Newsela Pro Details

Newsela

I talked to a Newsela rep this morning on 12/4/17.

The annual license cost for Newsela would be 

$4000 for the high school 

$4000 for the middle school.  

$2500 for Davis

Since 2nd grade is a part of K-2 buildings, they would through them in for 'free'.

There is a 10% discount for multiple buildings.

A classroom teacher license is $750.

Online, self-paced professional development is available with the PRO version.

Newsela Pro ties in really well with district-managed Canvas classes and fairly well with Google Classroom classes.   It is an outstanding literacy-building tool that includes current events and news stories at customized reading levels.  Teachers may use it's features to customize engaging lessons without the distraction .  Here is a comparison of it's features.

I asked the HS English and Social Studies departments to visit about this service in their PLC meetings this morning and will work to get middle school feedback as well.  Buy-in will be important to get value out of this product.

Alternatives:

Flocabulary has many similarities and is half the cost.  There is a trial version that would be worth trying out to see if it fits the same learning objectives.  I just signed our District up for a 45 trial for any of our teachers to try and will pass on details to staff as soon I I get the details.

New York Times Learning - It does not differentiate as well as Newsela, but the free teacher account includes lesson planning materials.  Of course, we would probably have to get the newspaper delivered then.

_______________________________________

________________________________________________

Newsela Features:

1. 365-Day Access, Districtwide License (Unlimited Teachers per Student with Principal and District Binder)- $9,400:

• District binder access - districtwide data analysis

• Principal and Administrative binder access - schoolwide data analysis

• Ideal Learning Environment for every school

• Formative Assessment Drive package - regular feedback districtwide

• Onboarding and training package through Newsela Community team

• Teacher Binder access for all users-- assessment tools

• Writing tools for all users-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation

• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments

• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com

2. 365-Day Access, School-wide License (Unlimited Teachers per Student with Principal Binder)- $4,000 each for the middle school and high school, $2,500 for the 3-4 elementary school:

• Principal and Administrative binder access - schoolwide data analysis

• Ideal Learning Environment for the school

• Formative Assessment Drive package - regular feedback schoolwide

• Onboarding and training package through Newsela Community team

• Teacher Binder access for all users-- assessment tools

• Writing tools for all users-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation

• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments

• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com

3. 365-Day Access, Grade-wide License (Unlimited Teachers per Student)- $16 per student (every student in the grade):

• Unlimited teacher-student relationships across grade

• Ideal Learning Environment for the grade

• Formative Assessment Drive package - regular feedback gradewide

• Teacher Binder access for all users in licensed grade-- assessment tools

• Writing tools for all users in licensed grade-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation

• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments

• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com

4. 365-Day Access, Teacher License (Limited 1 Teacher per Student)- $750 (only up to 50 students of one teacher) :

• Limited one-to-one teacher-student relationships for licensed users

• Teacher Binder access for the user-- assessment tools

• Writing tools for the user-- Newsela Write and interactive annotation

• PRO Assign instructions on all assignments

• Click-to-chat support for all users at support.newsela.com

Presentation Gems with Keynote and Slides

There are some hidden gems with the go-to presentation software we sometimes use in the classroom.  I have included a couple big ones below.

Three commonly used presentation applications are Keynote, Google Slides, and Powerpoint.   However, there are many others available.  Read about some of these other options at this link.

Keynote:

This is available on every student and teacher iPad and computer in the district.

When presenting from an iPad, markup tools are available to highlights parts of any slide.  Click here to read more about how to do this.  This works especially well when you are presenting through an Apple TV.

	Keynote Live - Have your Keynote presentation play on the students' devices instead of (or in addition to) the room projector.  Students will see on their screen what you see on your screen.  Click on Keynote Live and invite your viewers. (You will need to be logged into your iCloud account first)
	Keynote Remote -  Would you like to play a Keynote presentation from your computer, but do not want to be tethered to it during class?    You may use an iPad to remotely run a Keynote presentation.  You even have access to a 'laser pointer' tool and other markups. Click here to check out all the directions to get set up and use Keynote Remote.

