WEC's Tool Shed is waiting for you!

The wheel has been invented!  The Proof is HERE:

The WECDSB is thriving on MyTools2Go! More and more innovative ideas to engage learners, streamline processes, and facilitate student collaboration are happening all over the board. These ideas are being generated by Teachers, EA's, and Support Staff!  WEC's Tool Shed is a PUBLIC Google+ Community you are welcome to Join or just take a look at.  Feel free to POST questions, comments or even better YOUR ideas or use of technology.  This is for any use of technology and not exclusive to Google or MyTools2Go.

How can I get involved?

Login to your MyTools2Go account and then access WEC'S TOOL SHED (Click Link) . You can then JOIN the community from there.

Hope to see you there soon!

Education Technology Self Directed PD Opportunity!

 edcampswo will host  planned “workshops” as well as our edcampSWO style participant driven learning sessions.  edcampswo will continue to provide this event FREE to all participants. 

Top 10 reasons to attend (by Aaron Akune):

1. You are a student, parent, educator or someone who is passionate about education.

2. Hierarchies do not exist at an Edcamp. Regardless of his or her perspective, each participant’s ideas and contributions are equally respected.

3. You are interested in learning about and sharing innovative ideas and practices in education.

4. You’d like to ask a question, share your learning or initiate discussion about a particular topic related to education.

5. You enjoy professional learning and want to broaden/deepen your perspectives about education.

6. You propose, vote for and attend session topics that you are most interested in.

7. You enjoy talking with others who are passionate about education, most of whom you don’t regularly interact with or may have never met before.

8. You enjoy connecting with other participants through the use of social media.

9. You enjoy participating in pro-d experiences. There are no stand and deliver lecture presentations.

10. Edcamps strive to be free for all participants.

Since 2012 edecampswo has brought together hundreds of people from multiple school boards in southern Ontario. Participants range from students to educators to administrators to parents. All are welcome.

This information as been clipped from the edcampswo website. 

 http://brianaspinall.wix.com/edcampswo

STUDENTS BECOME TEACHERS AT NOTRE DAME ELEMENTARY

On Monday, May 5th, during Catholic Education Week, the students of Notre Dame Catholic Elementary School got to be the teachers for the day... well, for an hour anyway!

Superintendent of Education Emelda Byrne used MyTools2Go created a Google Slideshow about visiting New York City, with the assistance of Grade 3 students Ben and Alessia. Her 'student teachers' helped her add some images about places to visit, like the Statue of Liberty and Central Park. Using a Chromebook, Mrs. Byrne even added a YouTube video about shopping in the Big Apple.

Parents and Guardians were invited to sign up for STUDENT LED WORKSHOPS where they became the students and participated in the learning process. Mrs. J. Ouellette, Principal of Notre Dame,  created a Google Form for Parents/Guardians to SIGN UP FOR WORKSHOPS.

1. PRIMARY LITERACY STATIONS with Mrs. Ginnasio's Class. Our Grade One students will teach you how to Make Connections, Visualize, Find the Main Idea of a Story, Make Predictions, and Find the Beginning, Middle, and End of a story.

2. PRIMARY LITERACY with Mrs. Evon's Grade 3 Class as they teach you how to do Shared Reading and Read Aloud.

3. JUNIOR LITERACY with Mrs. Stamatiadis's Grade 5 Class as they teach you how to do Guided Reading, Word Work, Read to Someone, and Work on Writing.

4. K PALS with Ms. McKeeve and students from Mrs. DeMarco's class. Our JK/SK students will be your partner and teach you how to do PALS.

5. Gr. 1 PALS with Mrs. Mele-Kaschalk, Ms. Nadalin and her students. Our Grade 1 students will be your partner and teach you how to do PALS.

6. BITSTRIPS on the Computers with Mrs. Ciaramitaro, Mrs. Meyer and her students. Our Grade 2 students will teach you how to do  Bitstrips on the computer.

7. PRESENTATIONS ON THE CHROMEBOOKS with Mrs. Andreozzi-Chorney's class. Our Grade 3 students will teach you how to make Presentations through "Mytools2go".

