Staff Update: Help Crowdsource Student Technology Tech Help Links

GUHSD Teacher Librarians and Brent Enerva are working on a project that we hope will be helpful to students. We are collecting student-facing video tutorials and infographics around the wide variety of tech tools that students are using in the district.

Many of you may remember the GUHSDtech "Vault." Our idea is similar and actually inspired by teacher requests for resources so keep them coming! We want to create a student-facing resource where they can search and find videos and infographics that help them figure out how to use and troubleshoot the tech tools we're having them use.

We're hoping to gather resources that are relatively general: videos and images that could apply to many students across the district for commonly used tech tools. We're trying to crowdsource this. The more responses the merrier! Librarians will be working with district tech folks to curate what gets gathered.

Link to the form where you can submit tools you created/use - remember that our audience for these are students and their families (not internal info teachers & staff). 

Thanks in advance for anything you share! If you have questions or ideas, please reply to me, Suzanne (ssannwald@guhsd.net)

Staff Update: Chromebook Repair Exchanges, Insurance Purchasing Window, Librarian Help Line, and Sora Access

Chromebook Repair Exchanges Now Wednesdays 8-10am The weekly Chromebook repair exchanges continue on Wednesdays. The time slot has been moved to 8-10 am so that it does not overlap with live class Zoom sessions. If you have a student who needs immediate access to a Chromebook on other days (e.g., if they have no other technology options), please contact Jovan (jbessette@guhsd.net).

Chromebook Insurance Purchasing Window

If students ask about Chromebook insurance, refer to this information about how they can buy it. There is only a purchasing window at the start of each year (unless a student transfers in mid-year), and the deadline for 2020-21 is September 18, 2020.

Distance Librarian WHHS Help Line

Do you have students or parents who could use some extra one-on-one help navigating all of the tech programs for school? I am happy to help! Please feel free to share my information with them, and/or forward me their information, and I will reach out to them.

Sora Access for GUHSD (bit.ly/rst-sora)

This past summer, GUHSD access was set up for Sora, an eBook and audiobook lending app that now allows anyone with an @guhsd.net account to borrow books from the San Diego County Library’s OverDrive digital collection through single sign-on. Contact Suzanne if you have questions or want to discuss how you might use it.

Staff Update: Chromebook Annoucements, Default Textbook Due Date, The Danger of a Single Story, Library Services Menu

Chromebook Back-to-School Announcements for Students (bit.ly/wh-bts-cbs)

If you have students with Chromebook-related questions, please share this link with them, as it offers helpful info and links. If there are other tech-related needs that are not covered, let me know, and I’m happy to share more links or create new guidance.

Default Textbook Due Date

Textbook checkout is different than usual this year, but just in case this information is helpful for you, the default textbook due date for 2020-21 is Wednesday, May 19, 2021. After this date, students will be invoiced for textbooks still checked out on student accounts. See also: Destiny Staff Help.

The Danger of a Single Story & Diversifying Our Curriculum

The recent EPOCH training included a TEDTalk by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on The Danger of a Single Story. Perfectly complementing this, there are GUHSD students currently participating in a student-led Diversity Our Narrative movement. They have started an Instagram account @donguhsd that you can follow, and they recently shared this digital poster to invite petition signatures. Also along these lines, GUHSD’s new ELA/Literacy Curriculum Specialist Sophia Jacoub recently shared in her Literacy Link newsletter this “Library Learnings” resource on Updating Our Classroom Texts: Developing as Culturally Responsive Educators. I’d love to connect with you anytime to support related efforts!

How can the WHHS Teacher librarian support you? 

Please do not hesitate to contact me anytime throughout the year to collaborate in any of the ways (or more) shared in this linked menu.