If your presentations are already saved a Powerpoints, Keynote will open them.
If your presentations are saved as Google Slides, they may be downloaded as Powerpoints.

Here are the video directions to setting up and using Keynote Remote.
I added caption directions, but no audio.

Google Slides:

This is available when logged in to your school Google account.

Presenter View - Make your Google Slides interactive with your students with Presenter view.  This YouTube video will show you how. The presentation will show on your students' devices.  It may be interactive, too.  Pose quick questions on their computer for the class to respond to.  Select answers, as desired, to display on the classroom screen on the fly.  It's a great way to keep the conversation going.

Please let me know if you have any questions about using these or any other presentation tools in the classroom.

Autofill Passwords on iPad

You can quickly have Safari 'remember' passwords to websites you visit on your iPad (or iPhone).

This may be helpful for your use as well as your students.... especially those who do not type very well.


An example:

Iowa AEA Online has many useful resources that are available with a common username/password.  (Visit your building media center for the student usernames/passwords)

Once you have logged in, we can have Safari 'remember' the password.

	In this example, we can find useful media resources through the iowaaeaonline.org website.  Click on the desired resource.  In this case, I am going to log into BookFLIX The website can be pushed out to your student iPads using Apple Classroom
	On the first visit to this site, go ahead and type in the correct username/password. Do not log in just yet.
	Again, do not select Log In or hit Return just yet. At the top of your keyboard, tap where is says Passwords.
	Tap Save this Password.
	On your next visit to this same site, the username should show up.  Just tap on it to navigate to the website. In this case, I have logged in with two different accounts.  This will allow me to quickly log into either one without needing to remember the password.

You can manage/edit your website passwords from the Settings here:

Vex Kit Assembly Instruction for PLTW Launch

Regarding PLTW Launch lessons for Third and Fourth Grade:

The Autodesk Publisher Viewer App does not work with the newest iOS update on the iPads.  There are lessons that require assembly with the VEX kits as students work through the lessons.


Here is an alternative location for directions that students already have available through their PLTW Inkling accounts:

	Once students have logged into their Inkling accounts, there will be an option to select Autodesk Inventor Publisher Resources
	Each of the assembly videos may be played full-screen. This is not quite as nice as using the Publisher Mobile Viewer app, but should provide enough details to put the constructions together.
	Here is a short screen video of the directions above.

Notes App

In the coming days, you will be seeing updates pushed out on students iPads to the newest operating system, iOS 11.  It includes several very nice changes.  Click on this link to read about the new features.

You may update your teacher iPad to iOS 11 from Settings -> General -> Software Update This may take an hour or so if you have a good Internet connection. It is well worth the time to have this installed. Self-Service will work fine, but there may be some applications that will need to be re-installed or updated.  We have had few issues with the iPads that have been tested so far.  The new features far outweigh the adjustments that need to be made.

Notes

An integrated application that has features your students can use right away is Notes. When your iPads are updated to iOS 11, the Chalkboard App will no longer work.  That's OK though.  Notes will do everything Chalkboard does, plus much more.

Some features in Notes include: -sync Notes between your iPad and laptop using an iCloud account (for teacher) -add collaborators (similar to Google Drive) -AirDrop notes between Apple devices -create a blank sketch -create a sketch that is over a picture -Scan a document... and even sign it. -add a table Play the video to the right to see a demonstration of a some of these features.

Notes is also very useful on your laptop.  The sketch tool is not as nice as the iPad version, but is still possible to use.  See how to access this tool in the screenshots below.

Alternatives to Notes:

Google Keep  is a comparable application that integrates well with the GSuite applications.  It is worth exploring, too.

Stickies is on your laptop (It has been around since 1994, as well as some of my post-it notes at home).  

Reminders is found on the laptop and ipad

What else do you use?

Adventures for Educators in Summer, 2018

Choose your adventure next summer with these options:

It seems like a long ways off, but you may want to consider these 3 opportunities.  Applications are now open for each.

