Technology Update (Week of November 30th)

THIS Weekend = Maintenance: We reserve the first weekend of each month to perform system and network maintenance to ensure the heath and security of our computer systems.

• Please anticipate possible interruptions in service on Sunday, December 8th (email, Synergy access, Google Drive login, etc.)
• Communication will be sent to families/students as well.

Monday, Dec 7th, we will be placing a new security feature when you login to the Employee Portal.  Beginning Monday, login to the Employee Portal will now require two-factor authentication for your security and you will be prompted for a code that will be emailed to you.

• Please review the KB article for step-by-step instruction.

  https://kb.ttsd.k12.or.us/articles/view/859

   

Status Update for Common Apps: Canvas, Meet/Google, Synergy, TTSD WebFilter: As we continue to maintain all systems related to Comprehensive Distance Learning, there are times when systems or services fail or are slow to respond.  

• Please visit the TTSD Knowlegdgebase website (http://kb.ttsd.k12.or.us) for status updates on these popular, widely used apps:
  
  
  
  
  

Technology Update (Sunday, November 22, 2020)

1. MORNING EMAIL SENT TO ALL STUDENTS, grades 5-12: Over this past weekend, all K-12 TTSD student Google account profile pictures were changed to student school photos.  During a time when teachers cannot physically meet in a classroom with you, it's more challenging for them to get to know all of their students. By making your student account profile picture your student photo, it makes it that much easier for teachers to connect with students -- and for them to recognize faces with names.
   
   
   
2. REPORT CARDS (QT1):
• ACCESSING REPORT CARDS IN PARENTVUE:
• Log into ParentVUE (http://pvue.ttsd.k12.or.us), click "Documents" and find your child's "Quarter 1 report card."  (Directions: http://familyhelp.ttsdschools.org/articles/view/855)
• PARENTVUE ACCOUNT HELP:
• Forgot your password?  CLICK HERE
• Or if you don't know if you have a ParentVUE account under the email you provided the school? Instructions: http://familyhelp.ttsdschools.org/articles/view/707
• Further assistance? Call your child's school office.
• Elementary Academic Feedback Forms:
• Teachers: ES Quarter 1 Academic Feedback Form Process
• Parents: Student Access to Quarter 1 Academic Feedback Form
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
3. Reopening 2020 - Digital Resources for Quarter 2

• Mastered the "Foundational Digital Resources for Comprehensive Distance Learning" (Google Meet, Canvas, curriculum?)  -- both you and your students?
• Take a look at the additional tools you may want to begin introducing to your students for: engagement, assessment, instant feedback, etc. Digital Resources to Support Reopening 2020
• And... DON'T FORGET about the amazing TTSD Teacher Resources for Digital Learning website. 

Technology Update (Sunday November 15, 2020)

1. IPad Battery Life - iPads are not capable of live streaming a video conference (like Google Meet) for 4 hours straight without being charged or plugged in during the day.... 
1. The IT department is getting increased calls from concerned parents regarding their iPads not staying charged all day while staying connected to Google Meet during classroom “breaks” or work time.
2. Battery hardware issues? = iPads that cannot hold a charge for an hour. Troubleshooting - look for the charging battery icon on the iPad, close unused Safari tabs/windows (we’ve seen some students with 100s of tabs open), try a different outlet or cable, try using the iPad while plugged in during class.  
3. When students are not actively participating in a live class, students should DISCONNECT from Google Meet.  Keeping Google Meet active for hours at a time requires a LOT of bandwidth and battery life, which may require iPads be plugged in. 
2. November 16th: Quarter 2 = NEW TERM!
1. Check out the KB articles to help you set up your new course cards (MS & HS teachers):
1. https://kb.ttsd.k12.or.us/articles/view/846
2. Elementary Teachers: Look for new grading period (Quarter 2) to help “Reduce the clutter” in your Canvas grade book, beginning November 19th!
3. Fine Tuning your Online Classroom:
1. Google Meet:
1. Breakout rooms = small group work and discussions to build opportunities for student=talk
2. Troubleshooting?  Update Chrome browser, close extra tabs and applications, minimize the number of “extra” applications you may have open/running (AirServer, Jabber, etc.)
1. TIP: try connecting to Google Meet off your iPad/Chromebook and share your screen using this 2nd device...
2. Canvas Features/Tips:
   
1. To Do list details
2. Notifications = where to easily find Teacher Comments
3. “New Analytics“:
1. Guide for teachers : View course grade and participation analytics, Send a message to all students based on specific course grade or participation criteria
2. Guide for Students: Student-specific overall grade, online participation, communication
   
   
   
3. Digital Resources that use Clever:
1. Looking for a direct link to digital tools that use Clever?  (RazKids, Adelante, iReady, Naviance, etc. ) Complete this form to have the resource added to your Canvas Course menu(s): Canvas Menu Link Request

Weekend Technology Maintenance - Potential Interruptions

Parents, Students & Staff,

As a Technology Department, we reserve the first Sunday of each month to perform maintenance on our network/system maintenance to avoid multiple interruptions throughout the month. We always try to keep interruptions to a minimum. 

This Sunday, November 1st is our regularly scheduled technology maintenance "down-day."  

