Key's Quick Tips: Add-on Keyboard to Support Spelling

Key's Quick Tips are provided by Kelly Key, Assistive Technology Coordinator for Barrington 220. Each month, I will feature a tool available on the iPad to support our students, including short video demonstrations. This month, I am highlighting an app that is available for all staff and students to download in Self Service called Co:Writer.

Co:Writer, is an onscreen keyboard for the iPad that students can use with any app where the iPad onscreen keyboard is used. Co:Writer uses grammar and vocabulary smart word prediction to help students with the flow of writing.



Co:Writer helps give you the words and phrases you are intending as you type, even if your grammar and spelling are way off. Just type a letter or two and Co:Writer predicts words and phrases in real-time. Check out this short video to see the power of Co:Writer for students who have difficulty with spelling!



Co:Writer has many additional features that include:

• Customization of the prediction bar (color, size, font, etc) 
• Speak features (speak each letter, word, or sentence typed or swipe on each word in the prediction bar to hear them before selecting) 
• A topic dictionary students can search for a topic and the prediction bar words will be centered on that topic. 
• Students can open the Co: writer keyboard just for editing- they can click on a misspelled word and the prediction will give correct options. 
• Students can quickly switch back and forth between the Co: writer keyboard and the ios keyboard by pressing the globe. 

Check out this video that demonstrates many of these features:


Co:Writer is easy to install. Here are the steps.

1. Download the app from Self Service
2. Log in to the app with your Google username/password.
3. Add it as a keyboard: Settings > General > keyboard > Keyboards — Add New Keyboard
4. Tap on Co:Writer. Tap again and press Allow full access.

Please contact me if you have questions or if you would like me to come to provide a lesson for your class! kkey@barrington220.org 

Lines Teachers Share Their Best Research Citation Tips

Back in December 2019, Barrington 220 teachers were asked to share their best (#220ShareYourBest) ways to help your students cite text or image sources. Allow me to reference that Lines Elementary School teachers have been cited for providing two excellent ideas!

Teacher Librarian and one of our district’s resident experts on the topic of citing sources, Amy Rolain, suggests partnering with one of our Teacher Librarians:

“Collaborate with your building's Teacher Librarian to introduce or review Noodletools, a powerful research platform that supports students and staff with MLA, APA, and Chicago citations, notecards, and outlining.”

Lines Grade 3 teacher (and District Technology Committee member) Sarah Dowdy shares a useful tip about finding images appropriate to use:

“In third grade we have talked about making sure we use images that we have  permission to use. The students perform an Image Search in Google and tap/click on the word Tools (at the top of the page). A horizontal menu of options is displayed including: Size, Color, Usage rights, Type, and Time. Tap/click on Usage rights to find a drop-down menu. Click on one of the Labeled for reuse options to narrow the search. You will only see images with permission to be reused in this quick and easy tip to follow copyright guidelines.

Amy and Sarah will each receive highly sought-after #bsd220tech prize for sharing their ideas with you.

The topic for the January 2020 #220ShareYourBest is:

Share your best productivity tip using G Suite (Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, or another Google app or service).

bit.ly/220shareyourbest

Welcome to 2020 and New Infinite Campus Features

Welcome to 2020! With the start of the new calendar year, the pace of preparing the coming school year accelerates. Enrollment records for students expected to return to Barrington 220 for the 2020-21 school year have been created, and BHS students are in the process of meeting with counselors to pick courses for the coming year.

Each month the district receives a software update from Infinite Campus. The monthly update often includes one or more software adjustments and/or corrections, along with new enhancements added to the system. The most recent software update was loaded on January 6, 2020, and I would like to highlight just two of the newer enhancements available for staff to use at this time.

Section Roster Printing has been enhanced to provide additional options for what data prints on section rosters. The expanded data options now allow for the printing the student’s photo along with demographic data.

Click here for more information and a sample roster print view.

Student Barcodes for scanning can now be printed directly from Infinite Campus. Barcodes printed on paper can be read by a handheld scanner. Staff have the option to print student barcodes by grade, class, club, or any custom ad hoc filter.

Click here for more information and a sample barcode print view.

