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Schoology

   Well, the wheels are rolling and the process has started for our school with Schoology!  If you haven't yet seen what it's all about - I will give it to you the top 5 reasons why I am excited about Schoology:

1. Organization - THIS IS THE BEST FEATURE!!!  Students, staff and parents will go to ONE PLACE:)!!  Long goes the day of logging onto one site of one teacher, going another place for photos for another, and yet another blog for the third - GONE!!  ONE PLACE FOR EVERYONE:)!!!  At the beginning of the year - each teacher will invite the students to their courses with an access code that the student puts in and they are ready to go.  Each parent will get an access code for each of their children to enter in and they will be able to see a

2. Ease of use - the account is similar to that of a Facebook account, which most everyone is accustomed to.  The interface is familiar, it's easy to navigate through, and everything is VERY easy to do from uploading files, to correcting, to creating groups, to blogging. 

3. No more emails - students can directly download files and assignments, open them in an app like Notability and then submit their assignments back to Schoology.  No more messing with filtering and bazillion emails that come in each day and no more opening emails, opening apps, correcting and emailing them back to students!  Correcting and comments can be made on assignments right in Schoology and then saved for students to see. 

4. On Line Storage - we don't have to house ANYTHING!!!  All the data, files, downloads, etc... will be stored, backups and managed by Schoology.  It won't bog our system, the space it taken up on the Schoology network - issues come up - Schoology handles the - this I LOVE:)!!

5.  Consistency - this is always the best for ANYONE involved, and in this case, kids will start using it in Kindergarten and continue through.  Can you imagine how easy this will be for them when they are in 2nd grade - and just like second nature as they age;)!! 

    Now the biggest question our staff asked - if we are trained in this are we going to stick with it?   I can't guarantee that FOR SURE - but I know that this is here to stay for a while.  Minnetonka will be starting their third year with it, and they generally don't keep using something if it's not great!  Also, something we always have to keep in mind as educators - we are LEARNERS, too:)!!  That means that we are constantly going to be learning new things just like our students:)!!!

Happy Day to everyone -
Mrs. I:)

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