Dyslexia Awareness Month and Upcoming Workshops

This week’s Tuesday Tech Tip comes from Jane Rondow (Inclusion Teacher – Assistive Technology)-thank you, Jane! ​​​Also, please read on for information about the Minecraft Challenge, upcoming Minecraft workshops this Friday and a Mathletics workshop on Thursday.

October is Dyslexia awareness month, 1 in 5 people have dyslexia and many don’t even know.

Comox Valley Schools has made many Assistive Technology supports available on all district computers and devices to support Reading and Writing. These can also be used on personal devices and BYOD (Bring Your Own Devices) using your Microsoft login.
Microsoft Login

  • Educators: district email and login password
  • Learners: student#@learn71.ca and login password

A few supports are:

  1. Text to Speech
    • Immersive Reader in Office 365 and Edge Browser
    • Read&Write
    • OrbitNote
    • Speak Selection and Speech Controller
  1. Text Preferences and eText
    • Font options like Open Dyslexic Font
    • Coloured backgrounds
    • eText and eBook resources
    • ARCBC alternate format materials (Textbooks, Novels, Books)
  1. Dictation (Speech to Text/ Voice to Text)
    • Dictate
    • Windows Speech Recognition
    • Enable Dictation

To find out more about these Assistive Technology supports and tools check out the resources on:

Or contact Jane.Rondow@sd71.bc.ca (District Inclusion Teacher – Assistive Technology)

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Minecraft in the Classroom-The Challenge, the Workshops and the Free Lesson Plans

This Tuesday I am thrilled to announce this year’s Minecraft Challenge – The Perfect Future City!  Read on learn more details about this and how to find some awesome free lessons to go with Minecraft. Tracy Richards and I are also excited to let you know that we will be doing two “Minecraft in the Classroom” workshops on October 21st.  Read on to learn more!

The  year is 4023 and our world looks nothing like it used to. Your challenge is to use Minecraft to design a city in the future. Will this city be on Earth, under the Earth, in an extreme biome, floating in space, underwater or on another planet? It is all up to you.  Please watch the video below to learn more and visit Learn71.ca ​and click on Minecraft Challenge​ to find resources and more.​

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National Film Board Campus – More than The Sweater

​​​I know that everyone is looking forward to our Thanksgiving weekend. I have lots to be thankful for this year 🙂 I am hoping you will also be thankful for this new resource that we have subscribed t​​o.  We joined the National Film Board a few years ago and brought you many all time classics like “The Sweater” and my favourite ,”The Great Toy Robbery”.  N​ow the National Film Board has an Educational Campus that brings us Educator Guides, Lessons, curated playlists (I just found one on Stop-Motion animation) and the ability to search by subject.​  It also gives you access to more than 5800 English, French and Indigenous language National Film Board productions including documentaries, animation and interactive resources.

Click here or click on the picture​ to open the instructions and more information about the National Film Board Campus

To find our link to the National Film Board:

1.  Visit Learn71.ca

2.  Click on Research Databases on the right

3. Click on Videos

4.  Click on the National Film Board link

5.  After you sign up and sign in for this one, you need to sign in for the Campus.  Scroll down on the right and you will find a registration link:

​6.  After you click on Check Here, type in your school name or Comox and you will find our district name there

7. I think you need to write to them to ask for the code.

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