Educators and Key Leaders Workshop

This workshop includes an all-expenses-paid trip to Quantico, Virginia for 5 days, sponsored by the US Marine Corps.  I have a sister-in-law who did this a few years ago and had an awesome time.   She is a middle school social studies teacher.

 Click here for more details.  See the screenshot below for where you can navigate to more even details on the website.

_____________

Space Camp

Click here for Honeywell Space Academy details 

for Math and Science Teachers

5 days in Huntsville, Alabama

____________

Iowa STEM Externships

Details may be found at this link

sponsored by the Governor's STEM Advisory Council

This is geared towards STEM educators in grades 7-12.

.....Earn $4800 and grad credit over this 6-week program.

I will to this list as I find out about more opportunities.

Parent Communications with LMS

Since all of our students in the District have either iPads or laptops, most of their classes should be using some type of learning management system, or LMS.

An LMS provides teachers a way to share assignments and digital resources
It also provide students a way to submit assignments digitally to demonstrate learning.
This should be a routine part of our students' learning experiences.


There are several Learning Management Systems available.  Those most commonly used in our District include:

        SeeSaw - this is primarily directed towards our K-2 students, but works at all levels
        Canvas
        Schoology
        Google Classroom
        Inkling - All of our K-4 students can use this for PLTW Launch

Apple Classroom is something completely different, but is often a mistaken part of this conversation.  More details will be coming soon about this amazing tool.
______________________________________________
- These LMS applications are all free to use and available on iPads or laptops.

- Students' Google accounts may be used to log in to Canvas, Schoology, or Classroom.

- Canvas, Schoology, and Google Classroom all tie in very well with Google Drive documents.

- All but Inkling have some type of parent communication component.  This is an easy way to communicate with parents about what is going on in class.

- Paid versions of Canvas and Schoology may be tied in with Infinite Classroom so that class lists and course grades are synchronized daily.  Assignments created with Google Classroom may be also quickly used as assignments with both of these applications.
______________________________________________

Parent Communications:

Communicating with parents is an important part of continuing learning beyond the classroom and provide an effective means to support children outside of class.

with Google Classroom:

To add parents to your class roster Sign in to Classroom with your Google Account. ... Click the class. At the top, click Students. Next to a student's name, click Invite Guardians. In the text field, enter a guardian's email address. ... Click Invite to send the invitation. Once this is set up, notifications will be sent to parents via email.	Parents may be added to your class list if you see this box to the left of your classs list.
When invited, here is the link parents will be taken to.  They will need to 'Accept' being on this list.  The following screen will allow then to set their preference of how often they would like to receive email summaries.

with Canvas and Schoology:

Teachers may invite parents to any class as 'observers' and have similar viewing access as the students.  In Canvas, you actually add 'People'.  The drop-down shown here will determine their role. Parents may log into a course in the same way that their students do.  They can 'see' the course, but, as expected, cannot submit anything.

with SeeSaw:

SeeSaw works well for younger students.  They did a great job making this application easy for teachers and students.  It works especially well with sketches and pictures taken with the camera. Students can use a QR code to quickly enroll in a teacher's course. Once students are added parents/families may be added to receive class notifications or have a chance to view their child's work.

Please let me know if you would like to learn more about creating parent connections through Learning Management Systems.

Life in 100 years

What will life be like in 100 years?

             ... a project for 3rd and 4th graders.

Every student has an iPad so every student should be able to do this in their own classroom.

The Setup:

Install AgingBooth and Pages on every iPad from Self Service. A note:  If Pages does not work on your student iPads, please delete and reinstall from Self Service.  It should work just fine then.

Create a picture of what you could look like in 100 years.

Open the application Aging Booth.  Tap on Camera to begin.
Save the Image to your Photos

Write down some thoughts about what you think life will be like in 100 years.

Download this Pages template and share with the class. It includes space for a picture and space for students predictions.
Tap on the + in the upper right corner. Navigate to your selfie in the Camera Roll to insert your picture.

Double tap below the picture to type your name. Double tap in the text box at the right side of the screen. After having a minute to think about it, include at least one prediction about life in 100 years.

Share the project with your teacher.

