MassCUE News: January 2023                                                

Valued MassCUE Community,

As we enter a new year, we are excited about the future of our organization. A new year brings new opportunities, possibilities, and resolutions. After six months as Executive Director, I have seen the joy our programming and partnerships bring to so many. I have also noticed that not all of these opportunities reach all Massachusetts computer using educators. With our name and mission to guide us, I am excited to announce our 2023 Equity Campaign: MassCUE4ALL! The goal of this campaign is to expand our mission by adding the words “for all” to the end of each value:

Providing high-quality professional learning FOR ALL
Leveraging knowledge and expertise FOR ALL
Recognizing innovation, excellence and courage FOR ALL
Advocating for strategic policies and programs FOR ALL

We know that equity requires action, and as such have planned a year’s worth of action steps to ensure we are progressing in our campaign. Our January action steps are as follows:

• Incorporate Equity as a theme for our upcoming events
• Plan for our Equity Audit
• Analyze member feedback from our fall survey

We will continue to update our community on our progress as we move forward, and welcome feedback. We will be involving not just our membership, but our board of directors, staff, and corporate partners in this process as we move toward a more equitable future. 

As we ring in yet another rotation around the sun, we reflect on the gratitude we have for our community. Thank you for your support and push back as we continue to grow. 

Wishing you a happy new year!

Savvy Demers
Executive Director

Whether you are leading change in a classroom or a complex district, all change is vital, intense work in making sure we keep reaching for educational success. It seems we've all had phase 1 of "DEI training," but equity is a process! We want to hear from you, what is next? Please join us at our Spring Leadership Conference on Friday, March 3rd at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester and join the conversation on how schools can take a personalized approach to equity. Learn more. 

Request for Proposals Open Now

Share how you are advancing equity in your school or district by presenting at the Spring Leadership Conference. Proposals accepted until January 23, 2023 at 9:00am. Learn more.

Work with us and make a difference for educators across the commonwealth! MassCUE is seeking an excited, creative and motivated educator who can develop and expand our professional development offerings. Visit our website to learn more and apply. 

January Featured Educator: Tom Williams                                           

Tom Williams is using educational technology to create lessons for his students that he has always dreamed about. Read more about how this history teacher at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical School is using edtech to unleash creativity on our website. Read More

Newsela is an engaging, culturally responsive, and flexible instructional content platform designed to complement your ELA, social studies, and science curriculum.   

Teachers get to pick the content that will take their core instruction to the next level. School and district leaders rest easy knowing it’s all vetted and aligned to standards. It’s a win-win.   

Newsela knows Massachusetts:   

• Promote deep inquiry in every class with flexible readings for all content areas.   

• Engage all students in authentic civics work with current events at five levels 

• Open up academic discussions to everyone with differentiated texts and practice   

• Expose students to culturally diverse voices as they learn from new perspectives   

View our site: Newsela for Massachusetts

Learning solutions for every environment. Explore the technology, tools, and instructional solutions that bring all of the dynamic moving parts of education together into the complete thought. 

Transform your classroom with STEM Technology and revolutionize the way your students learn by creating solutions with real-world applications; enrich student experiences and cultivate collaborative learning with the latest interactive displays and classroom audio systems; learn educational technology skills with pd designed around your needs, with options for on-site, online, or a blended learning model; interactive learning through play and movement with our active learning spaces. 

The face of education is rapidly changing, and Teq can help you evolve to meet these challenges. Technology integration is at the center of what we do, and our approach is about helping you find the right resources, get the right support, and then pull it all together into a complete thought.   

WCA is a family-owned business that opened our doors over 40 years ago here in the state of Massachusetts. Founded by and for educators, we have built a solid reputation at the forefront of technology. Our strength lies in having the advantage of being a regional company that is big enough to offer competitive pricing and services, while remaining committed to our small business values. Our goal is to provide our customers with high quality, catered solutions efficiently. 

Whalley Computer Associates is a leader in providing our customers with world-class technology sales and solutions while offering top-of-the-line equipment and expert installation. We also employ exceptionally talented and highly skilled IT professionals to help maintain the products we deliver. As the largest reseller of Lenovo, HP & Dell in the Northeast, we are confident you will find WCA's experience and expertise is the perfect fit for the IT Hardware and Services you require. 

With our hard work and endless dedication, we rank in the largest of the one-tenth of 1% of all technology solution providers in North America by CRN magazine. Additionally, CRN named WCA to its Tech Elite 250 solution providers in the U.S. and Canada. We have also earned the highest level of certifications from the largest and most prestigious manufacturers of technology products and services. Those companies being Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco, Dell, Lenovo, Microsoft, Nutanix, VMware, HPI, HPE, and Extreme. 

Lastly, WCA appreciates the opportunity to be able to assist you in making your technology decisions. We understand that this is a daunting task and hope that we make this process a bit easier.  Having had the privilege delivering on similar projects for a myriad of entities, we are confident we can offer you a quality product with top-notch service.  We view every opportunity as a starting point from which Whalley Computer Associates and our clients can work together to build the perfect solution to fit your needs.  

The Influence and Advocacy Committee would like to share the following resources:

FCC Seeks Public Comment on Cybersecurity - The Federal Communications Commission is seeking public comment on its role in school cybersecurity. Feedback must be shared by February 13, 2023. Learn more.

AI at School Wakelet - Want to learn more about the new AI writing tools and how they will affect the classroom? This Wakelet has a great round up of information, including detection tools that can help you spot an assignment that's been written with AI.

To learn more about the Influence and Advocacy Committee, visit our website. 

Email Heidi MacGregor or Colleen Terrill for information on how to share your voice in advocacy and get involved with the MassCUE I&A Committee.

Expand your PLN in the new year.
Join a MassCUE Special Interest Group!

MassCUE SIGs offer educators opportunities to connect and support one another in an area of interest or region. 

Assistive Technology - MassCUE is proud to announce we have a new Special Interest Group (SIG) specially for educators who work with assistive technology. This group is open to classroom educators of every grade, instructional leaders and coaches, special educators, and specialized service providers. Learn more and fill out an interest form on our website. 

Inclusive Learning - The MassCUE Inclusive Learning SIG is excited to partner with Apple to host a Winter season Accessibility Workshop for MassCUE community members. We will unpack questions like: What can inclusive learning look like in our schools? What’s new in accessibility? What quick built-in accessibility wins are available? Stay tuned for updates on dates, times and locations! 

Makerspace & STEM - Will hold a virtual meeting on January 17th from 3:45-4:30pm. Topic: LEGO Green Screen Project with host Dorothy Kramer, Sudbury Public Schools. 

Technology Integration - Will hold a virtual meeting on January 12th at 1:00pm.

Learn more about our SIGs

Receive PDPs and fulfill MA re-certification requirements for FREE with your MassCUE Membership using Infobase Learning Cloud. 

Infobase Learning Cloud is an online professional learning system designed to meet the needs of today's schools. The resources include short videos as well as self-paced workshops. 

All learning can be done on your own time from anywhere, and you receive your certificate upon completion of the Infobase Learning Cloud module. Infobase offers a wide range of training webinars. Be sure to check their library of archived webinars.

Please note new members are added to Infobase the first week of each month. New MassCUE members will receive an email with information on accessing and setting up your account.

Learn More

Big Deal Book of Technology Newsletter

MassCUE partners with Big Deal Media to bring you the Big Deal Book of Technology Newsletter, featuring contests, resources, and information designed to bring the power of the web to your classroom.

The Big Deal Book newsletter will give you great ideas for your classroom.

Read the newsletter

For more information about MassCUE, go to MassCUE.org.