Looking for something fun to do over the Holiday Break?

Google has provided a FREE series of training modules specifically for classroom teachers.  There are 5 full courses (see image below).  The first course is called Fundamental Training.  There are 13 Units in the Fundamentals Training program that are extremely relevant to the work we are doing at TTSD.  Each unit within each course is broken down into 20-30 mini-lessons. 

This is a GREAT way to learn how to use the amazing and vast resources we have with the Google Suite (Google Apps for Education).  Use your TTSD login to sign in and when you have a moment in your day, walk through one of the lessons.  Let's get started!

Link to the first set of Fundamentals Training

Thank you TOSAs for our Holiday Tech T-Shirts!

Happy Holidays to all!  Enjoy your time with family and friends...and maybe take a few moments to checkout some new ideas for integrating technology tools into your lessons!

TEACHERS & ADMINS: Please enroll your Mac computers

Teachers & Administrators:

Within the next 2 weeks (by Dec 8th), please take ~10 min AT WORK (on TTSD network) to follow the directions below which will enroll your computer the JAMF management system. This new system will allow you to install updated apps like MS Office and will be required to access secure websites in the future.

1. Follow the directions below or click KNOWLEDGEBASE ARTICLE  to open in a new window.
2. You will see a message stating "The Enrollment Process is complete" when successful.
3. You will also find a new application called "Self Service" in your Applications folder.

Netop Fix - Filter Web

Netop fixed a bug in the Filter Web feature.

Previously we found that if your website had a hyphen in the URL (like GradPoint: https://ttsd2295-ttoa-ccl.gradpoint.com/Welcome.vp/page.htm), the Netop Filter Web would continue to BLOCK the site, even if you entered "gradpoint.com" in your allow list found in the Filter Web text file.

This bug has now been resolved.  Sites with hyphens in the URL will now be allowed, if the domain (or full site) was added to the Filter Web text file and enabled.

Please Take the National Speak Up Survey 2017

Speak Up 2017 is open!

It’s time for students, parents, teachers, principals, librarians, technology leaders, superintendents and more to Speak Up! Share your thoughts and experiences on education issues like:

• Learning and teaching with mobile devices, digital content, gaming, videos, and virtual & augmented reality
• Internet access at home and in school
• Importance of math and best ways to learn math
• Digital citizenship
• And, much more!

Surveys take less than 20 minutes to complete and are completely anonymous. Join more than 500,000 people from more than 10,000 schools to be sure your voice is heard this year! 

Speak Up is both a national research project and a FREE service to schools and districts, brought to you by Project Tomorrow. When/if prompted, please use "ttsd" for district code.

App updates after iOS 11 upgrade

Apps such as Keynotes, Pages and Numbers will require an update after iOS 11 upgrade. If your staff and/or students cannot open these apps or any other apps after iOS 11 upgrade, please find the app in Self Service and click Reinstall.

STUDENT iPads & iOS 11 -- scheduled by school

We are ready to begin a strategic process for updating STUDENT iPads to iOS 11 that are eligible (purchased within the last ~3 years).  We will be remotely updating student devices beginning after school, based on the following schedule:

• October 19: Rider & Byrom
• October 20: Bridgeport & Deer Creek
• Weekend: Middle School students
• October 23: Metzger & Woodward
• October 24: Templeton, Durham & Tualatin
• October 26th and 27th (conference/training dates): any remaining devices not at iOS 11

Upon successful update to iOS 11, students iPads will display the "Update Complete" screen.  Click "Continue" (3 times) and then "Get Started."

Tips for iOS 11:

https://tips.apple.com/en-us/ios/ipad

READY for staff & teachers to update their iPads to iOS 11

Thank you for your patience in waiting to upgrade your iPad to the new operating system, iOS 11. 

We are READY for staff and teachers to update their iPads to iOS 11.  You may do this at home...by the end of next week, it will be available at school.  If you have a TTSD iPad, please upgrade your device as soon as possible.  

We will begin updating student iPads to iOS 11 next week and would like YOU to have yours updated first.

• Tips for upgrading to iOS 11: http://kb.ttsd.k12.or.us/articles/view/277
• Tips for what's new in iOS 11: https://tips.apple.com/en-us/ios/ipad

Print Shop Website Available from Home

We have recently increased the security of a few of our web sites, one of which was the Print Shop. During the upgrade we removed access from home.

As of today, the upgrade is complete, and you can submit your print jobs from home.

Sign Up for Apple Teacher Tuesdays

GREAT opportunity for teachers to learn more about their Apple device and collaborate with other teachers for FREE:

Teacher Tuesdays: Sign UP!

NetOp Update

As we implemented the 2000 Chromebooks this fall, we ran into a few issues with Netop where some students were not showing up in a teachers class. For the most part, the students impacted were not getting the Netop app on their Chromebook.  

