Dearborn Public Schools
WebGuy
School districts in Wayne County have placed a proposal on the November 8th ballot to provide added funding for our schools. It is the “Regional Enhancement Millage Proposal.”
If approved by the entire county, the 2 mil proposal will generate approximately $6.2 million from Dearborn but the District will receive $7.8 million in additional funding for our schools. Money would go to local schools starting this year and the millage expires after six years.
School districts in Wayne County have placed a proposal on the November 8th ballot to provide added funding for our schools. It is the “Regional Enhancement Millage Proposal.”
If approved by the entire county, the 2 mil proposal will generate approximately $6.2 million from Dearborn but the District will receive $7.8 million in additional funding for our schools. Money would go to local schools starting this year and the millage expires after six years.
Dear Parents,
If you are an AOL email user, please be aware that you may not receive email notifications due to AOL policies. We are working to resolve this issue with AOL.
Thank you for your patience while we work with AOL to make sure you get classroom notifications from your teacher.
Sincerely,
Technology Department
https://iblog.dearbornschools.org/kwalsh/
In this guided tour we will look at how Mrs. Walsh at Woodworth Middle School designed her brand new classroom website using iBlog. Here is a run-down of what she has done so far.
What makes Mrs. Walsh’s website stand out is how she has maximized her communication workflow for both students and parents by utilizing both iBlog and Google Docs. The website sports a static homepage and all blog posts appear on a sub-page titled “Announcements”. Currently there are two additional links in the main menu which point to Google Presentations. These presentations are the same docs used during class for bellwork, agendas, and learning targets. There is no double work of posting daily homework. The Google Presentation does that! By using a presentation and linking it to the website, Mrs. Walsh is able to add new slides for each day and keep a monthly archive of everything they covered.
The first thing to do is to allow anyone with the link to view your Google Presentation. This is done through the sharing button inside Google Drive. Copy the shared link and go into your iBlog Dashboard > Appearance > Menus. Here you can create a custom menu. To add a link to your Google Presentation you simply paste the ling into the “Custom Link” area and add it to the menu.
The menu can be arranged however you like and can include links to pages, posts, post categories, and other websites. This give you the ultimate control over how your website navigation works.
In the next step you will be creating two new pages- Home and Announcements. You will most likely need to come back to the menus page to re-arrange and add in the new pages you create next. Be sure to click the checkboxes at the bottom of the page for Primary Menu and Automatically Add New Pages.
You can take a look at what here powerpoint looks like as a download in PDF here:
Language Arts Agendas October 5th – October 30th
Typically, websites on iBlog have all the posts appear on the homepage. You can move the posts off of the homepage and utilize a normal page as your homepage. To do this you must first go to Dashboard > Pages > Add New. Create a page and title it “Home”. Publish it. Create another page and title it “Announcements” and publish it. Now you can head over to the reading settings and let iBlog know you want to move your posts to the announcement page. Go to Dashboard > Settings > Reading and make the changes seen here.
If you have a cool website and want to share please send an email to kennibc@dearbornschools.org
In this guided tour we will look at how the wonderful staff in the ELL department designed their brand new department website using iBlog. Here is a run-down of what they have done so far.
What makes this site stand out is the clean design, custom menu, use of Google Drive, and static homepage. Read the rest of the tour to learn how you can implement some of these concepts in your classroom website.
Did you know that your iBlog website doesn’t have to show the posts on the homepage? Yep! You can have a nice clean homepage and have all your blog posts appear on a different page within your blog. That is exactly what the folks in the ELL department decided to do. To make this happen on your website do the following.
The custom menu allows you to organize links on the site. You can add links to pages, post categories, and other websites. The nice part of the custom menu is that it is all organized by drag and drop. You get to determine the order and can even create drop downs by simply moving a link to the right. Here is an image of what a custom menu looks like.
Notice the indented menu items? These are the drop downs that are generated when viewing the website. To build your custom menu you select items from the right column and add them to the menu. Once in the menu the item can be moved around simply by dragging it from place to place. Each theme is a little different so you have to tell your theme to use the custom menu. This is especially true when switching themes.
That’s it. iBlog allows you to have control over the user experience. You can customize your site as you want. Each department and teacher has the ability to create a fantastic experience for the viewer.
Join the many other teachers using iBlog and create your website using the simple step sheet and video tutorials.
View the Step Sheets and Video Tutorials to help you get up and running with iBlog.
Creating a classroom website in Dearborn Schools is easier than ever. Within 5 minutes you can be on your way to better parent communication and keeping students on track with homework and announcements. Use the built in email blaster to send out your message as soon as it hits your blog. iBlog is convenient, easy to use, and supported by Dearborn Public Schools.
Badges are a new feature that we are rolling out as part of our employee online training in iLearn. When you complete a set of criteria you are awarded a badge for completing the task. The criteria can be anything from getting a certain grade on a quiz to watching a video. When complete you will be rewarded with a badge!
There are three main employee training courses that we will be issuing badges: Bloodborne Pathogen Training, Office of Civil Rights Bilingual Training, and Response to Bullying Behaviour. When you have completed the course objectives you will receive one of the three badges below:
You can view your badges in iLearn
*Please note that it may take up to an hour before your badge will be displayed.
iBlog has been updated to the latest version of WordPress – 3.9.
Here is a video showcasing some of the improvements.
Here are the highlights that will be most apparent…
The updated visual editor has improved speed, accessibility, and mobile support. You can paste into the visual editor from your word processor without wasting time to clean up messy styling. (Yeah, we’re talking about you, Microsoft Word.)
With quicker access to crop and rotation tools, it’s now much easier to edit your images while editing posts. You can also scale images directly in the editor to find just the right fit.
Uploading your images is easier than ever. Just grab them from your desktop and drop them in the editor. You can also upload regular files such as PDF’s or Word Docs.
If you are currently using Moodle or are interested in using Moodle, please consider joining the new Michigan Moodle Users Group on Google Plus. We are building a community of support and collaboration to help teachers be successful in blended learning. Feel free to ask questions and share this group with others. Everyone from the classroom teacher to the techy types are encouraged to join.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/113077058997214337239
A little known secret in iLearn is the ePortfolio tool. This tool is built using software called Mahara and is fully integrated with iLearn. This tool allows students to collect, store, and display their work. They can form groups and more to share information, create pages, and connect with other students. They are able to build portfolios by choosing which pieces of work they want to share in pages. Writing, reflection, sharing – these are all traits of a good portfolio system and we have this tool ready and waiting for your students!
Teacher Robert Harrison at EFHS is a true pioneer (Not to be confused with a “pioneer” in the DHS sense) working with a blended learning classroom. His latest endeavor is having students write and reflect on their work using ePortfolios. The Mahara ePortfolio solution was ideal because his students were already familiar with logging into iLearn. The portfolio button is right on the iLearn homepage and easily accessible to students even if the teacher is not using iLearn for blended learning. By having the students store their lab reports, writing journals, and adding other learning material in the portfolio the students are able to produce, collect, and share their learning.
The best part is that the student at any time can export their entire portfolio and all their work as a zip file and take it with them! Lets take a look at a few images of what the student portfolios look like. Remember, the students build these on their own.
