery with his Emancipation Proclamation. Douglass was an escaped slave turned activist and author and a prominent leader who worked to end slavery.

Website: www.lexcs.org
Location: 1010 Fair Street, Lexington, NC, USA
Phone: (336) 242-1527
Twitter: @LCSJackets