November Blog Thankfulness

Get Googled Up!

Do you sometimes find yourself unsure of how to do certain Googly Things?  Here is an amazing checklist from Google that has short tutorial video clips on a ton of Googly tasks.   Just click on the image below to access the document.  This is also a fabulous tool to familiarize yourself with Google Tools if you are planning on taking a Google Certification Exam soon.

It's a great time to take the Level One Google Certification Exam.  Google recently changed the exam to only 35 multiple choice questions rather than the additional scenario based questions.  Remember, getting the Level One Certification is worth 1 credit towards your Advancement on the Salary Scale as well!

 Seesaw Teachers have a FREE Trial

Seesaw Lessons to the rescue. We have a 60 day FREE trial for these pre-made, professional, standards-based lessons. There is a new tab in your Seesaw Activity Library. Click and search for content area lessons and even SEL lessons too. Don't create it from scratch, use what's there at your fingertips right now!

Training coming up for TK-2 Seesaw teachers. Get paid to come to a 1 hour PD all about Seesaw Lessons hosted by the Seesaw organization on December 6, from 3:30-4:30 virtually. Please plan to join us for this event and voice your interest in continuing to access to Seesaw Lessons. This will be posted on Eventbrite soon!

 Naviance Information for Teachers Asked for Letters of Recommendation

Each Fall and Spring as students apply for colleges and programs that require letters of recommendation, many of us who have taught students in the district find ourselves asked for said letters of recommendation. In the new age of digital applications, many of our students will be requiring letters of recommendation to be submitted to their prospective colleges or programs digitally. There are basically three ways digital letters of recommendation are submitted. A very small handful of institutions have their own portals for submitting letters of recommendation digitally, but most partner with Parchment (used primarily by public institutions), or Common Application (used primarily by private institutions). For teachers in the Vacaville Unified School District, the digital platform we use for sending secure digital letters of recommendation to Parchment and to Common Application is our college and career readiness online platform Naviance. As we’ve had a subscription to Naviance for a few years now, many of you, who tend to get requests for letters of recommendation, have already worked within Naviance. But there may be some of you out there that are new to the platform and will be expecting to get requests sometime in the near future. Whether you are a teacher new to Naviance or could just use a refresher, here are some helpful links. 

• Teacher Desk Video

• Teacher Desk Help Article (You will need to login to Naviance first)

• Staff Login Through Google

• Direct link to Naviance’s Login Page

Note: If you need a Naviance account (only available for secondary sites) please email me (Aaron Stephens) at aarons@vacavilleusd.org. If you are not a teacher at the site where the student making the request is in attendance, I will need to make an account for you at that site. 

Bonus Link this Month

Here is a collection of 20+ ready to go resources for teachers. Some may be known and some may be new to you or your colleagues. Check them out and share!