February 2024

Posted by Ed Services on 2/8/2024

Assistant Superintendent- Janet Vinson

Classroom library guidelines

With new administrative rules promulgated by the Oklahoma State Department of Education, teachers are now required to submit lists for all classroom library books and the district uploads these to the OSDE during the accreditation process. To provide an easy method to inventory and record titles, Ed Technology is sharing a scanning tool that can be used with a cell phone or scanner and it populates a CSV. file that principals will collect, combine and submit to the Assistant Superintendent of Ed Services for accreditation reports. Watch for easy to follow instructions for this process. In addition, the district and board of education have agreed to pay library aides to help in the inventory of library items during the May 3, 2024 professional development day. Thank you for your help in meeting our OSDE accreditation requirements!

GenCyber Cowboy Teacher Cybersecurity Academy

The Department of Computer Science at Oklahoma State University is hosting GenCyber Cowboy Teacher Cybersecurity Academy on Stillwater campus during June 24 - June 28, 2024, along with Pre-Academy Activity (March 9, 2024) and Post-Academy Activity (September 14, 2024). The academy provides cybersecurity summer camp experience for Oklahoma middle and high school science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) teachers. In addition, various pre/post-academy activities are designed to help teachers prepare for academy activities and incorporate cybersecurity knowledge and pedagogical strategies in their practice, respectively.

Academy Highlights:

Free to all teachers
Free meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner)
Free housing (furnished 1 bedroom/1 bath private dorm) for teachers who commute long distances
$1,200 stipend after completing Pre/Post-Academy Activities and Summer Academy
Lectures from cybersecurity faculty in the Department of Computer Science
Invited talk from cybersecurity expert
Free cybersecurity educational materials
Cybersecurity curriculum and lesson plan design with K-12 pedagogical expert
Free field trip

Prior knowledge/experience of computer science and cybersecurity is NOT an application/recruitment requirement for the academy. The academy application is now open and will close at 11:59 pm, March 1, 2024 or until all seats are filled, whichever comes first. Elementary teachers are also welcome to apply and will be considered if the academy does not fill up with middle/high school teachers. Additional information regarding the GenCyber Cowboy Teacher Cybersecurity Academy can be found at www.cs.okstate.edu/gencyber.

If you have any questions, contact [email protected].

Ed Tech- Sarah Shipman

The 1:1 initiative has provided students with equitable access to computers. In addition to equity, the 1:1 initiative provides teachers with the opportunity to provide innovative and engaging lessons.

Interesting Facts About 1:1

Technology fatigue is REAL. Watch for these symptoms in your students.
- mental fatigue
- decrease in motivation
- anxiety
- exhaustion when having to use devices over long periods of time
Research tells us that handwriting increases brain activity and creates higher levels of recall and memory. Look at some great times to write instead of typing.
- worksheets
- spelling practice
- writing and essay
- review
- and so much more….
Innovative and engaging ways to use technology
- Virtual Field Trip
- Game style reviews
- Creating digital content
- Provide immediate feedback
- Multimedia presentations
- Augmented reality
- Virtual science labs

Ed Tech would love to help you and your teaching teams learn to use technology in an innovative way. Please reach out to [email protected] if you would like Ed Tech support or training.

Tech- Bryan Bloomer

Cybersecurity is inconvenient, but necessary. Some of you may have noticed during our recent password change that we increased our minimum password character requirements from 8 to 10. Did you know that this simple increase in password complexity has now made our district passwords over 40,000% more difficult to crack? As inconvenient as it may be to have to change your password, you can take solace in the fact that you have helped do your part to keep our students and staff safe from cyber threats. As other K-12 districts have discovered, failing to take preventative measures to secure the sensitive data of our students and staff can prove disastrous, especially since public school districts are now the #1 target for ransomware attacks. Here’s some password tips to help stay safe and secure:

Longer is better. The longer a password is, the more possible permutations it has, making it more difficult for cybercriminals to crack.
Avoid personal information. Putting information like names or birthdays in your password only makes it easier to be cracked, as such information is easily found online.
Don’t reuse the same password. It’s tempting to use a single, memorized password for all your various accounts, but doing so is essentially giving cybercriminals a “master key” to your entire online portfolio. Instead, you should use a different password for each account, and use an online password manager to help you easily manage and remember them.

