We are excited to restart our district's monthly Digital Citizenship newsletter. We hope to provide the families in our district information around the technology being used along with resources to support your child's education.
Brightbytes Tech and Learning Survey
Over the last seven years, the district has gathered survey data around technology and learning in the Mentor Schools. We ask that students, parents and all staff members complete a 10 minute survey that asks questions around how technology is being used in our classrooms, schools and at home. This data has been so valuable and has impacted the district by the creation of a Digital Citizenship curriculum (K-12), increased communication through this Digital Citizenship Newsletter and many additions and revisions to our K-12 District Technology Plan. In the graphs below, you can see some of the positive growth our schools have shown over this time in the area of technology. Please use this LINK to take this short, 10 minute survey so that we can continue to find ways to improve our technology initiatives in the district. The survey will be open until this Friday, May 20th.
Family Resource Corner
Tech to Help Support Kids and Families at Home

Reading with our kids is a great way to help them read on their own! In addition to snuggling up together with a good book, though, there’s a lot of cool technology that we can use to improve our children’s reading skills - even our big kids. Check out these sites for more info:

Have a tech resource that you love for your family? Let me know about it! I’m always looking for new ways to support parents and kids. In the meantime, happy reading!

Contributed by: Tricia Zeedrich, Mentor Schools Parent Mentor
Technology Used to Support Learning
We would like to continue to share with you some of the technological resources that our teachers and students are using to support learning in our classrooms. Last month, we reviewed the Learning Management Systems SeeSaw and Schoology. This month, we are turning our attention to some tech tools that are being used in K-12 classrooms across the district to support teaching and learning. These programs are Classkick and Nearpod.
Classkick is a tech tool that allows teachers to create assignments using images, text, videos and external links. Students are able to use their devices to input drawings, text, images or audio to answer questions on the teacher created materials. Teachers are able to provide real-time feedback and see how students are progressing through an assignment.
Nearpod is a tech tool that allows teachers to create content using interactive tools. Teachers can use Google Slides and turn each slide into an interactive resource that allows students to engage with the content. They can answer a question, draw on a slide, answer a poll, or drag and drop their response. While student interaction is occurring, teachers are able to view the students responses and provide immediate feedback.
Preparing for Summer
As we head into summer, we wanted to remind you that our IT Department is here all summer long in case your child needs help with their device. Please email it-support@mentorschools.org.
Two years ago, the district adjusted our mindset around devices and programs by allowing students to keep their device all summer long and keeping access available to most district programs. We hope this access keeps students engaged in the learning process.
Also, as we head into summer, it is a good time to talk to your kids about SCREEN TIME HABITS. Visit the link for questions to help start the conversation with your kids.