Tap the ... icon in the upper right corner. Tap on Send a Copy and AirDrop to the classroom teacher's computer. Teachers:  Be sure that your computer is set to receive files by AirDrop from your students.

Teachers:  Please drop these files into a Google Drive folder and share with Mr. Gruman to be shared out by the Davis Centennial Committee.  The Committee and Mr. Gruman can be available to help out your class with this little project, too.

Photo Gallery:

Plain Text

Plain text is about as exciting as dry toast, but can be necessary part of using the same text in multiple places.  It's like Mini-Wheats with no 'frosting'.  

Every word processor uses its own background coding that is used for formatting.  There are some programs that do not play well with each other with formatting, even simple items like Return, Bold, and italics.

Here are some ways to quickly clear out the text formatting that you may difficulty with when copying/pasting between different programs:

A little note first...  Beware that this will clear out any formatting, including web links.

Using TextEdit:

This is in your Applications folder.  It is a primitive word processor that come with every Mac.  

Begin by pasting your text into a new TextEdit document.

Go to Format -> Make Plain Text  to remove all formatting.

Using Gmail:

Paste the text into the body of a new email.  

Click on the 'A' in your text editing palette.  Select 'Remove Formatting'

Remember the days of Microsoft Works and Microsoft Word and how they never seemed to work well with each other even though they were created by the same company?  Those issues are much less common now.  

Formatting can also be removed from a Pages document doing this:

 or a Word document by doing this:

Web Clip - Creating iPad Shortcuts

For those frequently used websites on your iPad, a Web Clip may be created to have it act just like any other application.  You may want to try this with websites such as MobyMax.

This link will give you quick directions.

This short video will show you how to create a web clip on your iPad for any website:

Student Testing on iPads

The NWEA MAP and  FAST assessments are administered to our elementary students as a measure of academic progress.  They are given multiple times each school year.


MAP is an acronym for Measures of Academic Progress and is created by NWEA, the Northwest Evaluation Association.  Answers to some common questions about the MAP test may be found at this link.   A description of academic growth with the MAP assessment may be found at this link.


The Iowa TIER (Tools for Innovation and Educational Results) Assessments were recently purchased by the State of Iowa from TIES, in Minnesota.  The FAST screenings (Formative Assessment for System for Teachers) are used as a part of an RTI (Response to Intervention) or a MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) for our students.    These tests are provided at no cost to Iowa schools for students in grades K-6.

Both testing platforms recently made significant updates to be more compatible with tablet computers.  This included created free iPad Apps that students may use to take the tests.  In the past, they both had been geared towards use on desktop computers only.  There is still significant time put into creating student login accounts ahead of time by District personnel.

The NWEA Map testing application is now available on all elementary student and teacher iPads in our District.   It is either already installed on the iPads or available in Self Service under the 'Accounts' category.  It is also available on Apple's App Store, but Self Service is the preferred method of installation. Students at Grinnell-Newburg Schools in grades K-4 will be using this for the first time in the 2017-2018 school year.

Iowa Tier FAST Testing may also be completed on iPads using the Safari web browser. Click here to read more about FAST testing this coming school year.

In past years, classes would take turns using the building computer labs for both tests.  Now, students will be completing the test on their iPad in their classroom.  The iPad has a touchscreen interface instead of the mouse and keyboard of the desktop computer.  Every K-4 student is now issued their own iPad to use.  They remain on-site, but are used by students throughout the school day.

It will be interesting to see how the testing experience affects scores and the logistics behind getting all students tested.  I speculate that scores will either be unchanged or improve and that the logistics changes will mean that students will spend less classroom time disrupted by the test and return sooner to their normal routine.

In past years students frequently had difficulty completing the FAST test, but this was found to be primarily due to the hosting company and no fault of the schools.  With some significant changes in the last 6 months, this will hopefully not happen this school year.

Tiger Tech Rollout 2017

Look for details about tech work done over the summer at my other blog at this link

I will continue to use this blog throughout the school year.  I am always looking for new ideas to share.

