The January newsletter’s focus is on Research & Study Skills using the RW4G WEB TOOLBAR and more! Don’t miss this month’s Teacher Feature! WriQ, a writing assessment tool from Texthelp (the same people that brought us Read&Write for Google). WriQ offers both free and premium features to help you improve student writing outcomes. Click on the link in the newsletter to learn more and check out the extension in the Chrome store!
Access to Flash-based browser content ends in December, 2020
Adobe Flash has been supporting online games, content, and interactive features since 1996. But due to the changing and evolving of newer technologies other mediums such as HTML5 which are more power-efficient and faster, Flash has become less and less popular. At one point 80% of the content on the internet was Flash-based. Since 2017, that number is down to 17%. Due to this, Adobe has determined an End of Life (EOL) date of December 31st, 2020 for the plugin.
What does this mean?
Many different learning websites including sites such as Starfall and CoolMathGames were entirely Flash-based. When the announcement by Adobe was made to end Flash (plugin player support/updates and distribution), many websites started to convert their content to HTML5 and other delivery mechanisms. However, it is up to websites to make this transition. So, as you are planning different learning activities for students, please ensure that you have vetted the website to see if it relies on Flash. A way to check to see if a site uses Flash, Right-clicking on any part of a website will make a box appear with options you can click on. If you see Zoom in at the top of the box and About Adobe Flash Player at the bottom of the box, then you know that you have Flash on the website.
If the site migrates to open web standards (such as HTML5), you shouldn’t notice much difference except that you’ll no longer see prompts to run Flash on that site. If the site continues to use Flash, and you give the site permission to run Flash, it will only work through the end of 2020.
For more information please check out these articles:
https://www.blog.google/products/chrome/saying-goodbye-flash-chrome/
https://theblog.adobe.com/adobe-flash-update/
New Seesaw Feature!

Saturdays With Moodle
The Dearborn Public Schools Technology Department is excited to announce a professional development opportunity for teachers: the Saturdays with Moodle series! They will offer 5 classes all about Moodle and some of its more popular features. Attend as many classes as you desire, and leave with something you can use in your classroom the next week! All classes are at the Administrative Service Center, 18700 Audette in Dearborn, and run from 9:00 am-1:15 pm. Cost is $50 per class.
See this flyer for registration information.
https://docs.google.com/
Happy Holidays and Last Tasks Before Break!
Classroomscreen.com offers simple web widgets when displaying your screen
If you browse to ClassroomScreen.com you can find a set of possibly useful widgets that can be displayed.
Currently, there are twelve widgets you can use on ClassroomScreen. You can display multiple widgets at once.
- Language – Choose to display text in a large range of languages
- Background – Customise your background with one of the images or GIFs provided. Or, you can upload or record your own background.
- Random Name/Dice – Enter the names of students and choose one at random. Or, roll one or more dice.
- Sound Level – Monitor classroom noise levels using the microphone on your device.
- QR Code – Enter a link and a QR code is automatically generated. Great when students have devices like iPads — they can come up to the board, scan the code and go straight to a site.
- Drawing – There are two sizes available where you can free draw. The larger sized canvas can replace the background if you wish.
- Text – A simple tool to write instructions, reminders, learning goals and so on.
- Work Symbols – Display one of four options: work together, ask a neighbor, whisper, and silence.
- Traffic Light – Display a red, amber, or green light to provide a visual reminder of when to move around, begin a task, pack up etc.
- Timer – Count up or count down, record “laps”, and more. You can customize the tone that rings when the time is up.
- Clock – Shows the time as a 12 or 24 hour clock. Also shows a calendar.
Additional Feature: ExitPoll
ClassroomScreen’s ExitPoll tool lets you get feedback from students.
You can ask students what they thought about the lesson or check for understanding by asking them a question about the lesson content.
Students simply walk past the interactive whiteboard, tablet, or computer at the end of the lesson and cast their vote.
You can access the ExitPoll tool by going to https://www.classroomscreen.com/exitpoll.html or use the icon at the bottom right of your screen.
Rejoice, LanSchool is Ready to Go! (Grades 3-8)
LanSchool, the program the district offers teachers for student device management and monitoring, can now be used with dynamically updated student rosters. For those teachers who have students using Chromebooks, especially teachers of 3rd through 8th graders, you can now install and use LanSchool by following directions we are providing. Please note, the following linked directions will NOT apply to new teachers or those new to Lanschool. If you are a new-to-the-district teacher this year, OR if you did not install Lanschool last year, please submit a service request so that a technician can install LanSchool for you: Service ticket
Additionally, if after following the directions linked below, you cannot get LanSchool to load your student rosters, you will also need to submit a service request: Service ticket
First, we’d like to apologize for the Lanschool delay. There were some unforeseen backend issues that had to be addressed related to rostering, Clever*, and Wayne RESA. Our department spent many hours over several weeks working with staff from Clever, LanSchool and WayneRESA to address these issues and we’re not quite done, but for many of you, the install and load should now be doable without our further assistance. Please follow these directions ONLY if you were using LanSchool last year: Click Here
While the directions have a lot of “clicks”, it should actually only take a couple of minutes to load and install.
*A quick note about our Clever / LanSchool integration. Since Clever (Single Sign-on), syncs nightly with MISTAR, and then LanSchool syncs with Clever, unlike last year, class rosters in Lanschool can now be kept up to date and all classes a teacher has in MISTAR (including previously unavailable homeroom classes) can now be loaded in LanSchool.
Instagram, Middle School, and Digital Citizenship
Read about how one middle school teacher is using Instagram in her ELA and Social Studies classes to address a real and present need in Digital Citizenship. It’s no secret that kids have Instagram accounts, and potentially multiple accounts as early as elementary school. 6th grade teacher Sara Landis notes: “I think it’s so important for them because they’re going to wade into that pool anyway. So, you’re either going to teach them to swim, or you’re going to watch them drown. So we need to give them the information that’s going to help them make informed decisions.”
Read more to learn how she is addressing this issue in a very real and practical way. LINK
Scratchwork for Math Class
Scratchwork is an online whiteboard and video conferencing tool designed with math students in mind. The platform works like many similar services as it provides you with a whiteboard on which you can draw, type, and import images to annotate. Scratchwork is a little different than other services because it includes a Latex editor for writing equations.
Giving students an opportunity to use digital math tools is an important part of the modern classroom and allows students to:
- Draw naturally… with what you already have: Turn your pen and paper drawings into digital objects with your webcam or phone. Or draw on a tablet and see the big picture on your computer.
- Develop your ideas: Reorganize, resize, and mark up your drawings. Upload and annotate PDF documents, or arrange your ideas on virtual pages to export as PDFs.
- Collaborate: Share and edit your boards with others in real time. Chat, audio, and video calls are built in.
There is a free version available that includes:
- 4 boards
- 100MB storage
- 3-way collaboration + video chat
- PDF export with watermark
- Basic math recognition
- URL sharing
UPDATE: Remind WILL Work with Verizon After January 28, 2019
Remind previously announced that their service would no longer work with Verizon after January 28, 2019 due to increased cost of Verizon text messaging services. It appears that Remind and Verizon have come to an agreement, which will prevent any interruption to Remind notifications sent to Verizon customers. While this is good news for now, we encourage staff to promote the use of the Remind app for notifications to avoid any potential future interruptions to text message notifications.
For additional details, please visit: https://www.remind.com/blog/verizon-update/