Are you interested in a career that utilizes your creativity and problem solving skills? Do you think you have what it takes to create technology? Would you like to find a career that offers plenty of openings, career growth, and great wages?
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Several District 117 staff members and administrators attended the ICE conference in Schaumburg the last week of February. Here is a list of their top takeaways. Contact the individual if you would like more information. 

Lakes and ACHS subscribe to NoodleTools to support students through the research process. Though most commonly used for its simple citation generator (similar to EasyBib), NoodleTools also offers research planners, to-do lists, e-notecards, and collaborative features for students working on group projects. Additionally, NoodleTools syncs with Google, which means that students and teachers can use their District 117 Google username and password to access the program.

Barb and I are always on the hunt to discover new technology resources for teachers. We are excited to share with you the American Association of School Libraries (AASL) 2017 list for Best Apps and Websites for Teaching and Learning. ​
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Change up your usual class routine and give BreakoutEDU a try. Your students will beg you for more. Really.
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Here’s how it works: There is a box. There are some locks. There’s some other stuff, too. You give your students a scenario, and their job is to work together to find a way to crack the combos on the locks to get into the box. Depending on the scenario you choose, students are required to use their content knowledge to solve clues. They also need to problem solve, collaborate, think critically — all of those great 21st Century / Transfer Skills.

A few teachers / staff members already have implemented BreakoutEDU with success, including social studies teachers Tiffany Nix and Nick Aguina, school psychologist Eric Born, and CTE teacher Marcia Zboril. I used BreakoutEDU for an ILC Do Something Cool last semester, and the students left the room asking, “When can we do that again?”

Here is what Tiffany had to say about her experience using BreakoutEDU along with co-teacher Nick:

Donna Corcoran and I recently attended the Midwest Educational Technology Committee conference in St. Charles, Missouri, and wanted to share some takeaways. Feel free to follow-up with us if you have questions or ideas. Also, visit this Google folder, where we copied some of the presentations from the sessions we attended. You can view most of the presentations for all of the sessions on the METC website.

November is National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Sign up for free to write at nanowrimo.org. The website helps you set daily writing goals and awards you digital badges as you make progress on your novel.

​The ILC also celebrated writing during a Do Something Cool program on Friday, November 4, led by the Writing Club. Writing Club student leaders Faith Clay and Grace Null introduced students to Wattpad, a website for writers and readers alike.