8. FORMS ON THE CHROMEBOOKS with Mrs. DeMarco, Mr. Tumak and his class. Our Grade 4 students will teach you how to make  Questionnaires and Forms through "MyTools2Go".

9. EXPLAIN EVERYTHING ON THE IPADS with Mr. Fanick, Mrs. Palamides and their classes. Our Grade 7 students will teach you how to use the Explain Everything App on the iPads.

10. DRAMA with Mrs. Bonofiglio’s class. Grade 1/2 students will teach you how to do drama. Come prepared to move around and have fun.

Please take a look at some of the activities...

WECDSB Integrated Technology Summit

The Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board is inviting proposals for presenters at our second annual INTEGRATED TECHNOLOGY SUMMIT.

Staff are invited to submit a proposal to present by no later than Monday, June 16th. Based on feedback from our original survey, we are looking for presenters in the following areas*:

* these are suggestions - staff are certainly invited to submit a proposal about
technology that does not fall into these categories

• Getting to Know MyTools2Go  BEGINNER
• MyTools2Go  ADVANCED
• DOCUMENTS
• PRESENTATIONS
• FORMS
• DRAWINGS
• SITES
• Google Drive BEGINNER
• Managing your Classroom with MyTools2Go ADVANCED
• Planning, Assessment, and Learning with MyTools2Go  ALL LEVELS

• Getting to know the Provincial Learning Management System  BEGINNER
• Getting to know the Provincial Learning Management System ADVANCED
• iPads in the Classroom BEGINNER
• iPads in the Classroom ADVANCED
• APPS Showcase
• Planning, Assessment, and Learning with Technology  ALL LEVELS

For more information, please contact:

Joe Sisco  - joesisco@mytools2go.ca

Read&Write for Google

We are pleased to announce that every MyTools2Go user has be given Trial access to the Premium Features of Read&Write for Google from Texthelp.

Read&Write is a Chrome Extension which helps make Google Apps for Education more accessible to those with reading and writing difficulties, learning disabilities such as Dyslexia, or English Language Learners.

 See Read&Write in action.

 

Google DRIVE on the iPad gets an Upgrade!

It's about time!

Google is revamping your experience on the iPad!  It is about time as Google Drive is seriously lacking compared to Drive on other devices.  The app is actually moving to operate less like it does on a computer or Android device and more iOS like. 

Google Drive is being split into 3 different apps.  I would guess the Drive app will cease to exist once the changes are complete.  Google Docs and Google Sheets is available now and I suggest you upgrade right away.  Google Slides will be coming soon.  This will be particularly nice since you currently do not have editing ability on Google Drive.  You can only view Google Slides. Click on the links below to download from the Apps Store!

Google Sheets

Google Sheets will allow for offline editing, sharing with others, sheet creation and more.

Google Docs

Google Docs is similar to Google Sheets as it too will allow for offline editing, sharing with others, document creation and more.

Both apps have added functionality and are a significant improvement over the Drive App.  These apps can be accessed using your own personal Gmail account or even better your MyTools2Go Account.

EdCampSWO

If you haven't heard of what an EdCamp is let me give you the 411. The EdCamp Unconference is becoming a happening all across North America. What is an unconference you ask? The general gyst is its a conference where the participants are also the presenters. That is, you come to the conference and if you feel like it you can put a topic you would like to discuss or present on up on the board and viola. pretty soon the board is filled with sessions with all kinds of topics ready to be attended.

Why do I bring this up, you might ask? Because its time for EdCampSWO. That is, an EdCamp here in South West Ontario. I think the first one that we had in our area was at the University of Windsor in October of 2012 (I think, I could be wrong) and the next one is April 12, 2014. Yep that's in two weeks.

This EdCamp is at Tilbury District High School and it goes from 8:30am to 4:00pm. With a special guest speaker, Doug Peterson, after lunch.

People are already talking about it and you should too. So if you are the kind of person that likes to share, then this conference is for you. If you are the kind of person that likes to be part of the leading edge of education then this conference is for you. Heck, if you are an educator then this conference is for you.

Check out the EdCampSWO website here. And register for the conference here.