ICYMI - Set Up the MiCollab Phone App on iPad (or iPhone)

You may want to take advantage of a new phone system feature—the ability to make and receive calls from your iPad (or iPhone) using your district phone number on your classroom or office phone.

Among other features, the MiCollab for Mobile app allows you to make and receive calls on iPad (or iPhone). If you make a call using the app outside the district, the call recipient will see your district phone number on their Caller ID—even if you are using the app on a mobile phone.

All staff members with an extension on the district phone system received an email from noreply@mitel.easydeploy.net when our new phone system was deployed at their building. The email included a QR Code to set up the MiCollab app. 

If you did not set up the app at that time, and if the email was delivered more than 30 days ago, you will need to request a new setup email from the district Tech Team. Requesting this setup email is easy: send your request via email to techsupport@barrington220.org. The Tech Team will generate a new setup email as soon as possible, hopefully within one working day from your request. Each setup email is customized to each user and contains a unique QR Code.

The full set of directions for using this feature, including the setup, is available in this handy guide:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1hgm64XK9CtDfLfiVhtm0kjnbgNoxyeq3rnRUESUVZSA/edit?usp=sharing 

If you need additional help, please contact our Tech Support Team (x. 1500 in the district).

Barrington 220 Presents at IDEAcon 2025

IDEAcon (formerly the “ICE Conference”) is the region’s largest annual education conference that focuses on innovative practices. According to the IDEA (Illinois Digital Educators Alliance) website: “There is something for all educators through the hundreds of sessions that allow you to customize your IDEAcon experience based on your own comfort level and curiosity.” 

Download PDF

This year Barrington 220 will be represented among the live sessions by several presenters:

Revolutionize your Digital Learning Hub and Bolster Instruction with AI Tools

• Monday, February 17, 2025, 1:45–2:45 PM (Schaumburg A)
• Barrington 220 presenters: Joe Robinson and Matt Fuller

Jump into the future of education with a comprehensive digital learning hub that seamlessly integrates AI tools and software solutions for both students and teachers. This session will showcase how Barrington 220 created a dynamic, user-friendly digital platform that enhances learning experiences and equips educators with the skills to use AI effectively. Participants will explore how to organize and promote a variety of AI tools and learn how to support teachers and students to implement them to foster personalized learning, streamline administrative tasks, and support real-world problem-solving skills. Join us to discover how to build a digital learning ecosystem that prepares students for the future.

How We Are Actually Implementing Real Authentic Learning

• Monday, February 17, 2025, 3:00–4:00 PM (Euphoria)
• Barrington 220 presenters: Joe Robinson, Melissa Byrne, and Matt Fuller

Discover how Barrington 220 is embedding authentic learning into classroom practices as part of our Framework 220 strategic plan. This session will showcase how we are using data and research to create authentic learning experiences for students, using a spectrum of flexible learning structures, and a web series featuring short videos that highlight authentic learning examples with teacher explanations, student work, and connections to the Framework 220 strategic plan. Participants will gain insights into creating engaging, real-world learning experiences and leveraging multimedia to enhance instructional practices.

Artificial Intelligence as a Creative Partner: Producing a Mini-Musical with Students & AI Tools

• Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 10:00–11:00 AM (Nirvana C)
• Barrington 220 presenters: Paula Levin, Brigid Tileston, and Matt Fuller

Beginning in February 2024, Educational Technology and Fine Arts leaders in Barrington 220 had the idea to involve students and staff in the creation and production of an original mini-musical using Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a creative partner. By that time the issue of AI in the Arts was already becoming controversial, and some districts had set out to block or otherwise ban the use of AI in schools. Rather than fear the unknown, we opted to embrace it by developing a framework to safely and responsibly try using various AI tools in the different aspects of creating an original musical theatre production, including ideation, writing, composing, visualizing, choreographing, and other areas. Our hope was to provide an innovative and collaborative opportunity to tell a story through dialog, acting, and song that involved various aspects of our district’s strategic objectives and aligned with our Learner Profile. We worked with over 50 students and staff members with experience in storytelling, songwriting, acting, singing, dancing, playing instruments, producing/directing, and other areas of arts, technology, and communication. Our efforts resulted in a 15-minute mini-musical titled “#ThePlaceToB - a mini-musical” that was premiered for all district staff on the 2024-25 opening day of school. This presentation will explain the process we used to co-create our show with AI tools and hopefully provide ideas and inspiration for others to use artificial intelligence in creative and authentic ways.

