Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Week 01 - Student Password Details

Team,

Here are some ready-to-go details for the start of the year when it comes to student passwords.  (Attachments not housed in this blog.)

Student Password Details – Start of Year
When will student information be ready in the portal?
Typically, this content is ready the second day of instruction.  The district does this so that HS students won’t skip registration and ignore any outstanding student fees.

How do I reset student passwords?
(
video link)
1) Teacher, log into portal.cusd.com.
2) Use your standard username and password to get in (sample below)
          DonaldDuck  (Not your whole email.  Just your name.)
          **same password for your laptop**
3) Locate your students (note teacher name space and type your name).
4) Click the reset button for EACH child.
5) Download roster (Excel file).
OPTIONAL: 6) Design password cards for students. Use Mail Merge (video link) if you know how to do this to save time.
**Don’t make the passwords as simple and uniform as the video suggests. Mix them up for security purposes.

What is the default student password pattern?
(
video link)
1) Please note if there is more than one child in our district with the same name, a child may have 002, 003, 004, etc. after their name.
2) Usernames are NOT case sensitive. Children can use all lowercase letters for their username: mickeymouse001.
3) Default password (temporary password) for Mickey Mouse might look like this: Mm702088967. Capital M from Mickey. Lowercase m from Mouse (first name then last name) followed by the child’s user ID. After this, a new password must be created.

Password Complexity.
1) Passwords must be six characters in length (or more).
2) For grades K-3, they can be pretty simple (tiger65).
3) For grades 4-6, passwords need six or more characters and (three of these):
      a) lowercase
      b) capital
      c) symbol
      d) number
4) Examples: Fred754#, 564_Happy, Or@nge_431
Password Cards.
Use this link to download password cards for your classroom. Or design your own. These are 100% optional.  Use what works best for you. It may look wonky inside Google. When you download it, they should function properly. Delete, modify, edit as you see fit. Again, optional.

Password Expiry.
Children no longer have the ability to type an old password into that new password space. If the child tries to reuse an old password, the system should give them an error message. The password system will look into password history to note old passwords and will prevent that practice.

Password Suggestions.
For grades K, 1 and 2, the children cannot do this on their own. You will need to do the new password steps for the children prior to going to the lab.
Here are some ideas for the children who are old enough to design their own passwords:
NOT
1) not your first name
2) not your last name
3) not something that your best friend can guess easily
4) not an easy pattern the kids can crack (Third grade students can hack classmate accounts if it is too easy. This really happened.)
MAYBE
5) mom’s middle name and your house number
6) an adjective, a symbol, and the last four numbers of mom’s cell phone
7) symbol, cat’s name, and two digits that remind you of your birthday

Upper-grade teacher: My student wants to change his/her password…
If a student wishes to change his/her password, they technically don’t need the teacher to help with that process. After they have updated their password, they can use Ctrl + Alt + Delete to pull up a menu. This screen will let them choose the option of changing their password.  Same process as before for the rest of the details here.

My student has received a Locked Out message.  What do I do?
As the teacher, you do NOT need to reset the child’s account. There is an alternative button that you click. You would log into portal.cusd.com. You would access the information for that specific child.  Click DETAILS.  Then, click UNLOCK. Wait about one minute, and the child will have access to their account again.

Stay Curious,
Melissa Culver

Monday, June 24, 2019

3D Printing & Animal Leg Prosthesis


Hey, Team!

Copper Hills Elementary School was recently awarded a $2,000 grant from the Toshiba Foundation. These monies will be used to support the 6th-grade students on that site as they investigate the engineering process and 3D printing technology.

The focus of this grant is to maximize language production in our Special Education Department as our sixth-grade students print science-rich learning materials. We hypothesize that the hands-on analysis of such prints will increase science-rich language production in our students with special needs.

Our 3D printer will be used for other projects/prints as well. For example, this year we plan to utilize Project-Based Learning (PBL) strategies as we explore assistive medical technology for animals with malformed limbs. Children can research animals around the globe who have mobility issues. The end goal of the lesson is that these students will design a reasonable solution (3D print design) for an animal they located online. At the close of the lesson, the students will share out their findings.

Here’s a time lapse video LINK HERE of one such design idea:

Here’s a link to the lesson plan LINK HERE:

Here are images that showcase this journey.




Closing Q&A
Q) Will this actually work on a dog?
A) This may potentially be a beach leg for a dog. It can wash easily. Throw a few in the camper and you’re all good. Can it sustain long-term impact over the course of a dog’s life? Not likely. But it is good to have more than one prosthesis (in varying sizes) for an animal that will have huge growth spurts during the first year of life.

Q) Is this build expensive?
A) The overall cost of a build like this is relatively small. But over time, this product will not last as long as metal prosthetics.

Q) Are these images the final build?
A) The last piece of the design process is a hollowed-out rubber ball at the close/base of the prosthesis (minus a cylindrical cavity for the leg to slide in). I have not contacted a vendor to construct a specialized base yet. As the dog navigates undulating terrain, the prosthesis will impact the ground at various angles. The plastic is slick and will not grip cement surfaces well. This leg alternative would work nicely on dirt or sand surfaces. And, if you have wood as your interior flooring, the wood planks may not like the sharp plastic.

Q) What is the current health of the dog?
A) The vet and the family have not determined if the base area of the leg should be amputated or not. There is a small malformed nub at the base of the incomplete leg. Stone naturally bends that join in frequently--trying to protect it. They aren't sure if the dog would find discomfort if this portion of the leg were placed into a prosthesis.

Stay Curious,
Melissa Culver