Beginning of Year Technology Information 2026-2027

Version 4.1 by Christine Sklareski on 2026/08/20 08:53

Contents

Back to School Technology Checklist for Teachers:

All Teachers: Please review this checklist before school begins to be sure that your classroom technology is accounted for and in working order. Reach out to Tech Support for assistance if anything is missing or not working.

All Staff: K-12 school districts are huge targets for cybercriminals, and phishing emails are usually their favorite way in. All it takes is one accidental click on a bad link to put an entire network and sensitive student data at risk. Taking just a few seconds to double-check an email’s sender and legitimacy of attachments before clicking makes you our absolute best line of defense! Review this “Spot the Phishing” presentation and test your knowledge with a short quiz.

Teachers in grades 3 through 12: As was shared in the spring, the new Google Assignments app has been installed in Schoology. The original Google Drive Assignments app will be removed from Schoology on Oct 31, 2026. There are 2 methods to grade using the new app, grading in Schoology and grading in Google. The grades from both grading methods will appear in the Schoology gradebook and then sync to the Sapphire gradebook. Look for demos this school year, but in the meantime, you can review these instructions to become familiar with the new app.

TECH SUPPORT:
- All staff and students should continue to submit tech support requests through IncidentIQ.
- Parents and guardians may submit guest tickets through IncidentIQ at http://remote.etownschools.org. They will not need an account to log in.
FACILITIES SUPPORT: Staff should also submit Facilities requests for custodial and maintenance needs.

All Mac computers need to be restarted weekly or the computers will run out of TCP sockets and random websites won’t work. When in doubt, restart the computer. If issues persist, submit a tech ticket through IncidentIQ.

In order to prevent issues and disruptions when using your Newline interactive flat panels, please be sure to clean them with the provided cleaning kit before the school year starts.

The following changes have been made in Clever:
- Amplify is now available for grade 5.
- Exact Path has been removed.
- First in Math has been removed.
- Great Minds is now available for Math in grades K-5.
- IXL has been expanded to Math and ELA for grades 6-10.
- Reading A-Z has been removed.
- Study Island has been removed.

Teachers in grades 1 and 2 now have access to Securly Classroom, a system for Chromebook management during class. Teachers can push out websites to student Chromebooks for faster access, pause Chromebook use during direct-teaching moments, lock students into specified websites, and block websites. Reports will be emailed to teachers once the class ends with a summary of the sites accessed by students during class. Look for details this fall on training sessions that will be offered, but in the meantime, view info on the Tech Wiki.
Middle School and High School teachers can now automate when their Securly classes begin and end based on their building’s bell schedules. View info on the Tech Wiki showing how to activate it.

All staff and students: Sora is a digital reading platform that gives students and staff online access to thousands of ebooks, audiobooks, and magazines. To make access easier, staff and students may now log in to Sora seamlessly through Clever using their school Google account.

There have been changes to how high school and middle school students will be printing this year. Please look for more specific information from your building admins regarding these changes.

All Teachers: All teachers are invited to call the Help Line at extension 11199 when issues with technology are impeding classroom instruction.
New Auto-attendant for ext. 11199:
- Press 1 for Facilities issues (heating, cooling and plumbing)
- Press 2 Sapphire issues
- Press 3 for Technology issue
On the rare occasion that the help line isn’t answered, calls will transfer to voicemail. Once a voicemail is recorded, it automatically converts to a request ticket in the IncidentIQ system with the voicemail recording attached. The support ticket will be assigned to the appropriate technician who will respond in a timely manner.
August and September are the busiest times of the year in Technology Services and longer than expected wait times may occur. We thank you for your patience and understanding during this very busy time of year.