BRISD Twitter Chat #BRISDLearns

Tonight was the 2nd monthly BRISD Twitter Chat. The conversation focused around Chromebooks, Apps and Extensions. Lots of great information was shared. If you haven't joined in, we would love to have you. Stay tuned for information on next month's topic.

Below, you'll see a Storify stream with the tweets from tonight's chat. 
I'm excited that our staff is committed to #BRISDLearns! 

New Students Added to Programs

BRISD Staff:
I wanted to let you know the system this year for getting new student accounts on all the programs we use.

When a new student enrolls, a campus secretary will enter all needed information into a spreadsheet and email your campus iMPACT Team Lead (Pelzel, Fritchman, Stiney and McPherson.)

The Team Lead will inform the MANY WONDERFUL STAFF MEMBERS who are graciously offering to help in making these accounts:
Dayna Price, Rene' Sawatsky, Katie Pelzel, Melissa Stiney, Stephanie McPherson, Kimberly Fritchman, Scott Leslie, Mary Townsend, Sarah Hall, Dena Hamilton, Eduardo Vargas, and Patti Levi.

They will make the needed accounts within 2 days.

If you have a student who can't access the program within a couple of days, email your iMPACT Team Leader and they will investigate.

I have faith that this system will work beautifully and our students will have access to each program in a timely manner.

These programs include:

• Istation; PK-5
• Think Through Math; 3-8
• AR; K-8
• Go Math; K-8
• Science Fusion; K-5
• Google; 5-12
• McGraw Hill - Social Studies; K-12
• STEMscopes; 6-8
• Writing Coach; 6-8
• Compass Learning; 6-8
• Apex Learning; English I and II

* Also, Library System login and computer login.

Welcome Back to School, BRISD!

What a wonderful first day of school! After many months of planning and work, it was exciting to see the high school students logging on to their new Chromebooks for the first time. We anticipate that these devices will help our students with productivity, with being able to stay abreast of all their classwork through the use of Google Classroom and be exposed to unlimited resources during and after their school day.
We owe a big thank you to Eduardo Vargas and Kenneth Williams, BRISD employees, for all of their work during the spring and summer, preparing for the launch of our 1:1 Chromebook initiative at the high school. They are valued and we appreciate everything they have done. #BRISDPride

Great Learning at Revolutionizing Learning Conference

For the second year in a row, BRISD staff has participated in the Revolutionizing Learning Conference, held at Royse City ISD during the summer. Blue Ridge is part of CSTA (Community Schools Transformation Alliance), a network of surrounding schools whose purpose is to network together, sharing ideas and resources in order to improve student learning. The Revolutionizing Learning Conference brings together all of the CSTA districts for a two-day conference, which was held on July 27-28th. It was a great conference, full of new ideas and networking. We were especially proud of our BRISD teachers who taught at the conference:

Scott Leslie, Melissa Stiney, Stacey Raymer, Jennifer Stroup, Katie Pelzel, Kimberly Fritchman, Roma Morgan, Stephanie McPherson, Darenda Bush, Dayna Price, Paige Collins, and Teresa Wade.

Dusting Off the Old Blog...

With the start of a new school year and good communication being important, I felt that a blog would be the most effective way to pass along information and resources. 

In being an old Tech Apps teacher, I was always excited to try every new technology tool or gadget, including using a blog. "Back in the day," this is how I communicated with my students. At the time, there weren't Learning Management Systems like Google Classroom, Edmodo, Schoology, etc. so a blog was it! When I decided to implement an iMPACT Blog, I had to call back up my dusty blogging skills and get it going again.

I am excited to communicate with the district in this way. Hopefully, you'll feel up to date on events, deadlines, etc. and also pick up a few resources here and there.

You can bookmark this blog, or on the homepage, subscribe by email and all new posts will be emailed to you.

**After writing this post, I got a little nostalgic about my classroom days, so I pulled up some old pictures, which I've included. It reminded me once again how very precious our students are. They NEED us and our positive influence can leave a lasting impact.