Apple Vanguard 17-18

We will be starting up another Apple Vanguard Cohort for the 2017-2018 school year, beginning with sessions on August 16-17 in the middle school FCS room, Room 44.  As of now, we have 17 participants.

The following applications will need to be installed on participants' devices:

iPad: Keynote Pages Numbers Clips iMovie Flipgrid Swift Playgrounds

MacBook Pro: Keynote Pages Numbers iMovie Garageband iBooks Author

Please let me know ahead of time if you need help getting any of these installed.  These should be all be available on Self-Service for quick downloads.

At some point, you will need to have a personal Apple ID.  This will be the same login you used with you Apple Teacher certification or, if you are an iPhone user, is what you normally use to log into the App Store.

Please keep your iPad and MacBook updated with the newest operating system updates.  We will all have the same 'look' when working with our devices.

Karen Seimears, our Apple Professional Learning Specialist, will be around for the first two days, but will be moving to a different position with Apple.  Dominic Pettine will be taking over for the duration of the school year.

Please bring your laptop and iPad to each session.

We will be meeting on:

• August 16
• August 17
• November 6
• February 5
• March 5
• May 7

Computer Science Standards

Computer Science in our schools:

In Governor Branstad's final session, he signed into law Senate File 274, which is related to teaching computer science in schools.

          This link is a related article from the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

          This link will take you to the full bill.

A few highlights of the bill include:

- Funding for a professional development incentive fund for computer science.  The Legislature has $250,000 allocated so far for this fund.  Schools will have to apply for these funds.

-Licensure for computer science through the Department of Education.
(I have been requesting this for many years)


- It is the "goal' that by 2019, in all accredited Iowa schools:

                     * every high school will offer at least one "high-quality" computer science course - with a possibility that it can count towards required graduation credits and not simply an elective.

                     * every middle school will offer an exploratory computer science course

                     * every elementary school will offer some instruction in computer science


A work group will be establishing more guidelines later in 2017.

_________________________________

High School:

The Grinnell-Newburg School District currently offers two computer science courses at the high school, taught by Jill Scanlan and Mike Hunter.   The Intro. to Computer Science course curriculum is licensed by Project Lead the Way.  The one-trimester course will have two sections offered in 2017-2018. There are four other PLTW courses available.  Read about them at this link.  Summer workshops and ongoing professional development is available for teachers by PLTW.

Our other high school course offering is Computer Science Principles, which may be taken by students as an Advanced Placement (AP) course.  Free summer training for teachers is available through Code.org.

Elementary: 

There has been a dramatic growth in recent years in computer science curriculum development for younger students.  Computer programming skills are taught in multiple units in our elementary grades.  It is included in the recently adopted Project Lead the Way Launch curriculum at Kindergarten, First, Second, and Third Grade.  These units meet many Computer Science, ELA, Math, and Next Generation Science Standards, and are a very important part of the curriculum.  They may be found at this link.

The computer science units at our elementaries are readily supported through applications on the student-issued iPads and include lesson support materials for teachers.


Middle: 

Our middle school does not currently offer a computer science exploratory course.  There are full curriculums available that are directed to middle school students.  Those most developed for middle school include:

Apple - Swift Playgrounds
This is a free application available on iPads.  The more work I do with Swift, the more I am impressed at how well it can be used to blend the visually engaging challenges and basics of coding.  More details may be found at Apple at this link.  The middle school will have at least one cart of iPads available beginning with the 2017-2018 school year.

Project Lead the Way - Introduction to Computer Science
This is currently taught at the high school, but may be included at either building.  It is geared well for 8th/9th grade students, or those who have not have much experience with coding.  Students use MIT App Inventor with Android tablets, but do their coding work on their student-issued MacBook Airs.

Code.org - 
A full middle school curriculum is expected to be rolled out later this summer.  Some details may be found at this link, as well as comparisons with some other computer science curriculum resources.  Code.org has resources available for students of all ages and is the originator of the Hour of Code initiative in December.


There are many other options available for computer science resources.

