Ballard Technology Teams

The Ballard Community Schools strives to create a technology-rich environment for our K-12 learning community.  The district's commitment to technology is strongly aligned to our desire to provide the best teaching and learning environment for our students, teachers, and staff.  We collaboratively work with others to ensure we are providing staff, teachers and students with the best learning environment possible.

This school year Ballard has three active technology teams (volunteer teachers), two Technology Leaders (TLC) and one Technology Integrationist.  Each team has the same foundation, but how they fulfill their purpose is quite unique based on the building and student age group for their specific building.  The main purpose of each team is the following:

• Assisting teachers with integrating technology into their curriculum.
• Supporting teaching and learning through the use of technology.
• Leading the way for the purposeful integration of technology in the classroom.
• Learning about and supporting staff with resources and tools for the transformation of technology integration.
• Planning and providing PD opportunities at district and building levels.
• Reviewing and piloting potential building purchases of instructional technology-related products, services, and devices.

Each team is also driven by the needs of the classroom teachers and the building principal.

If you see any of the following teachers please be sure to thank them for volunteering their time. They are making Ballard the best we can be by going above and beyond for our students, staff and community.

Ballard West 

Kylie Schipper - K
Kim Mikkelsen - 2nd & Technology Lead

Jake Skurdal - Special Ed

Ballard East 

*Zach Zeiss - 3rd Grade 

Kelsey Hinders - 3rd Grade 

*Jessica Demry - 4th Grade

**Melissa Lee - 4th Grade 

Taylor Hauser - 5th Grade
Ashley Freese - 5th Grade
*Heather Vander Wilt - Specials 

Deb Malone - Librarian Assistant

Ballard MS 

(Building is currently under construction this year and 8th grade is located at the high school.)

Ballard HS 

Catherine Mein – Social Studies 

*Lisa Ronca – Speech/Technology 

Nathan Smith - Math
*Jen Dovre - District Media Specialist & Technology Lead

* - Will be attended the ITEC (Iowa Technology & Education Connection) conference in Des Moines on Tuesday, October 15th.

** - Co-presented at the ITEC (Iowa Technology & Education Connection) conference in Des Moines on Tuesday, October 15th.

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs

Breaking News

We have some exciting news to share this fall.  Be sure to follow BallardTech
 ( @BCSDTechEDU) on Twitter.  Throughout the summer we will be posting a few clues to help you figure out the upcoming excitement at Ballard East and the middle school.

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs

Summer Chromebook Expectations (6th - 7th & 9th - 11th Grades)

Below you will see the expectations for Ballard Community School's Chromebook during the Summer break. You may also view the expectations by clicking on this link  Summer Chromebook Expectations (Google Doc).

Ballard CSD Summer Chromebook Expectations

If you will not be enrolled as a student at BCSD next fall, please return your Chromebook, charger, and case to your school office at the end of the school year.

Ballard CSD students in grades 3-12 have the great opportunity to utilize a Chromebook for learning during the school year. To encourage ongoing educational opportunities, students in grades 6-7 & 9-11 will continue to have access to their Chromebooks by taking them home during the summer months. To assist you, the district is providing the following tips for summer Chromebook use:

Care

Keep Chromebooks away from pets or young children.

Avoid heat and direct sunlight.

Avoid liquids-beware of wet swimsuits and towels.

Keep Chromebooks plugged into a surge protector when they are not in use.

Lack of charging may result in damage to the battery. The cost of a replacement battery ($47.50) is the responsibility of the student/guardian.

Chromebook should remain in its provided bag at all times to help protect the device from severe damage.

Monitoring Activity

Families should continue to monitor use at home by checking the Chromebook browser and observing student use. Instructions on how to check a browser is available at the Families always have the right to limit use over the summer.

For your security, your password should not be shared. Also, reminder this is a school device, not a personal device; please do not use anyone else’s account on your school Chromebook.

GoGuardian monitoring software and accessibility remains active during the summer.

For further questions, review the district’s 1:1 technology information available via the Ballard District 1:1 Parent Webpage.

Repairs/Damages

Chromebooks that need repairs may be brought to the District Central Office between 9:00 A.M. and 3:00 P.M. Monday - Thursday except for holidays. A repair form should be filled out prior to bringing the broken Chromebook to the District Office, if possible, and is available here. The Ballard student must be signed into his or her school account to access the form.  If the student is unable to access their school account, a kiosk will be available at the District Office to complete a repair form.

DO NOT attempt to do repairs on your own.

While Chromebooks will be repaired as quickly as possible, replacements are not available over the summer.

The student will be contacted by their student email when the Chromebook is ready to be picked up.

A letter will be sent home to the parent if there are any fees that must be paid before repairs are made.

Broken chargers must be returned along with $10 before receiving a new one.

DO NOT attempt to do repairs on your own.

Repair Form

If you will not be enrolled as a student at BCSD next fall, please return your Chromebook, charger, and case to your school office at the end of the school year.