 

Please plan accordingly for potential interruptions to the following over this weekend:

• ALL STUDENTS: Login through Google to resources . This could include access to: Email, Google Docs, Canvas, StudentVUE. 

• HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS: Additionally, this may impact login to student Chromebooks.  We recommend not performing any Chrome OS updates over the weekend.

• K-8 STUDENTS: Student iPad access to Self Service (to download Apps) - beginning Saturday

 

Please look for additional information this next week from your schools on updating your devices and apps to keep them up to date for best success!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Padres, estudiantes y Personal,

 

Como departamento de tecnología, reservamos el primer domingo de cada mes para realizar el mantenimiento de nuestra red / sistema para evitar múltiples interrupciones durante el mes. Siempre tratamos de mantener las interrupciones al mínimo. 

Este domingo 1 de noviembre es nuestro "día de inactividad" de mantenimiento de tecnología programado regularmente.  

 

Por favor planifique debidamente por posibles interrupciones de lo siguiente durante este fin de semana:

• TODOS LOS ESTUDIANTES: inicie sesión a través de Google para acceder a los recursos. Esto podría incluir acceso a: correo electrónico, Google Docs, Canvas, StudentVUE. 

• ESTUDIANTES DE LA ESCUELA PREPARATORIA: Además, esto puede afectar el inicio de sesión en los Chromebooks de los estudiantes. Recomendamos no realizar ninguna actualización de Chrome OS durante el fin de semana.

• ESTUDIANTES K-8: Acceso de iPad para estudiantes a Autoservicio (para descargar aplicaciones) - a partir del sábado. ¡

 

Por favor busque información adicional de sus escuelas la próxima semana sobre cómo actualizar sus dispositivos y aplicaciones para mantenerlos actualizados para mejor éxito!

Update from Technology (Week of October 26th) - Down Day Sunday is THIS weekend!

November Network "down day" This Weekend

• Sunday, November 1st "Down Day"
• Please communicate to your families during conferences:
  
• No App download from Self Service - Sat & Sunday
• Sunday afternoon - reinstall most used iPad Apps Canvas Student, Google Meet, etc. 
• Email and text communication will also be sent to our families Friday to explain how some services may not be available (like iPads' Self Service) over the weekend.

Parent Tips for Canvas

• Canvas Parent App: 
• Quick access to:
• Class grade
• Missing/Late Assignments & Alerts
• Web Browser Canvas Access (even on a mobile device): https://ttsd.instructure.com
  
• Missing/Late Assignments
• To Do List (Up Next) for all students/children
• Comments from teachers >> Found under Grade Menu

G Suite Enterprise for Education 

• At the end of September Google ended their "Free" access to G Suite Enterprise for Education.  We renewed our licensed with Google Enterprise to gain advanced features of Meet, including:
• Larger meetings (up to 250 participants)
• Live streaming for up to 100,000 in-domain viewers
• Record meetings
• Attendance reports
• Breakout rooms
• Q&A
• Polls
• If you do not have these tools, please place a tech request and we will work with you and your TTSD account. 

HP Printer Issues

• Some crazy new printer errors are popping up on Macs who are trying to print to HP printers.
• If you see the following message, please submit a tech request for a quick fix.

Google Meet Released Breakout rooms, Polls and Q&A (for browsers)

Creating "Breakout Rooms" & "Polling" with Google Meet:

• The "long awaited" polls and breakout room function is now (slowly...) coming to TTSD staff, beginning today.  This new feature will roll out slowly across our district.  To see if you have it, within a Google Meet session, look in the upper right corner by Chat and your icon and you may see this new tool (see screen shot).  It appears TTSD students have use of these tools when using Google Meet through a browser, like Chrome or Safari.
  
  
  
• As we begin our testing of this new feature, we will continue to update this KB article with tips and tricks.  At this point in time, we know using Google Meet on an iPAD using SAFARI browser allows for the use of these new tools for students as well.  We will continue to test and research regarding the Google Meet app to see if these features will roll to the app as well.  

Highlights - Canvas Assignments, Screen Recording, Teaching Online

• "Most Successful" Approach for Canvas Assignments (for K-2, 3-5, 6-8. 9-12)
• Creating "Breakout Rooms" & "Polling" with Google Meet
• 9 Ways Online Teaching Should be Different from Face-to-Face

Technology Update, Monday October 5, 2020 (Middle School Students & Staff)

 

Hello Middle School Parents and Middle School Staff:

This weekend we performed our monthly network maintenance.  We also completed a transition back to our original internet filtering process  for all middle school students.  This morning (Monday, 10/5/2020), between the work performed over the weekend and this additional change that needed to be pushed out to our 6th graders' iPads, we had an issue with students using Google Meets during their Morning Meeting.  I apologize for the disruption and lack of communication to our 6th grade families over the weekend notifying them of this change. 

To ensure your child's ipad is working properly, please:

1. Log into the "TTSD Web Filter" (before 11pm or after 6am [due to curfew restrictions back in place]) 
   
2. Open the "Self Service" app  
   
3. "Reinstall" Google Meet  

And, as always, please remember to continually check for iOS updates and run any that appear (Settings >> General >> Software Update).  The newest version for TTSD iPads is iPadOS 13.5.1.

Thank you.

Susan Barnard

IT Director

Tigard-Tualatin School District