There have been several successful programs in our community to encourage and build computer science skills among our students.  These have been operated though Grinnell College, Drake Library, and  Poweshiek County Extension.  It is also included in after-school activities, such as the high school FRC (First Robotics Competition) TechTigers.  These have been great extensions for select students.  Senate File 274 shows that an emphasis will be needed to bring computer science to all of our students.

Apple Teacher Certification

In your personal professional development, consider working toward becoming a Certified Apple Teacher.   This can be a way to build and recognize your proficiency at using our computers in instruction.  It also provides a quick reference to self-paced resources to learn more about how they can be used in instruction.  This certification is free to complete.  This may typically be completed in 1-2 hours.  We would like all of our teachers earn this certification.

Apple Teacher certification may be achieved by completing a series of 8 'badges' either working on your Apple Computer (laptop or desktop) OR using an iPad.  You may choose to complete both.

You will need a personal Apple ID to start this certification.  This I.D. is for your personal reference and not something that you will ever be asked to share.  If you are an iPhone user, you probably already have one.Your Apple ID will typically be a personal email address.   Please let me know if you have any questions or if you have any difficulty creating an Apple ID.  IF you are a new user, then it will ask for credit card information.  This may be deleted right away after the account is set up if you do not plan to purchase any apps, music, movies, etc. from the iTunes store.

When you first log in, there will be a brief survey that confirms you are a teacher.  Once in, you can either select to earn your certification by following the path for 'Mac' or 'iPad'.  Either (or both) is fine.

For the computer, the Badges include:      Mac      Pages for Mac      Keynote for Mac      Numbers for Mac      iMovie for Mac      Garageband for Mac      Productivity with Mac      Creativity with Mac For the iPad, the Badges include:      iPad      Pages for iPad      Keynote for iPad      Numbers for iPad      iMovie for iPad      Garageband for iPad      Productivity with iPad      Creativity with iPad __________________________________		Profile Screenshot:
Plenty of resource materials are available in each of these categories as you work through the lessons, including Starter Guides and videos.  They are intended to be easy to navigate and follow along.  There is a short quiz to complete each badge. Earning this certification is one of the criteria to be considered an Apple Distinguished School, which we will be working on.  More on this will be coming later. When you have earned your certification, please send me a screenshot of your profile page for my records, similar to what you see to the upper right. You may also add the Apple Teacher moniker to your electronic signature with your email.  Due to a recent change in licensing, the Apple Teacher image can no longer be used.   To the right, see screenshots of how to navigate to those settings in your Gmail account.		From your Gmail, look for the 'gear' icon in the upper right part of you computer screen:

For those of you who taught here last school year, there are some similarities with the 'Tier 1' online Professional Development work you completed using Canvas.  This is much shorter and is focused on using your Mac in instruction.

Again, this is self-paced and free.  All of the help resources will still be available if you need a refresher at a later time.  This link will get you started.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Offensive Computer

A computer at Bailey Park Elementary in Grinnell recently had some very offensive material pop up on a lab computer while a young student was working on it.

Below, I have included suggestions to help avoid this happening and also steps to fix the problem.

The Circumstances:

The offending computer was using Google Chrome.  Two Chrome Extensions were installed that allowed pop-ups to show up.  In this case, offensive material first popped up on the screen.  Shortly after, another window popped up that indicated that the computer was 'infected' and that calling a 1-800 number would provide a 'fix'.  Both came from the same people.  It was a scam. By the way.... do NOT call the 800 number. The Grinnell-Newburg Community School District, as required, has purchased a filtering service to help prevent access to inappropriate content during the school day on all school devices.  The District also has purchased an off-site web and email filter for student computers to perform the same function when away from the school buildings.  Images that are tied to 'advertising' companies may get past the web filter if there are no key words to have them flagged.  This is especially difficult on unreliable game websites that rely on advertisement revenue for their income.

Suggestions:

Here are some best practices for your young students:

1. Avoid websites- especially 'game' sites - that have lots of blinky blinky ads.
            For our students, these often have very low educational value anyway.