Repair Questions: Eric Peterson - IT Support Specialist     515-597-2811
General Questions: Dave McGill - Technology Director      515-597-2811

8th Grade: Chromebook Check-In Details

8th Grade: Chromebook Check-In Details

Dates: Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Times: During Class Time

Bring: Chromebook (in Chromebook case) and Charger.

Remove personal USB devices from your Chromebook.

Fines if lost: $250 - Chromebook   $10 - Charger

        * Fines need to be paid before you can check out. *

See Mr. Maher if you have questions.

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs

BreakoutEDU Update

It has been four years since BreakoutEDU has gone world wide. Since then, the game has evolved into a digital format. Digital Breakouts are websites which contain hidden clues and have an embedded Google Form, where the students enter answers to digital padlocks.  You can even have students create these Breakouts since they do not require any equipment, apart from a digital device. Students can either complete the Digital Breakouts individually, in small groups or a large group.  A new feature to the BreakoutEDU Digital Breakouts is the Tags Apps by BreakoutEDU. These apps allow players to scan BreakoutEDU Tags during a BreakoutEDU game. The app also includes a QR Code scanner and a RFID reader to help players open clues during games. The Tags App is now available for both iOS and Android.

Back in November 2015, there was an article about a new concept called BreakoutEDU in the Ballard Dimensions and the BallardTech Blog. BreakoutEDU is an immersive learning game platform that allows student to practice their skill on working with a diverse group of peers to solve a complex problem. Checkout the article here: http://bit.ly/2WJ0610

BreakoutEDU was founded by James Sanders in 2015. James was a middle school History and English teacher in South Los Angeles and then taught history in the San Francisco Bay Area for many years. He went on to be a White House Innovation Fellow and served as the Chief Innovation Officer at the EdTechTeam.

James was attending a conference in Edmonton Canada with a few colleagues and some of his colleagues'  high school students. They all decided to experience an Escape Room together.  An Escape Room is when one pays money to be locked in an actual room with clues/puzzles that need to be solved in order to successfully "breakout" of the locked room.

While participating, James noticed how the high school students "sprung into action and immediately began collaborating, problem solving and persevering through" to try to solve the different clues in order to breakout of the room.  James thought to himself, "This is exactly what we want to have happen in the classroom."  After brainstorming with his colleagues on how they could replicate this in a classroom, the group knew it might be problematic if they locked students in a room, and this is when the BreakoutEDU locked box was created.

BreakoutEDU is a box that is locked with different types of padlocks.  The students solve different puzzles/clues to figure out how to unlock each of the padlocks to open the box.  The puzzles can be aligned to all different academic areas and ages.  These games can be used to introduce and/or teach core academic subjects including math, science, history, language arts and have embedded standards that apply problem solving strategies within a real world OR collaborative context.  These games require students of all ages (including adults) to communicate, collaborate and think (critically and creatively). Each of these skills allow students to practice working with a diverse group of peers to solve a complex problem.

A few of our Ballard teachers who have already brought BreakoutEDU to their students are: Mrs. Zielke, Mrs. A. Hokel, Mr. Fjelland, Mr. Macki, Mrs. Adams, East Library, Mrs. Johnson, Mrs. Wheeler, Mrs. Wesselmann, HS Tech Team, HS PD, Mr. Dovre, and Mrs. Barbaglia.

If you are interested in having a BreakoutEDU game (physical and/or digital) modeled in your classroom, would like assistance creating a game or have any questions about BreakoutEDU be sure to contact your Technology Integrationist, Jody Kelley at jkelley@ballard.k12.ia.us.

Additional Resources:

BreakoutEDU:

home page: https://www.breakoutedu.com/welcome

pricing page: https://www.breakoutedu.com/pricing

Not wanting to purchase a kit: Checkout a basic kit from your Technology Integrationist by emailing her at jkelley@ballard.k12.ia.us . She will be more than happy to assist with finding free games, creating games, setting up games, and/or playing a game (physical and/or digital) in your classroom.

old games: https://www.breakoutedu.com/gamesold1

References

“CONTACT.” Breakout EDU, www.breakoutedu.com/contact.

“James Sanders.” EdTechTeam, www.edtechteam.com/keynotes/james/.

Magiera, Jennie. “Breakout Edu: Escape From the Traditional Classroom.” Education Week
- Teaching Toward Tomorrow, 21 July 2015, blogs.edweek.org/teachers/teaching_
toward_tomorrow/2015/07/breakoutedu_escape_from_the_tr.html.

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs

HS Digital Citizenship: Year Two

Annually, since 2015, students, parents, and teachers representing our HS, MS and East buildings have completed a survey, designed by Clarity BrightBytes, regarding technology access, use, and knowledge. Our High School Technology Team (Catherine Mein, Nathan Smith, Lisa Ronca, Nick Steenhagen, Jen Dovre, Jody Kelley, and John Ronca) meets several times at the beginning of the school year to analyze the data and discuss areas for improvement.  Digital citizenship was identified as one of these areas.

