#CE15: Celebrate Connected Educator Month

We are celebrating Connected Educator Month with a host of events and activities to foster community and promote connected learning. We have a wide variety of events planned from Appy Hours, CoffeeEDUs, Info Sessions, and already scheduled trainings, conferences, and events.

Take part in some of WUSD events throughout the month and/or reach out the larger educational community and connect with events happening world-wide. You can download our WUSD #CE15 calendar with descriptions here.  Visit www.connectededucators.org to learn more.

Cohort 1 Innovative Educator Applications Available

Do you want to add your name to this map and join our existing group of 36 Innovative Educators who are currently pioneering 1:1 learning environments in classrooms throughout our district? Do you have a vision for technology integration to support instruction and student learning? Do you want to collaborate with your colleagues around powerful and meaningful classroom instruction that is further enhanced by instructional technology? If so, our Innovative Educator program may be a good fit for you and your colleagues.

 Applications are now available online. You must be logged into your WUSD Google Account to view and complete the application. If you are not sure if you have activated your WUSD Google Account yet, you can do so by following these instructions outlined in an earlier blog post.

Applications will remain open until October 25, 2015 at 8:00 pm PST.  Incomplete applications will not be considered.

Teams of teachers are encouraged to apply.  If accepted, teams will share a mobile cart for the remainder of the 2015-2016 year once they are delivered to classrooms.  (Delivery of carts is  slated to coincide with the start of 2nd semester in mid-January.)  Team members would then receive their own classroom cart for the 2016-2017 school year.  Teachers accepted into the program would receive specialized training and coaching and have voluntary opportunities to attend local and regional Instructional Technology Conferences.  Additionally, teachers and their students will have a chance to participate in a Technology Showcase for the larger community in late May to highlight some of the amazing things happening in classrooms throughout our district.

You can learn more about the Innovative Educator Program Application by visiting our website, reading our FAQs, attending one of our upcoming Information Sessions on October 7 or 21 (sessions from 3:00-4:00 and repeated from 4:00-5:00 in Room 48 at District Office), reaching out to any of our existing Innovative Educators, or asking Melissa Oliver or Kim Harrison.

We look forward to welcoming Cohort 1 to the Innovative Educator Program when they are named and notified via email by COB on October 30, 2015.

CAASPP Scores Now Available in Illuminate

2014-2015 CAASPP Scores are now available in Illuminate.  There are some nice custom reports available that will allow teachers and administrators to dive deeper into the data.  To access your CAASPP scores, complete the following steps.

1. Login to Illuminate.  https://wusd.illuminateed.com   You can also login to Illuminate using our very own WUSD Illuminate Chrome App!  (Be sure you are logged into Chrome using your WUSD Google Account and visit your Chrome apps and click on the WUSD Illuminate logo.)
2. Enter your username and password information.  Complete a helpdesk ticket if you need your Illuminate login credentials and/or have forgotten your password.
3. Once logged in to Illuminate, locate the Favorites Widget on your dashboard (landing page) and make sure District Favorites is pressed as shown below.
   
   
   
   This favorites widget is currently customized to list all the available prebuilt Smarter Balanced Reports with great visuals along with raw data that can be viewed, downloaded, and further analyzed.

Classroom Teachers

You will find the Smarter Balanced Assessments Student Roster Report the most helpful initially.  Click on that prebuilt report title.

Do you want to see scores of your current students? (Example: As a current 4th grade teacher, this would display my current students scores from 3rd grade.)

• Don't change the roster date, choose your desired subject area, group students as comprehensive, and click on view in browser.

Do you want to see scores of your students from last year?

• Change the roster date to 14-15, choose your desired subject area, group students as comprehensive, and click on view in browser.

Use the Additional Filters to drill down into your data for subgroup information.

Looking for Student Level Reports for IEPs or to share during conferences?

On the Favorites Menu, click on the Smarter Balanced Assessment Student Report.

Administrators & Specialists

The Smarter Balanced Assessment Performance Summary Prebuilt report will initially be the most helpful in providing an overview of student performance.

Depending on your level of access you will see a screen similar to the one below that you can customize to meet your data inquiry question and/or reporting needs.

Spreadsheet View

If you prefer viewing your data in the form of a spreadsheet, then you will want to select State Assessment - 2014-2015 SBA Summative (Final) English Language Arts or Mathematics from your District Favorites Widget as shown below.

This view will provide you a spreadsheet with all the raw data based on the filters you choose.

If you have any questions as you are accessing your CAASPP scores within Illuminate, please let me know.

New Explore Feature in Google Sheets

Visualize your data in Google Sheets instantly!

The new Explore Feature in Google Sheets automatically generates multiple graphics of your data like that seen on the left. This graph was generated from sign-ups for a recent technology professional development.

To explore your data visually:

1) Open a Google Sheets file that contains your data.

2) Click on the small explore icon found on the bottom right of your screen.

3) Explore the different auto-generated visualizations of your data.

4) Find one you like? Click the Insert Chart Icon which will appear as you hover over the top left corner of your chart.

Imagine all the possibilities for your students with this Explore Feature now available within Google Sheets.  If you are looking for large data sets for students to explore, check out www.tuvalabs.com.  They have different data sets on a wide variety of topics designed exclusively for students in grades 3-12.

New Templates in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides! Oh, My!!

This is an exciting week of new features available in Google. If you visit your home page of Docs, Sheets, or Slides you will notice new templates readily accessible at the top of the page. You can get to the each apps homepage by clicking on the waffle and then clicking on your desired apps icon (Docs, Sheets, or Slides).

Try out some of these preexisting templates to make your workflow more efficient and productive. Students can use them as a starting point as they create different projects.  Within Docs, you can find report, letter, and resume templates and much more! Within Sheets, there are planners, calendars, and scheduling templates. In Slides, you can find templates for student certificates, book reports, and much, much more!