"Automated personalization" sounds like an oxymoron but when you use blended learning tools programs you remediate and enrich students without writing separate lesson plans.

​It gives students a supported challenge and sometimes a choice as well and makes personalization easy if you are trying to implement it on your own.

the CMS Student Portal is one stop shopping for tech sites that will help your students.  

(If you don't know what all those tools are click here for definitions http://www.cmslearns.org/student-portal )


CMS logins and directions for Dreambox and Compass Learning - note student password changes 

if you are looking for a game or tool for a specific topic or objective (like this for DNA or this for multiple topics ) I will be happy to help you find one to suit your goals.



​More Tech Tools:Digital Classroom Resources http://www.cmslearns.org/digitalclassroom/
GAFE (Google Apps For Education) Google Docs, Google Classroom etc.
Free Office 365 for CMS students and staff - up to 5 computers per login 


Related Links:
Sites for Students to Save Your Sanity http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/sites-for-your-students
A Primer on Blendspace http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/blendspace-bailey-style 
Real Teachers Talk Tech Tools http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/news-and-thoughts/1
We're 1:1 now what http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/11-now-what
Chromebook Rollout and Tools  http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/11-chromebook-rollout 
includes the student a-z and teacher a-z guides.

Mr. Parkins, Dean of Students notes 

2 new programs purchased for everyone to use. (Passwords must be requested from CMS)

http://www.problem-attic.com/
http://www.edgenuity.com/ (information site)
https://learn.education2020.com/educator/ (educator sign in)

These are in addition to CMS purchase of GAFE (GoogleDrive, Google Classroom) Compass Learning, Dreambox, DiscoveryEd, and others you may already be familiar with.


 Check here for a full list http://www.cmslearns.org/blended-learning/

If you've wondered

• Can I get some PD on how can I use these Chrome books to differentiate?
  
•  Is there more to 1:1 than not having to go to Signup Genius anymore, having to charge the device at night, and creating a class job called "Google jockey" to look up questions that arise?  
  
• Am I using my Google Classroom or Edmodo or Wiki or Weebly its utmost?
  
• Is there a way to more efficiently reach each student so no one is bored or in over their head with my content?
  

CMS offers a quick series of self paced courses for you on the concept of differntiation. Click through them anytime between now and May 15th. You can register for any or all of these courses, do them at your own pace, at school or home, with friends or alone. There is no homework, and they will give you confidence and a better overall vision of how to best use 1:1 to  personalize and blend. 

Want To Register?:

1. Go to MyTalent 
   
2. Log in with the first part of your email address (before the @cms...) as your username.The password is Cm$xxxxx where xxxxx represents the last five digits of your Social Security number.
   
3. search by course number 413905, 413908, 414004, 413980 then click register.Then select the Professional Learning tab to search for the courses above.

• INS Self-Paced Differentiating Learning Environment (Online) 413905
  
• INS Self-Paced Differentiating Content (Online) 413908
  
• INS Self-Paced Differentiating Process and Product (Online) 414004
  
• INS Self-Paced Differentiating Tools of Depth and Complexity (Online) 413980

After registering for a course, return to your Professional Learning page and click on the course name to start!

I did all courses and quizzes in a few hours total, the resources were mostly review but good (except they still link to learning styles quizzes even though learning styles tests are scientifically invalid as we all use different modalities according to task, mood and interest)

To make sure the courses count for renewal contact your district specialist. Apparently there are differences in whether they are accepted or not. 

We have also put in an application for a grant to have experts come in to help us tweak our current system if you want. We'll let you know if we get them and offer anyone who's interested to have a helper come work with you. In the meantime, Lisa Gurthie is happy to come to your room, team planning, or department PLC.

Now that we have 1:1 devices every day; now that we can trust we have access to tech daily, how should that change our teaching? How do we ensure these changes are worth it to us and to the students? 

As Ms. Barone has said, we never want to be a school where children are glued to a screen all day and not doing the active collaborative IB learning that makes Piedmont so awesome. But, how do we use these screens for learning?

From your powerschool homescreen click on Schoolnet and follow these instructions via the most talented plain english speaking tech facilitator I know, Mindra Wise:

http://westmecktesting.weebly.com/uploads/2/2/8/0/22803412/do-it-yourself_schoolnet_training.pdf

5 Easy Steps To Add a File to Drive: 

Step 1- Log into your Google Drive so it will be open when you need it.
Step 2- Go to your download list, documents or even thumb drive list, 
Step 3 - Click and hold the file name you wish to add
Step 4- Drag it to the Google Drive Screen
Step 5- Let it go

That's it! It' "drops" into Drive and you see a big blue dot as it uploads.
They are there forever and you are now FREE to delete them (because I know half of you have run out of district document storage space on your school computers - and don't even get me started on your email space- you can now download all those attachments you've been saving in your email, drag them into google drive and delete!!!

How easy is that?

Here's how it looks with Downloaded Files (using Google Chrome but will work from other browsers):

And here's how it works from your documents library (file folder icon at the bottom of our  Windows 7 school computers)

If you want to convert those files make sure you have that turned on in settings. More info about that and how to publish to the web from Drive here http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/how-to-publish-to-the-web-and-embed-with-drive

If you'd like your slideshows, documents, surveys, or other to be instantly viewable for anyone straignt from your website, here are directions:
First upload the item to the web  as shown here http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/piedmont-pd/easiest-way-to-add-files-to-your-google-drive

here is how to do that from Google Drive and get the code from Google Drive by "Publishing to the Web":

Here is how to paste the code into Wikispaces and Weebly so you can see it on your site.
 to get and embed code from Youtube 

You can do the same thing with photos too