The high school chose to spend time on digital citizenship the last two school years (2017-2019) because data collection from the prior years had shown there was a need.  This year's data reflected the time and effort of the technology team, high school teachers, the building Technology Leader (Jen Dovre), and administration who have been dedicated to this building-wide initiative. Please see the data below:

As you view the image above, you will see the red rectangle highlights the Digital Citizenship category.  The level of proficiency is reflected according to a specific color: Grey - Beginning, Pink - Emerging, Yellow/Gold - Proficient, Green - Advanced and Blue - Exemplary.

For the second year (2018-2019) in a row, the high school building facilitated Digital Citizenship lessons for all students in grades 9-12.  Approximately every month, advisory teachers lead a discussion related to a digital citizenship topic.  With it being our second year, the high school technology team, teachers, and administration felt it was important for the incoming freshmen to receive the same lessons that were presented to the high school students last year, while at the same time providing the 10th-12th grade with new lessons.  The new lessons often included a new topic.  If the students had a lesson on a similar topic the previous year, we designed the lesson with either a different perspective and/or a deeper level of critical thinking.

These conversations encourage students to continue their discussion outside of the classroom. For example, after the Cyberbullying lesson last year, student council designed and implemented a building-wide Bullying Report Form for the high school students.

Below, you will find links to this year's lessons.

Click HERE for the lesson links after reading the *Note.

*Note: Due to the fact that these lessons were specifically designed for our Ballard students, in order for a parent/guardian to view these lessons, please have your Ballard student log into his/her Ballard account on a Chrome browser before selecting the link or entering the URL in a Chrome browser Omnibox (address bar).



After viewing this year's Clarity BrightBytes data, the high school teachers have selected to concentrate on the teacher category of the 4Cs and the subcategory of communication.  They also shared that they would like to continue the Digital Citizenship Lessons in the future.  How this will all take place or what it will look like is going to be determined by the high school teachers, tech team, and administration.  The digital citizenship planning process will begin June 2019 and the 4Cs: Communication planning process will begin next school year (2019-2020).

Previous HS Digital Citizenship Blogs:

11/30/17 - Digital Citizenship at the High School: http://bit.ly/2z6FRkc

5/18/18 - Digital Citizenship at the High School Continued http://bit.ly/2s20aen

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs

Senior Chromebook Check-In Details

Seniors: Chromebook Check-In Details

Dates: May 16-May 17 (Thursday - Friday) 2019

Times: 8am-3pm

Location: HS Library 2nd Floor

Bring: Chromebook and Charger and Checkout sheet.

Remove personal USB devices from your Chromebook.

Fines if lost: $250 - Chromebook   $10 - Charger

        * Fines need to be paid before you can check out. *

See Mrs. Dovre if you have questions.

Seniors: Save Your HS Work to Personal accounts

Files on Google Drive:

Your Ballard Google account will expire around July 1st. To maintain access to those documents

after your account expires, you have two options for saving your work.

1. Transfer your work to a personal Google Account.

Follow these directions: https://takeout.google.com/transfer?pli=1

2. Download your work for a home computer.

Follow these directions: https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout

Files on School Network Drive:

You may have saved work on our School Network (My Libraries).

Here are two options for saving this work:

1. Upload files to a personal Google Drive account
2. Bring an external storage device to school and save files to the device.

(4 MB flash drives available via the HS LMC for $5.00.)

Update your Email Address:

If you used your school email address (@ballard.k12.ia.us) for scholarships, resumes,

or online applications, you’ll want to update that email address with a personal email address.

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs

ITEC Technology Fair

ITEC Technology Fair

 On April 25th, five 8th grade students Lara Jones, Emily Rochleau, Gracie Ross, Ava Gibson, Kathryn Wilken, and Mr. Thein, attended the ITEC Technology Fair held at ISU in Ames. This fair provides PK-12 students the opportunity to showcase their technology skills and projects.  Based on rubric scores, students are awarded ribbons for their quality of the project and presentation to judges. Exemplary entries are invited to present their projects a the ITEC Fall Conference in Des Moines. There are three levels of ribbons at the ITEC Fair, Purple (Exemplary), Blue (Awesome! Or Thumbs Up) and Red (Getting There).

The two Ballard middle school groups presented their projects entitled Animation Commercial and Animation Storytelling. Both groups were very excited to receive a blue ribbon for their hard work. This was the first time Ballard Middle School students attended the ITEC Fair and hope to have more entries in the future.  

                                   

West STEAM Bins

Thank you again to the BEF for their support!

Mrs. Mikkelsen’s group received a Laser Maze, Zoob Construction Set - 250 pieces, 2 - Straws & Connectors, and 2 - Code & Go Robot Mouse

Mrs. Hokel’s group received a Zoob Construction Set - 250 pieces, Straws & Connectors and Code & Go Robot Mouse.

Mrs. Schipper’s group received a Zoob Construction Set - 250 pieces, Code & Go Robot Mouse, and an Aircraft Engineer.

Not pictured, Mr. Skurdal’s group received an Electronic Snap Circuits and GEOMAG Kor Tazoo Toco

Twitter: @BCSDTechEDU

(Tweets are related to technology enhancing the Ballard classrooms.)

Hashtags:

West - #bcsdwest

East - #bcsdeast

Middle School - #bcsdms

High School - #bcsdhs