From the Director's Desk

Greetings Administrators, Teachers, and Librarians,

This has been an exciting fall semester in the Instructional Technology Department!

We began the year with great news - Lamar Academy was awarded the Vision 2020 Technology Immersion Grant by the Texas Education Agency. The grant, which totals approximately $500,000, will provide one laptop per student and teacher and a variety of online educational technology resources. Implementation of Project ACCESS (A Computer per Child Empowers Students to Succeed) has started and we expect the project to be a success.

During the month of August, the Instructional Technology department visited each campus to assist teachers with classroom web pages, grade book, CSCOPE, Gaggle email, and district email accounts. We enjoyed visiting with administrators, teachers, and librarians and meeting new staff.

On September 15th, we began the distribution of Parent/Guardian Website Accounts. The purpose of the Parent/Guardian Website Accounts is to increase parent involvement by allowing parents to view homework, events, email their child’s teachers, view grades, and attendance. McAllen ISD believes effective communication and accountability are essential to the success of our school system and that students benefit immeasurably when parents are well informed and involved in their children’s scholastic life.

Our staff development sessions began late September and will continue until mid-December. Some of the favorite sessions include: Electronic Scrapbooking, Web 2.0 Tools, and creating audio lessons. Click here for a schedule of training sessions.

Available this year to middle school students is Easy Tech by Learning.com. Easy Tech is our new 8th Grade Technology Application adoption online curriculum. EasyTech is a Web-delivered technology literacy curriculum that integrates technology into Math, Science, Language Arts and Social Studies. The 8th Grade Technology Application teachers have been trained and program implementation has begun at all middle schools. Teacher training will be during the spring semester. Easy Tech also offers FREE parent access to assist parents in developing their technology literacy skills.

Student technology contests! Our first student contest is available online. We will post a different contest each six weeks until the end of the year. Each contest provides students with the opportunities to improve their technology literacy skills by using McAllen ISD educational technology resources such as SchoolFusion, Gaggle email, Discovery Education Streaming, and more. The McAllen ISD Student Multimedia Contest has begun also. Students are encouraged to work individually or in teams to create videos, digital audio, multimedia presentations, digital graphics, and digital animations. First, second, and third place winners will be entered into the state technology student contest.

We continue to provide support for programs/initiatives such as CSCOPE, Skyward Educator Access Plus, FitnessGram, Distance Learning, AEIS-IT, the Migrant Institute of Technology, Campus Technology Plans, NCLB Title II Part D, Enhancing Education Through Technology projects, the Technology Applications TEKS, iSafe Internet Safety, and new technology hardware and software.

As the fall semester ends, I would like to express my sincere appreciation and gratitude to all of the administrators, teachers, and librarians who have assisted in providing the best instructional technology solutions for our staff and students.

Carmen Garcia, Director for Instructional Technology