AACPS OIT Byte

Congratulations on a great school year!!! Our school staff and teachers are very deserving a nice, relaxing break to recharge and refresh.  We are wishing you all warm days, cool pools, good books, exciting vacations, peace and quiet when you want it, and time with family and friends this summer.  Should you choose to pursue an area of interest or need to get some APC credit, we highly recommend some of our Self-Paced Summer Courses. Just search the title in Unify Talent, or even just search "Self-Paced". These can be worked on anytime and range in length from 2 hours- 6.5 hours. You work on these on your own pace- think rainy day, or when you run through all of your Netflix shows. You can even do it together with a friend, poolside! New to our self paced courses:     Minecraft in Education 6 hours to complete/ 0.4 APC renewal credits      Finding & Customizing Digital Materials 6.5 hours to complete/ 0.4 APC renewal credits     WeVideo ...

Happy Summer! Hard to believe June is here already. This time of year is always bittersweet. It's a time to celebrate accomplishments and reflect on the year. As you gear up to say goodbye to your current students, consider reminding them and their families about how to stay fresh for next year.  Summer is a great time to build tech skills as well as review content. It also is a time for children to be creative and explore topics of interest. Using the application on Classlink is a safe way to have students research, create, and have fun! One application that students love for safe video content, research, and fun interactives is Discovery Education (DE). Kids can research their favorite animal or vacation spot, search the Vooks Channel to bring storytelling to life through animation and voice narration, or even find daily exercises to do. Parents can check out this guide for how to use DE at home. Running out of paint and crayons? Have your child create digitally this summer. Exp...

 By: Samantha Wilkinson Images by Eric Curts, https://www.controlaltachieve.com/ I'm sure by now most of us know that chromebooks have a webcam option. When accessed by applications, the webcam allows students to record video or take pictures. They can also record their voice. We love this for digital projects in WeVideo, Wixie, Google Workspace, and more. But did you know that students also have the ability to record their screen, as well as annotate on the screen itself while recording?  Yes, it's true! I'm talking about a tool that is found on Chromebooks from the ChromeOS launcher button in the bottom left of student devices. *Screencast dramatically enters the scene.* Once launched, your dashboard will offer some "Getting Started" videos as well as list any previous screencasts the user has recorded. This is where you will find the NEW SCREENCAST button as well, to start a new recording.  Students have the ability to record full screen, partial screen, or a w...

  By: Samantha Wilkinson, OIT Teacher Specialist One of my favorite end-of-year activities was to have my students become the teachers. On the smartboard I would introduce this by simply projecting the words "YOUR TURN". They'd get excited to share their expertise and have the attention of the whole class, and I'd get excited to see them in a different role. The end of the year is the perfect time for this as we have established classroom community and learned a lot that they can pull from when picking a topic to teach the class. Not to mention, we know that teaching others is the ultimate level of understanding. And let's be honest, at this point in the year, it really should be their turn to show what they know! This project idea can be as basic or as complex as you choose but I'd usually give them a day or two to brainstorm topics they wanted to share about to the class. Topics that students chose ranged from tips on how to solve multiplication problems, Wo...

  By Koralina McKenna, OIT Teacher Specialist and Hybrid Science Teacher I don’t know if it’s fair to say the year is winding down because my students seem to be winding up! Nevertheless, summer is close enough to start the countdown and with that countdown comes my annual reflection. I like to take a little time at the end of each year to look back at how I tweaked my lessons and activities; did they go well? Should I have left them alone? What am I definitely doing again next year? One of my major changes this year was using Wixie. I had heard of Wixie before but had written it off as something elementary school teachers used [and loved] but it wasn’t for me, a middle school teacher. However, when I learned that it was available to all secondary students I couldn’t help but try it out.  I work (and have always worked) at an AVID school and since year one, one-pagers have been a favorite assessment option. I love the creativity of them, how students can’t Google or chatGPT al...