2. Avoid clicking on any advertisements on any websites.  See #1, especially for our younger web users.

3. Consider using Safari instead of Google Chrome.  It's harder to install Extensions.

4. Use Safari on an iPad instead of a desktop computer.  You won't get pop-ups here.  Again, watch the educational value.  Every K-2 student is assigned an iPad.  They are intended to be available for every class.

5. Use an iPad Application instead of a website where possible.   There are currently about 200 apps available in Self-Service for our students to install on their devices.  This list can be quickly expanded as requested.

6. Monitor students browsing.  Take frequent opportunities to teach your students about practicing good digital citizenship.  This includes teaching students how to protect themselves and practice responsible behavior.

7. Begin with your learning objectives in selecting your tech tools.  Whatever you are using now probably has many other alternatives.  Let's make the most of these great devices we have to work with.  Take advantage of the instructional resources around you, too, to improve on those resources.

How to Fix this Problem:

	Here was the offending website on the computer.  It seems quite innocent now.  It was not the source of the problem, but definitely an effect. There are times that an offending website is turned into the homepage.  Make sure that your homepage is authentic, especially if it has a search bar on it (like Google).
	Check the Chrome Extensions installed.  It is a common source of problems, especially with pop-ups. There are many awesome Extensions that are free and readily-available to use.  I have several that I use daily.  My favorite right now is Grammarly.
	On the left side of the screen, click on Extensions.  Any unfamilair extensions should be deleted.  If in doubt, go ahead and delete it.  Extensions like Drive and Gmail are fine.
	Simply Click on the Trash can to the right of each extension.  I deleted both of these extensions shown.  They were both bad.   Again, if in doubt, go ahead and delete it.  You won't hurt anything if you delete all of the extensions.
	Next, clear out the computer's browsing history to avoid returning to the same website.  This should be done periodically on any 'public' student computers.  This is one of the reasons why we issue a computer to every student. Social bookmarking sites like Symbaloo, SpicyNodes, Diigo,  and Delicious may be used to retrieve your classroom bookmarks on any device.
	On a 'public' student computer, bookmarks should be reset to 'the beginning of time'.  This is the most important to reset. Click on 'Clear browsing data' in the lower right corner of this window.

These types of problems are not very common and can be quickly fixed.  While it's not foolproof, most can be avoided with some simple steps.

Digital Citizenship

We all have a role as teachers of Digital Citizenship

What is Digital Citizenship? Nine Elements of Digital Citizenship Grinnell Clarity Data Summary	Why teach Digital Citizenship? Perspective from CommonSenseMedia.org ...and TeachThought.com
Here is a powerful look at how one student's digital experiences may have contributed to tragic consequences.  (This material is not for younger viewers)
How can we teach Digital Citizenship? Standards: ISTE Standards for Students - (See Standard 5 on page 2) Flipsnack presentation	Teaching Resources: Common Sense Media Everfi Netsmartz AEA 267 Digital Citizenship iKeepsafe InCtl FTC Fair Use Flowchart Delete Cyberbullying

If you have not seen their resources lately, CommonSenseMedia is worth bookmarking and using for lessons, posters, tips, and guidelines for Educators AND Families about Digital Citizenship.  It even includes a full K-12 which may be found at this link.

Use Common Sense Media to

- Send useful resources home about how to handle parent concerns like this.

- Add assessment resources like these to plan your student projects.

- Check to see if TV shows like these are age-appropriate for your students.
         or read a movie review at this link.

- Hablas Espanol?  Encuentre  recursos en este enlace.

- Find out if that online student account meets privacy requirements at this link.

We are all teachers of digital citizenship regardless of our content area or our level of digital experience.  Our students have developed as strong Consumers of digital content (digital natives), but need support in building their 'common-sense' about handling a digital life as they work towards becoming effective digital Producers of digital content.

Deleting Proxies in Chrome

Deleting Proxies in Chrome:
These are actually Extensions, but are often an easy way to get proxies.  There have also been many staff and students who have inadvertently installed 'bad' extensions that are causing problems with the browsing experience.


Open Chrome:

Click on Extensions:

Start trashing anything fishy, unfamiliar, or that has the word "proxy"