These are two of the most recent enhancements, and I look forward to sharing more soon!

Barrington 220 Cybersecurity in 2020

With the start of the new year, let’s rethink how we tackle our email inbox each day. Ever greater caution is needed as email messaging is now the number one method for cyber intruders to gain access to secure data found on computers and network data servers. A well meaning computer user clicking on the wrong link or downloading the wrong file contained within an email message may find that they just became a victim of cybercrime—which could lead to all of their computer files being rendered useless. If their computer also had access to network servers, those server files could also all be rendered useless.

In 2019, the Rockford (IL) school district was one of a reported 72 school districts, which included over 1,000 schools, that found themselves in just such a predicament. The start of the school year in Rockford began with a limited telephone system, limited access to student records, and limited to no access to other systems and files. It was described by someone familiar with the situation as “back to pencil and paper” for grades and attendance. The school district spent months getting their computers and systems back on track. The Sycamore, IL, school district was hit with a similar event in November 2019.

Please be careful with all email messages that you receive, both with your Barrington 220 email account as well as with your personal email accounts. Before clicking on any links or files within an email message or responding to the message, ask yourself a few questions:

• Is this message truly from someone I know? 
• Does the sender address appear to be correct? In many email browsers or web pages, hovering the mouse over the sender field of the message will show a complete email address. Some browsers have a button or arrow to click on for more details. 
• Does this sender information look correct? Close does not count! An example of one such fake email address is support@rnicrosoft.com. Notice that the “m” in microsoft is not actually what it appears to be at first glance. It is actually composed of the letters r and n.
• Were you expecting the email message? The decision to act on the message is a bit easier if you were expecting the message. 
• Did the message arrive at an odd time? Most of your colleagues are not sending messages at 1:00 AM. However, threat actors in other countries are having lunch at this time. 
• Does the message convey a sense of urgency? This trick is often used to get the recipient to act quickly and without as much forethought. 

Here in Barrington 220, we have taken great strides to protect networks and computing devices, but we cannot do this alone. We need every user's due diligence in protecting computers and data systems from breaches. Use strong passwords and do not share passwords. Do not leave your computing devices turned on and unattended.

Be careful with your email messages!

Introducing #220BOSS: Barrington Online Summer School

Starting in the summer of 2020, Barrington 220 is proud to begin offering a new program called Barrington Online Summer School (#220BOSS). In this program, students and teachers will collaborate in an asynchronous virtual learning environment. Students engage in learning experiences from outside the district and submit evidence through an online learning management system. Teachers will provide personalized feedback and custom assignments based on individual student progress. This program will be offered to outgoing students in Grades 2–5 in the first year and will be evaluated for possible expansion thereafter.

Potential Benefits of #220BOSS
The primary benefits of online summer school are flexibility and personalization. Students will have the space to engage in learning experiences from anywhere at times of their choosing. Teachers are designing learning experiences to take advantage of the fact that students aren't in a traditional classroom and have the world at their fingertips. In addition, teachers can provide personalized feedback to students and shape future learning experiences based on student performance. Throughout the process, students and teachers will dialogue to ensure the best possible experience.

Sessions of online summer school will run concurrently with traditional summer school, as well as after summer school is over. Classes are being developed by teachers who are encouraged to stretch the boundaries of what can be done and not constrain themselves to the standards of core curriculum. The idea is to provide unique experiences that our students will enjoy.

Rationale and Feedback
Since the 1990’s, research surrounding the lack of instruction or educational opportunities during the summer months has shown a decline in achievement scores, especially for at-risk populations. Barrington 220 schools have responded by creating robust summer school programs and summer reading programs to encourage our students to continue reading and learning throughout the summer.

Informal feedback from parents on Barrington 220’s summer school program suggests that the limitations of the summer school calendar and a lack of transportation to and from summer school locations are a hindrance to maximizing district-supported summer learning opportunities.

As part of the One to World initiative, Barrington 220 students in Grades 1–5 keep their iPad devices for the summer, allowing students access to numerous instructional programs and opportunities to continue learning.

