Hello Unionville-Chadds Ford! While we continue to deal with uncertainty, communication has become more important than ever. We feel sharing our Technology Newsletter is important in order to empower our staff with tips and resources to get all of us through the remote/hybrid challenges of the pandemic. We're here to help with any of your technology needs. Don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns!

Contact the Technology Team - Technology Hotline - 610-347-0970 x3366 OR https://helpdesk.ucfsd.org

Tech Wellness Tip

FACING COVID-19 AND WINTER

Even in a normal year, winter weather and long nights can take a toll on your physical and mental well-being. This winter, the COVID-19 pandemic, job losses, and political discord may make the winter blues even more challenging. All of the uncertainty caused by the pandemic is making it harder for people to rely on coping strategies they normally use. Below are tips to safely boost your mental health this winter, while supporting the well-being of your family and friends.

1. Connect virtually with friends and family - Catch up with loved ones virtually or outdoors in a socially distant setting. Even talking with someone on the phone can be helpful. Schedule a digital social hour or bring your friends together to participate in trivia sessions, movie screenings, and other activities through video chat.

2. Prioritize sleep and healthy eating - Get a good night’s sleep. Lack of sleep is associated with increased risk for depression and negative mental health effects. Getting a healthy amount of sleep improves mental and emotional resilience. Pay attention to your diet and eat healthy. Diets high in processed foods and refined sugars have been linked to worsening of mood disorders, including depression.

3. Stay active – inside and outside - Get as much exercise as possible. While going to the gym may be challenging or impossible due to COVID-19 risk, consider using online videos to guide your at-home workouts. Outdoor workouts are still possible in the winter, too. Hiking, or even a short winter walk outside can help you relax and reduce your stress load. 

4. Find a hobby - Winter might be a good time to pick up a hobby, or an activity that you know can keep you entertained. * Scrapbooking is a fun hobby that you can take up alone or virtually with a group of friends. It also lets you make beautiful gifts for friends and family members. * Woodworking is a popular hobby which lets you make practical items and cherished gifts with your own hands. Beginners can start with picture frames or simple toys. * Mixology - Grab some snacks and learn how to mix up your favorite drinks with some basic mixology videos. * Start a Podcast - Addicted to podcasts? Why not learn how to start one.

around the district

How K-12 Schools Use the Meeting Owl

1. Synchronous Distance Learning - Some schools are considering keeping classes fully remote in the fall, with students learning from home full-time. With distance learning, educators rely on synchronous and asynchronous learning tools to communicate and connect with students. The Meeting Owl can be used if teachers are teaching in a classroom setting (without in-person students) and want the flexibility to move around the classroom and write on the whiteboard. It allows teachers to hold synchronous classroom sessions with their students to increase student engagement and participation during remote classes. This synchronous, face-to-face class time is best used for activities that boost student engagement like: Presentations and lectures, Group brainstorming sessions, Traditional classroom activities (e.g., small group activities, puzzles, games)

2. Hybrid Learning - If your school plans to adopt a hybrid learning model, some students will attend class in-person while others join from home. In a social-distanced classroom setup, the Meeting Owl can capture the entire room. With its 360° view, students who join the class from home can see their teacher, the whiteboard, and their fellow classmates. This gives students who are learning remotely the feeling that they're in the room and allows them to connect and engage with their teacher and peers. 

With the Meeting Owl, students can learn from anywhere, and teachers can keep students engaged and connect with other educators, no matter where they're located. To see even more Meeting Owl use cases and classroom setups, check out the Meeting Owl for Education Guide. If you are interested in trying out the Meeting Owl, send in a help desk ticket request to helpdesk@ucfsd.net. Here is a short video about the Meeting Owl

behind the scenes

Teacher, Staff, and Student Support

Did you know….

Since August 1st our UCF Technology team has closed 2,829 tickets, that is an average of 708 tickets each month!

Since August 1st we responded to 379 online chats and answered 173 calls

Since August 1st our UCF Technology team has processed 204 employee add/remove/change requests, this is double from traditional years.

UCF Technology rolled out a 1:1 to our K-5 elementary school students. With the help of our District Para’s, we cleaned up and rolled out close to 500 iPads and 1200 Chromebooks. All within a three week time period!

UCF Technology rolled out 750 Chromebooks to our 6th and 9th grade students.

Clever - How do I re-print or create a new Badge for my students?

PowerSchool & Canvas Updates

Canvas Grading Period - Canvas courses now have the ability to display assignments and assignment groups by grading periods, which are similar to quarters. This feature keeps grades organized. Placement within a grading period is dependent on the assignment due date. Click the link for Canvas Grades Page instructions

Updates coming to PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook! Over the Winter Break, PowerSchool is planning an upgrade to version 20.11, which comes with many new helpful features. The new features include:

A “Preview Grades” option - With this new feature, teachers can preview how a certain score will impact a student’s overall final grade for the class, PRIOR to saving the score in the gradebook.

A Final Grades Report - With this new report, teachers will be able to generate a list that shows each student’s total points, final percent, final letter grade and comments for a specific reporting term.

Standards Grades by Term - With this new report, elementary teachers will be able to print or save a list showing the standards grades for each student for each term in a “pseudo-report card” view

Did you Know? Accessing help for PowerSchool and PowerTeacher is right at your fingertips!When logged into PowerSchool, either as an admin user or a teacher user, you have access to the entire library of help articles that PowerSchool has to offer. Simply click on thequestion mark icon in the upper right corner of your screen to be taken to a searchable site with dozens of how-to guides. You can also create an account in PowerSchool Community to access their full database of hundreds of articles, as well as user forums.

tip of the month

Adding captions in Zoom

Zoom supports live captioning during meetings and webinars. With this feature enabled, captions can be typed directly into Zoom. For details, see Getting Started with Closed Captioning in the Zoom Help Center.

Also, if a Zoom meeting or webinar is recorded and saved to the cloud, Zoom can generate captions for the archived video using automatic speech recognition (ASR). These typically require editing before they’re suitable for publication, but the ASR process can save substantial time over captioning video from scratch. For specific instructions, see Automatically Transcribing Cloud Recordings in the Zoom Help Center.

ASR captions can also be used in certain situations within Zoom. For example, if presenting using slides, both Microsoft PowerPoint and Google Slides have an automatic captioning feature. If you enable this feature during a Zoom meeting, all users would benefit from the automatic captions. For more information about these options see the relevant vendors’ help pages: Presenting with real-time automatic captions or subtitles in PowerPoint and Presenting Google Slides with captions

Important: ASR captions are not currently accurate enough to serve as an accommodation for people who depend on captions. Also, beware of automated captioning solutions (such as those in PowerPoint and Google Slides) that cannot be turned off by students who find them distracting

As always, if you run into issues you may contact your local technology folks or submit a helpdesk ticket - https://helpdesk.ucfsd.org

helpdesk

Technical Support Webpage and Support Offerings - Revamped!

Did you know that our Technology team has been hard at work creating help guides to all our staff, students, and community? Visit our website at https://www.ucfsd.org/departments/technology. You will find solution articles to common issues or help requests that are the most common. Our support structures have changed to add a chat line and hotline to the traditional email or helpdesk ticket system.

what else can you Find in The helpdesk?

Check out the UCF Tech knowledge-base. This resource functions like a repository, containing critical information for the daily functioning of technology throughout the district. It helps our staff access important information to address student issues, resolve problems, and gain insight for workforce collaboration. Our self-service knowledge base shares a library of solutions including PowerSchool, Clever, Canvas and more.

Need help? Having a tech issue?

Have a suggestion or topic? Email technewsletter@ucfsd.net