Reminder: Please sign up for Dell Training

As you know, registration for Dell Training for certified teaching staff opened today. Many teachers have signed up already and I expect more tomorrow. In order for me to organize the classes and send the bulk of the initial confirmations by June 11th, I will need to make sure we have enough trainers. Please sign up to be a trainer at your earliest convenience, or no later than first thing Tuesday morning.

The training session for the folks doing the Dell Training Sessions for teachers will be held on June 28th and 29th.

If you aren't available to train at all, please let me know. Thanks!

Sign up to be a trainer
Dell Training Form

Google Forms Alert

It appears as though Google has been putzing again and making some changes which is causing them to temporarily misbehave. The new form templates are very nice, and of course I was eager to try them, but unfortunately I haven't found any that are flawless.

Thanks to those of you who tested the Dell Training Form this morning. The test yielded interesting results. The first testers, (in order) Amy, Ashley, Colleen and Harla, found nothing wrong.

The later group, Sheri and Lucy, both reported bad behavior.

John gets the proofreading award!  He checked in much later, but found an error that no one else reported.

Registration for Dell Training for Teaching Staff will open any moment. It is being handled through the Tech Registration Board.

Dell Training: Please Sign-Up

I have created a form to collect initial information and availability from Digital Leaders.  Please pull out your calendars and take a few minutes to sign up for dates you are available as a trainer, OR let me know you are not available.

Stay tuned.

Dell Training Form

2nd Generation Digital Leaders Info.

Anyone interested in the 2nd Generation Digital Leaders can find more information on my website. There is a link to the Digital Leaders page. At the bottom of that page is a link to sign up to submit interest.

I will be contacting everyone who submits a form and then sharing the list with Digital Leaders and principals.

Web
http://www.op97.org/oxnevad

Digital Leader Incentives

Your assistance in helping to identify incentives for  Digital Leaders is needed and greatly appreciated. Do think outside the box and try to include all available resources.  Thanks for sharing your brainpower and creativey!

Contribute to WebSpiration
If you don't yet have an account, you will be prompted to sign up. It's easy and free. Let me know if you can't get in.

Dell Day

Live notes from Dell Day

File Backup Information

As you probably know, information about backing up files prior to summer has been sent to all district staff. This has become standard procedure, but you should be aware of the elimination of SITES folders.

SITES folders are a built-in Apple network feature. Documents stored inside these live folders are immediately published on the web. Once upon a time, we encouraged teachers to publish syllabi and pdf documents via these folders. As you all know, the emergence of Web 2.0 tools opened up a world of publishing options that require less skill and maintenance than working with a SITES folder and the goal has been to move our teaching staff in this direction.

Throughout the past year, we having been encouraging teachers to abandon using SITES folders and make the transition to publishing via Blogger and Google Docs instead.  Although we have made a lot of progress, there is more work to do.  We assume only a handful of teachers are still using SITES folders to publish websites, and we know there are more using them to publish pdf files.

Amy and I will be providing support on a variety of levels, but it's a good idea for you be kept in the loop as well, in case questions should arise. Anyone using the SITES folder should complete the survey linked below so we can help them make the transition to Web 2.0.

For complete information, visit my home page and jump to the BackUp Files page.

• SITES folder survey
• Handout: Use Google Documents to Link Handouts to a Blog or Website

Oxnevad Web

May 17th Meeting: Rescheduled

Since we will be spending the day together during Dell Day, we've decided to cancel our regularly scheduled monthly meeting and meet briefly at the end of the day on Wednesday to debrief.

Meeting: May 17th

The end of year rush is here! Our next meeting will be held on Monday, May 17th, location TBD

A meeting agenda is on it's way.  Before the meeting, please consider adding a link to something interesting to share with the group. Sharing at the last meeting was amazing! In the meantime, here are some things to note:

• Dell Training
• tentatively scheduled for July 6th - June 29th
• sessions held over a period of 2 days
• look for opportunity to sign up as a paid trainer
• Essential Train-the-Trainer (on a Dell) class held during the week of June 28th, one full day class
• Information from Dell Day at Central Office will be used to determine the specifics of the sessions. Good to see so many of you are attending!
• 21st Century Summer Learning
• Levels of classes
• New group of Digital Leaders to begin
• Digital Leaders Virtual Classroom for Collaboration offered Online with plenty of opportunities to work in person.
• All staff email and sign up opportunity coming as soon as all the paperwork comes in.

FYI.. Annual File Backup

As the end of the year approaches, many teachers are inquiring about whether or not we will be backing up our files to clean out our user folders before summer. The answer is yes. File backup has become a regular part of our end of year procedures and teachers should expect to do it every year.  This is the reason we distribute jump drives to all new teachers hired in our district.

The tech department will be sending out a message, I believe, but in the meantime you can answer the questions you are receiving with confidence.