Tuesday, November 10, 2020

Hi everyone! I hope life is treating everyone well. I have been looking into my digital habits after my message from last week. I disabled social media notifications on my phone. My overall notifications were about 50 less per day. That is 50 fewer times that my phone and my watch buzzed. I have to say that it does help in reducing stress. The other thing that I have looked into is MyAnalytics in Microsoft365 (Login to Email/Office365 in the quicklinks on Bolles.org. Then click all apps. MyAnalytics will be there). The section that I have particularly focused on is the Wellbeing section. Out of the past 28 days. I have behaved for 6 of them and did not answer emails outside of working hours. 

MyAnalytics also gives tips as to what causes me to not disengage. For me, it's email. We must find time to disconnect for our sanity. I have had people ask me why I have responded to an email that I received at 9:30 PM. They didn't actually expect a response then. It could have waited until the morning. People understand that you have a life outside of school. Please take the time to actually enjoy that time so that you are refreshed and recharged. 

On the flip side of that, for people that do constantly check email, I recommend trying to only send messages during normal hours. MyAnalytics has also provided data about things that I sent outside of normal hours and the amount of time people spent reading those emails. 

For me, it was my Tuesday Tech Tips that went out before school that people read outside of hours. I encourage you to check out your habits in MyAnalytics and be considerate of those that you contact. I have shown some of my stats, but I have a feeling that many people have similar data in their own analytics. 

Have a great day!

Andrew Nation, M.Ed.
Instructional Technology Specialist

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Tech Tips

Blooket

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From Blooket.com

Blooket is very similar to things like Kahoot and Quizziz, but it looks to be more geared towards our younger students. The brightly colored games test whatever multiple choice questions that you input. It may not be your normal go to option, but it does looks like a fun alternative for a formative assessment. 

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Check out this Microsoft Education Course about 3D Maps for the classroom. It guides you through the process of accessing free 3d Maps!

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Windows D quickly takes you back to your desktop

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Wordwall

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Wordwall allows you to create printable activities as well as interactive activities for your class. There are paid plans, but the free version allows you to create enough activities to get going. 

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