In the fall, we surveyed Barrington 220 elementary parents about their participation in the traditional summer school program and their interest in the possibility of online summer school options. Out of over 300 respondents, 85% said that they were interested in online summer school options. 49% cited transportation and scheduling issues as reasons why they did not sign their students up for summer school. 

Some Barrington 220 parents cited too much tech and screen time as a reason for not wanting to explore online summer school, while others said that more time practicing tech tools would be a benefit. It's important to note that while communication and activities would be shared through an online portal, many learning activities are being designed to maximize time outdoors and to take advantage of the fact that students would have many environments to enrich their learning. 

If you want to learn more, please contact Director of Elementary Learning, Becky Gill, or me, Ty Gorman, Director of Instructional Technology.

One to World Student Survey and Focus Group Report

Since the beginning of the One to World program, regular student and staff surveys have been administered to better understand our technology-enabled learning program. Barrington High School (BHS) students who were part of the One to World pilot were surveyed in 2014, and all BHS students were surveyed in 2016. All middle school students were surveyed in 2016. Since 2015–16 was the year for the elementary school pre-launch of the One to World program, only students in Grades 3–5 who were part of the pre-launch were surveyed in 2016.

The most recent series of One to World student surveys and focus groups were administered at the end of the 2018–19 school year. A full report, Student Survey & Focus Group Report, Grades 3–12, was released in December 2019 and contains a detailed analysis of the results of the 2018–19 student survey and focus groups. Some questions allow longitudinal comparisons of data from 2016 for Grades 3–12, while a few topics allow comparisons from the original 2014 high school survey. The purpose of this study was to learn more about our One to World program from our students in Grades 3–12, and establish recommendations and next steps to improve the program.

The following seven next steps are recommended based upon conclusions from the data analysis of the 2019 Student Survey & Focus Group Report, Grades 3–12:

1. Explicitly Teach Executive Functioning for the Digital World—The district should identify methods to explicitly teach executive functioning and device-based organizational skills for the digital world.
2. Continue to Offer Creativity Training to Teachers and Students at All Levels—Barrington 220 will continue to offer professional development to teachers and measure how creativity is being used in teaching and learning activities across grade levels. In addition, methods should be implemented to explicitly teach the creative possibilities to students already available on devices through hardware features, services, and apps.
3. Continue to Offer Digital Learning Activities in Addition to Paper/Pencil Options—The One to World program provides options for students to complete certain activities digitally or using paper/pencil. We believe it is important for students at all levels to experience digital versions of learning activities that were once only available on paper/pencil in a world becoming more digital. At this time, we have no current goal to change student preferences to digital. However, we will continue to offer digital learning activities, track student preferences, and study the effects of the different types of learning and teaching using digital modes and methods. 
4. Provide Hands-On Training and Professional Development for Accessibility Features—Explicit training on iPad Accessibility would be beneficial to both staff and students through professional development and other training opportunities. 
5. Develop a System and Provide Leveled Training to Consistently Cite Sources—As a result of needs identified by this analysis, the district will work with Teacher Librarians to develop a program for all teachers at all levels to appropriately cite text- and image-based research and help students conduct online research from credible and reliable sources.
6. Teach Methods to Promote Digital Citizenship In and Out of School—Barrington 220 has identified the need to develop programs and methods to increase digital citizenship pedagogy among all teachers. In addition, a continuing partnership with families continues to be necessary to help teach digital citizenship outside of school.
7. Improve Assessments and Teacher Feedback—The results of this report indicate that the district should work to develop methods to help teachers improve assessment methods and feedback to fully take advantage of digital devices, apps, services, and other tools already at the disposal of teachers and students.

The full report is available at bit.ly/220studentreport2019.

Schoology Feature: Student Completion Rules

Did you know that you can tailor student access to your Schoology materials by altering the student completion rules for folders or individual folder contents?

This feature allows teachers to create "self paced" learning experiences, require a certain grade percentage on completed work, prevent students from moving forward with assignments before they have completed the required prerequisite work, and more.

Schoology Completion Rules

• Must complete 
• Must view the item 
• Must post a comment/reply 
• Must make a submission 
• Must score at least 

Click here for complete information and instructions from Schoology regarding completion rules.

Be sure to review these important notes from Schoology: