Technology Cleaning Instructions

 written by Kristen Harms/ posted by Elegan Kramer

The guidance below is provided by Dell Technologies. 

We understand customers may have questions about cleaning and disinfecting options for their Dell products. The guidance below applies to all Dell-branded PCs, monitors or display screen, docking stations, keyboards, and mice. 

1. We recommended you wear disposable gloves when cleaning and disinfecting surfaces. 
2. Turn off the device you plan to clean and disconnect AC power. Also remove batteries from items like wireless keyboards. Never clean a product while it is powered on or plugged in. 
3. Disconnect any external devices. 
4. Never spray any liquids directly onto the product. 
5. Moisten a microfiber cloth with a mixture of 70% isopropyl alcohol / 30% water. The cloth should be damp, but not dripping wet. Excess moisture should be removed if the cloth is wet before wiping the product. Using any material other than a microfiber cloth could cause damage to your product. 
6. Gently wipe the moistened cloth on the surfaces to be cleaned. Do not allow any moisture to drip into areas like keyboards, display panels, etc. Moisture entering the inside of an electronic product can cause damage to the product. Excessive wiping potentially could lead to damaging some surfaces. 
7. When cleaning a display screen, carefully wipe in one direction, moving from the top of the display to the bottom. 
8. Surfaces must be completely air-dried before turning the device on after cleaning. No moisture should be visible on the surfaces of the product before it is powered on or plugged in. 
9. After cleaning or disinfecting a glass surface, it may be cleaned again using a glass cleaner designed for display surfaces following directions for that specific cleaner. We recommend you avoid glass cleaning products containing Ammonia. 
10. Discard the disposable gloves used after each cleaning. Clean your hands immediately after gloves are removed and disposed. Other cleaning chemicals are very harsh and will damage surfaces. 

Avoid using any of the following chemicals or products containing these chemicals: 

• Any chlorine-based cleaner, such as bleach 5 
• Peroxides (including hydrogen peroxide) 
• Solvents such as; acetone, paint thinner, benzene, methylene chloride or toluene 
• Ammonia (i.e. Windex) 
• Ethyl alcohol Using any of the chemicals listed above will cause permanent damage to some product surfaces. By following the steps outlined in this document, you can minimize the risk of damage.

Changing and collecting multiple shared links in Drive

These directions allow you to change and collect many links at once to share quickly rather than going into each Google Doc individually. It is a productive, time-saving strategy to encourage teachers to utilize breakout rooms and virtual group work more. This works for any collaborative Google tool such as Slides, Jamboard, and Sheets.

1. Make multiple copies of the Google Doc (or in this example, Jamboard) in a folder

2. Select all of the Google Doc by clicking and dragging with the mouse.

3. Click Share button to change settings for all Google Docs

1. Change sharing settings for all Google Docs to Parkway Schools 

2. Change permission settings to Editor 

4. Select Copy links.

5. Paste links in a new Google Document and separate them.

Time-Saving Tech Tip #1: Using Google Sheets

5. In Google Sheets, paste the links.

6. Go to Data > Split text to columns in order to separate all links at once

Time-Saving Tech Tip #2: Using Google Drive Stream to change the name all at once

1. Go to your Google Drive Stream

2. Select all

3. Rename one and it will rename all of its copies

Parent Tips for Winter Break

Written by Kristen Harms/ posted by Elegan Kramer

ACS International Schools wrote, “The anxiety of receiving online learning guidance, multiple resources (which although of the highest online quality, can never match the detailed and responsive learning offer that takes place in the school) managing their children’s responses, trying to give feedback and missing the ongoing dialogue with teachers, not to mention managing ‘working from home’.”  This is how they define “distance” for parents.

Remember that Virtual Campus and learning at school won’t look the same — and that’s okay. There is an unlimited amount of organic learning that can happen in daily family life and that this is a unique opportunity to prioritize home and family.  Some ideas to participate in over winter break that do not involve traditional schoolwork.  Play some board games with your kids (board games promote all sorts of academic and social-emotional skills!), read books with them and to them (ask them questions throughout), and talk! Have conversations with your children about their thoughts, fears, hopes, desires.  Integrate lessons into real-life activities and experiences. This makes learning more engaging and relatable. This could include having students follow a recipe to practice fractions or heat transfer.  It can also be an opportunity for students to shop for groceries with a budget.

Resources for Families

• FREE E-learning for Spanish Heritage Speaking Families in Dual

• Common Sense Media

• Everfi Remote Learning Activities

• Illustrative Mathematics Support

• Take a Code Break with Code.org

• Coronavirus Updates for Children that Learn Differently

Station Rotations

written by Kristen Harms/ posted by Elegan Kramer

The use of flexible grouping strategies, like station rotation, can facilitate student learning in multiple ways:

 

• Learning stations get kids to focus on small chunks of learning which keep them from getting overwhelmed

• This focus helps you scaffold skills one at a time and leads to deeper learning

• The kids have to get up and moving, away from their computers, which not only adds variety to the class but also helps the learning process while in distant learning

• It gives students the opportunity to take more ownership in their learning by providing choice and autonomy

• It allows learning to happen at a student’s level of need in small groups and/or individually

How to Make Station Rotation Work, Edutopia 

Analytics within Schoology

Are you wondering when a certain student engaged with your material in Schoology? Or if the student even opened the assignment in Schoology? You can determine this data in Schoology by going to Analytics, under the course tab. There you can see when students last logged on and when they were in your course last. Here’s a snippet of what it looks like:

  

Dig a little deeper by clicking on the student and selecting the material type to see how long they are manipulating with the material. This only monitors the time spent with Schoology materials. Any external tools, such as a link to a Zoom session or FlipGrid assignment, are not counted in the analytics. Also, it does not account for students logging through the Schoology app on their phones.

This data is NOT in real-time and is only updated at certain times of day as preset by Schoology. In other words, you cannot monitor this during videoconferencing to see if certain students have their assignments or assessments opened.

Use this data paired with your videoconferencing observations to determine which students, families, and team members you need to reach out to.