We are excited to pilot some new tech in several classrooms at the middle school, junior high, and high school this semester! These classrooms have been equipped with new Promethean Interactive Flat Panels as well new discreet wireless microphone systems for teacher voice amplification. Over the remainder of the school year, we will continue to outfit these rooms with additional classroom tech and monitor teacher feedback on its ease of use and impact on instruction. Assuming all goes well, we hope to roll this tech package out to most secondary classrooms in the future as budget allows. Stay tuned for more info!

Director of Elementary- Diane Fix

LETRS PD for Summer including Pre K LETRS!!! Dates coming soon!

A BIG shout out to the Math Adoption Committee! They have been working hard! We have started the evaluation process with curriculums! All reps should be sharing information with their grade level teams! We are hoping to have a decision before Spring Break!!

The MOY of the year data is in for both Math and ELA. We are growing! Keep up the great work that is happening in each and every classroom! Stillwater is lucky to have the BEST teachers!

CALTS - Did you know we have 9 Certified Academic Specialists in our district (at least one at each elementary site and one at the MS) and 4 more going through the process! CALTS see students who qualify for Characteristics of Dyslexia! This is a two year intensive process!

OSTP testing will be here soon! If you are a testing grade level, please be sure to look at the test and item specs for ELA and Math on the OSTP assessment page of the State Department website! They have changed! There are lots of great testing resources on this page!

Director of Secondary- Ashley Moore

Things I LOVE about Secondary

Do you know why I love being the Director of Secondary Education? Because I get to support secondary teachers and administrators every day. It truly brings me great joy to walk into each secondary school building. So far in 2024, I’ve had the opportunity to

Meet with the incredible math teams at SMS, SJHS, and SHS on math adoption.
Collaborate with the HS ELA team on PLCs.
Facilitate vertical alignment with the JH and HS Computer Science and BMITE programs.
Collaborate with Instructional Coaches to plan New Teacher meetings.
Support the implementation of Read180 and Math180 programs at SMS and SJHS!
Support SMS as the ELA and Math teams implemented the NWEA screener in December for the first time. Great work SMS!

Spring Secondary Reminders:

SPEF Teacher Grants are due February 21st! Apply HERE.
Secondary Math Teachers are evaluating math curriculum this month!
Club Sponsors, Coaches, and Administrators - Thank you for your constant support of our secondary students in and out of the classroom! We know that students who are involved in activities and/or athletics are more likely to have passing grades, positive behaviors, and graduate on time. Your support is appreciated!
SMS, SJHS, HS, SPVA, and LA Counselors, Teachers, Admin, and Staff, thank you for your efforts and involvement in scheduling for SY24-25! It is a lengthy process, but all of your patience and support is appreciated!
OSTP, CCRA, and ACT Assessments are coming…. Are you ready? Contact your site Building Test Coordinator (BTC) for any questions you may have. Click HERE for Grades 6-8 & 11 assessment materials.
Tamie Sanders, our Solution Tree Coach, will be visiting each site:
- Feb. 13th - SMS
- Feb. 14th - SHS
- Feb. 15th - SJHS

Multilingual Learner Department (EL)- Stephanie Coca

ACCESS Language Proficiency Testing has started! If you have an ELL student, please know that they will be pulled for 4 hours of testing between January and March. Testing must be completed before spring break. As you can imagine, student are not too excited about this testing, so your encouragement to them to try their best would be greatly appreciated!
Reminder: Please use Language Line or an interpreter to speak with your multilingual families. This is not only a Federal Requirement, but parents really love to know what is happening with their children. Great communication is great PR for SPS. If you are nervous about how to do this or just need help, please contact Stephanie Coca.
Teaching Strategies that are beneficial to ELLs in the classroom:
- Slower/enunciated speech.
- Visual supports to your lesson (pictures, videos, written notes).
- Other Classroom supports:
  - Partially or completely filled out graphic organizers of current lesson.
  - Relevant Content videos assigned before the lesson in student’s first language to create background knowledge,
  - Hands on activities
Please reach out to Stephanie Coca or one of our Multilingual Specialists(EL Specialist) for ideas on how to adapt a lesson plan to best meet the needs of your ELL students.

Stillwater Public Schools