Think Better, Learn Better: Building a Habit of Reflection

• Wednesday, February 19, 2025, 1:00–2:00 PM (Prosperity, 2nd Floor)
• Barrington 220 presenters: Erika Inka and Meagan MacDonald

While we ask our students to reflect on their learning, how often do we have time to pause to reflect on our own teaching practice? When we do, how can we ensure those reflections lead to meaningful change?In this session, we’ll introduce MirrorTalk, an app designed to move beyond surface-level reflection and help cultivate a deeper, more intentional reflective practice. You’ll learn how to build a habit of quick reflections using MirrorTalk as a thinking partner, which provides AI-generated feedback to drive growth, guide next steps, and shape your teaching for the better. We’ll share insights from our yearlong journey with MirrorTalk, offering practical strategies to integrate quick reflection sessions in our professional lives and in the classroom. You’ll leave with tools to help build a culture of reflection for yourself and your colleagues and share ways MirrorTalk can help your students become more self-aware and reflective, too.Let’s turn reflection into a powerful habit that leads to better thinking, better teaching, and better learning for all!

IDEAcon will be held this year February 17–19, 2025, at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel, Schaumburg, IL. For more information, visit the official website:

www.ideaillinois.org/IDEAcon

Download a PDF featuring the Barrington 220 IDEAcon 2025 presenters.

Student-Facing AI Explorations

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to evolve, its integration into our classrooms presents new opportunities for enhancing student learning. We can develop both human intelligence skills and AI skills. Our next phase of the AI Task Force is to thoughtfully evaluate and implement student-facing AI tools. This group will be responsible for:

• developing a comprehensive rubric for assessing various AI tools.
• collaborating with students to investigate AI tool usability.
• sharing informed recommendations for the most effective AI tools.
• establishing best practices for AI tool use.
• designing professional learning opportunities to support educators in leveraging AI technologies in the classroom.

MagicSchool AI

During our meeting in December, our group of 30+ 3–12 teachers, teacher librarians, coaches, and LTAs brainstormed criteria for our rubric and participated in introductions to four AI tools for education with student-facing options. The four options met our baseline requirements:

• Must be SOPPA compliant
• Must be usable on iPad devices
• Must provide teacher autonomy over AI functionality
• Must provide teacher insights into student AI use

After the sessions, participants opted into at least two of the four options to compare the tools:

• Brisk
• Khanmigo
• MagicSchool AI
• School AI

The group meets in late January 2025 to compare notes, finalize a rubric, and focus on the final month of explorations. Upon completion of the exploration of student-facing AI tools, the group will make a recommendation in March 2025 with plans for professional learning in late Spring and adoption in the Fall 2025 of the 2025–26 school year.

Brisk for Students

Key's Quick Tips - Notability Features to Help Your Students

Key's quick tips are provided by Kelly Key, Assistive Technology Coordinator for Barrington 220.

This month, I am sharing 2 features in Notability that you may not know about that could be very beneficial for some of your students! 

Take a Picture of a Worksheet and Complete It in Notability with Ease

If a student struggles with handwriting or spelling on worksheets or workbook tasks, they can easily take a picture of the assignment and complete it using Notability. This allows them to utilize additional assistive technology (AT) tools, such as the Co:Writer keyboard add-on or voice typing, for extra support. Watch this quick demo video to see how simple it is! Note: If the scan button isn’t visible, please update your app in Self Service.

Record the Audio of a Lecture while Taking Notes

Students can use Notability to record audio during a lecture, which is then synced to the notes they type, write, or draw in the app. By tapping anywhere in their notes, they can instantly hear what was said at that moment in the lecture. This feature makes it easy to review and explore notes throughout the semester.

Important: Discuss usage guidelines with students beforehand, such as only recording lectures (not class discussions) and starting/stopping recordings only when instructed. Note that the transcription feature is currently available only in the premium version. However, this feature will soon be included for free in the Notes app when our iPads are upgraded to the next version (see the second video for details)!

Short demo of Notes app:

Creativity and Multimodal Literacy in Your Classroom with Templates!

Matt Miller from Ditch That Textbook regularly shares FREE ideas for implementing creativity and multimodal literacy into lessons across grade levels and content areas. His innovative, ready-to-use templates are easy for you to incorporate into your classroom quickly to engage students.

Here's one example: Spotify Wrapped Classroom Template. This template empowers students to reflect on their learning, achievements, and favorite moments using creativity and multimodal writing—all while mirroring the "Wrapped" experience Spotify users know and love.

These templates are designed for Google Docs and Slides, making them easy to implement and customize to fit your curriculum and pedagogy.

Creativity and Multimodal Literacy help students

• Engage with content while expanding their skills in reading, writing, speaking, and listening
• Develop creativity and literacy skills that reflect authentic, real-world communication
• Enhance creativity skills to lead to deeper learning experiences

You can visit Ditch That Textbook Templates to find more creativity and multimodal literacy gems.