AACPS OIT Byte

By Samantha Wilkinson, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist   Tomorrow  is the final Unity Day of the 22-23 school year. One of the tenets of the professional development we all receive on these 2-hour early dismissal days is to create a more inclusive environment for students. Technology is one way to help provide a more inclusive environment for all students but especially our English Language Learners (ELL), who are simultaneously learning academic concepts, while also acquiring language skills. This is a big demand! Our many instructional tech applications can assist ELL students in completing these processes. Here’s how…   1.    Technology Allows for Visual and Audio Assistance: The Read & Write  extension as well as Microsoft's Immersive Reader   encompass the ultimate accessibility features. Between the two, every application and web page can be read aloud, allows for word prediction, speech to text, word dictionary and pict...

 By: Koralina McKenna, 7th grade Science Teacher  A long time ago, I dreamed of a day when my students' quarter long project based learning assignment would be presented and collected in a video presentation. It took 5 years to make this dream a reality and I'm going to tell you how it went and what I'll do differently next time.  5 years ago, I had the project figured out but I didn't have reliable access to technology for my classes to create video projects 4 years ago, I continued to perfect the project and had technology access but lost access to Windows Movie Maker, the video editing software I planned to use 3 years ago, I had everything I needed, I taught myself WeVideo and was ready to roll out this video option to my students but then the pandemic hit just before I planned to start  2 years ago, I decided to heavily modify the project to be more suitable to hybrid instruction and did not use the video option  Present day, IT FINALLY HAPPENED  This ...

 by Kerri Lambert, teacher specialist, OIT Technology. Love it or hate it, one thing that everyone can agree on about it is that it’s always changing and evolving! That’s why, twice a year, OIT hosts a day of professional learning for our eCoaches to learn about the tools, applications, and instructional tech strategies that we have available in AACPS. We use a train the trainer approach; eCoaches (with discussion and input from their administrators) choose from a variety of sessions conducted by vendors, fellow eCoaches, and OIT specialists to attend on eCoach day. After attending, eCoaches disseminate the information to staff in a myriad of ways including professional development, office hours, newsletters, videos, even flyers in the bathrooms! With the theme “Ticket to Adventure”, our second eCoach day of the 2022-2023 school year took flight on March 1st. Since the day was held virtually, we were also able to invite Brightspace Campus Champions, media specialists, and central ...

  By Samantha Wilkinson, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist We already know that DE has great video material but there really are amazing teacher resources in there as well. Have you seen the new Explore button on the teacher dashboard? Have you clicked it? According to Discovery, this button lets teachers “dive into DE digital learning resources with enhanced search filters and curated content collections that are timely, relevant, and personalized.” At the top, 3 buttons will appear: Ready to Use Activities, Quiz, and Best of Interactives. Ready-to-use activities are just that. Ready made boards, slideshows, lessons, and activities for every academic subject. It is searchable by grade level K-12, and features seasonal activities. Some of my favorite activities include the “Fix- It” boards that allow students to practice writing conventions throughout a month with a short video or image each day to engage learners. I also love the social-emotional studio boards which pre...

 By: Samantha Wilkinson, OIT Elementary Teacher Specialist Tomorrow is March. You know the saying... In like a lion, out like a lamb! Of course for us it has been more like experiencing every season in a week. Either way, there is a lot going on in March, especially in Discovery Education.  To start, Read Across America Day is on Thursday, March 2nd. Did you know DE has a channel that is a collection of storybooks brought to life through animation and voice? In partnership with Vooks, this collection of stories is great way to have students hear someone else read a favorite book, or to access text that might not be available in your school library. See the collection here .  Consider choosing " Sweet People Are Everywhere ", written by Alice Walker. After students listen to the story, they can use the studio board questions for discussion. Or perhaps share this video , which features the author reading the book and being interviewed along with the illustrator, Quim Torres...

  By Tracey Brown, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist The Project At the start of this school year, like many central office teachers, I was asked to teach a class. I taught a one semester 6th grade science elective called Mission to the Stars. Throughout the course students learn about space exploration, what we have done, what we have planned for future missions, what we have learned and what we hope to learn. The overarching question is, “why are we exploring space?” And the answer (for the purposes of this course) is to find habitable planets, Earth-like planets that we could someday travel to and possibly colonize. The course culminates with a project in which the students are supposed to design and build a colony on a habitable planet that we have yet to discover. Their project must include 9 elements from throughout our course that colonist would need to survive on another planet: A research center A medical facility A recreation center Dormitories Bathrooms/showers...

By: Samantha Wilkinson, OIT Teacher Specialist Let's celebrate Black History Month by using our instructional technology applications to highlight the lives, contributions, and impacts of Black Americans, Black culture and Black history.  Wixie: Give students a choice in how they show their learning and new information from Black History Month lessons and research. Have students create a historical newsletter, trading card on a historical figure, and more . Consider using the Black History Month Choice board : Discovery Education:  Black History Month Channel “The resources in this channel can be utilized to offer new perspectives, drive a deeper cultural understanding, and help students see themselves in history.” K-2 Beautiful Shades of Brown  Growing up in the late 19th century, Laura Wheeler Waring didn't see any artists who looked like her. She didn't see any paintings of people who looked like her, either. This DE board has students hear a reading of the book, an...