We have since fixed this issue and believe the problem to be resolved. I encourage you to use the Netop Teacher tool and let us know if you run into any problems.

IF you have a student who is not showing in your NetOp Teacher class, please:

1. Have the student Sign Out (red button) and sign in again.  Then check your teacher computer.
2. If that doesn’t work, please ask the student’s email address and submit a tech request with this information for us to troubleshoot further (this step shouldn’t be necessary)

Please do NOT upgrade your Macs to OS 10.13 (...not yet)

Apple released two new OS: Macintosh OS 10.13 and iOS 11 (for iPads).

We currently have these upgrades blocked on our network so that we (IT Dept) may have time to test the new operating system with Synergy, Google Suite, our enterprise management systems and a variety of other software we count on each day.

Once we have tested the new operating systems, I will send a follow up email letting you know which devices are ready to update.  

Please note, this includes upgrading your teacher laptop while at home.  Please do NOT upgrade your teacher laptop to OS 10.13 at this time.

Thank you for your patience.

NEW TTSD Website - LIVE!

Our new TTSD Website is LIVE: http://www.ttsdschools.org. (same URL as before)

Need something from the old site?  You can find it here: http://old.ttsdschools.org/

Newly imaged MacBook Air and iMacs- LOGIN

Over the summer, we transitioned to a more efficient means for imaging our Macs.  As a result, it's important to know when you use one of these imaged Macs

•  all elementary and middle school silver student MacBook Air mobile labs
• A few iMac computer labs in middle and high school
• ALL new teacher computers

To log in, click "Other" and type in your staff user account and password.  STUDENTS should use the account "student" and this password (CLICK FOR PASSWORD).

In the future, all Macs will operate this way.  The local teacher account and local student account (no password) will soon disappear from our environment,

If you have any questions, please submit a tech request,

New TTSD Website - Coming SOON!

The Tigard-Tualatin School District website is in transition!

Within the next week, we will be rolling out our new TTSD & school websites to our community.  If you are a TTSD Teacher interested in learning more about creating a teacher website, please sign up for a teacher website training:

Scheduled Training Dates and Times:

• Tuesday, August 29th @ 2pm [Hibbard Admin Building, IT Conference Room]
• Wednesday, August 30th @ 1pm [Tualatin High School]
• Thursday, August 31 @ 2pm [Hibbard Admin Building, IT Conference Room]
• Friday, September 1 @ 2pm [Hibbard Admin Building, IT Conference Room]
• Tuesday, September 5 @ 2pm [Hibbard Admin Building, IT Conference Room]

New Copier Contract - Kyocera

Kyocera copiers are beginning to appear around the district.  The access codes you used on the previous copiers should work on these new ones.  See your school copier "Key Operator" for additional info.

Scanning to email is also a function that is available again.  The steps are a bit different, but you can find DIRECTIONS TO SCAN TO EMAIL HERE

.

New Printer Support Contract in 2017

New in 2017 -- ALL TTSD network printers with POA stickers on them are covered under the new support contract with POA.  To receive support on any and all HP printers on the network WITH the POA sticker on the front, please call the phone number on this sticker.  POA will service the printer including replace low toner cartridges.  IF you have any trouble receiving support from POA, please place a Tech Request so that we can follow up. 

Blackboard Connect : 2017-18

Blackboard Connect students have all been updated and "rolled over" for the 2017-18 school year.  Your free to begin sending information to your 17-18 school community.

REMEMBER: Ask your BB Connect staff member to review the logs of your first all-school message to identify wrong numbers so that they can be fixed!

Here are some helpful Knowledgebase articles to help you refine your use of Blackboard Connect.

Apple Classroom available for iPad this fall

Great news!  Apple Classroom will be available THIS fall for all teachers and student using iOS version 10.3 or higher.

Apple classroom is a classroom management tool for teachers. We will be using the adhoc method for creating classes.  Teachers will create a class, a code will be created and students will use this unique code to join the class.  Highlighted features of Apple Classroom are: ability for the teacher to view student screens, share files, lock screens and share the same screen to all students in the class.

Check back for links to TTSD knowledge-base articles on how to set this up in late August.

Tigard-Tualatin School District NEW website...coming mid-August

TTSD currently uses Blackboard's Edline product to host the District and school websites.  Blackboard has announced the end of life of Edline in the later half of 2018. As a result, TTSD decided to migrate to Blackboard's current solution, WCM (formerly Schoolwires).

This transition will take place over the summer.  The new TTSD website and school websites will debut mid-August. ALL existing school URLs will remain the same and current content will be migrated to the new site. Training for web-masters and teachers will begin in August and continue throughout the school year.

Stay tuned for further updates..