Congratulations on reaching the last week of the school year. As you head into summer, we have begun shifting gears to prepare for next year. We hope all of you get a good, long technology detox this summer (check out some great summer reads on the Library website). Before you do, here are a few requests for you and a few things we are working on this summer. Our department mission is  "...to provide leadership, resources, and structures to develop multi-literate, adaptable learners." So, if there's more we can do to live our mission for the school, please don't hesitate to let us know! Enjoy your summer!

Reflecting

• Feedback: do you have feedback to help us do better? Please let us know! 
• Old Canvas Course Deletion: We just finished 11 years using Canvas as our LMS - hooray! Eleven years is also a long time to accumulate cruft, which makes navigating your courses challenging. On August 30, 2025, we will delete Canvas courses older than four years. Please reach out to help@overlake.org or come see us in the library if you have any questions or concerns about this, and read the Wise article about what this means and how to prepare.
  
• Artificial Intelligence: In 2023, we published Overlake's Artificial Intelligence Philosophy to guide conversations and learning with employees and students during Wellness, August Pre-Service days, and Adult Collaboration. This year, we dedicated two half-day PD times and a Wednesday morning to this work. We rolled out a trial of FlintK12 this spring, and it has gone well! We purchased a whole-school subscription for next year, allowing us to use it both professionally and with our students. Still a work in progress, but this AI in Education page will be updated soon with resources you can use to help your planning for next year. 
• TRIM Literacy: we are excited about the work we accomplished this year within our Technology, Research, Information, and Media (TRIM) Literacy curriculum and even more excited about what next year holds. If you would like to collaborate on integrating TRIM or CSIG standards into your program, please contact Kelly or Rebecca at kvikstrom@overlake.org or rmoore@overlake.org.

Requests

• Leaving Overlake? Here is our guidance for employees, students, and parents/guardians who are no longer at Overlake.
• Return Borrowed Equipment: If you borrowed technology from us at any point during the year, including extra mice, laptops, chargers, monitors, etc., please return them to the help desk as soon as possible. Our ability to provide loaners and equipment is limited if we don’t get back what we loan. This does not include your school-issued laptop + charger.
• Do you have any other issues you would like addressed? If persistent or troubling tech issues pop up, please don’t suffer in silence! Please contact help@overlake.org or complete this form to let us know how we can improve your experience.

FYI

• Summer Work: This summer, we will focus on the opening of the new Student & Community Center, as well as our typical laptop refreshes for employees and new students, employee offboarding and onboarding, and planning for August orientations. Please watch for downtime notifications related to the new construction this summer on campus.
• Canvas for the new year: Canvas classes for the new school year will be available for you to begin working on by early July. If you're raring to go, "What do I need to know to launch my Canvas courses for the new year?" is always a great place to start - please also be mindful that this is being updated as we integrate new expectations - it is a "working document" still in progress. New features come out every summer in Canvas, and this summer is no different.
• New Employee Owl IDs: Your newly hired colleagues will receive their Owl IDs in early July. If you wish them to be sent sooner, please let Brittany Flajole know.
• Simulated Phishing Emails: We hope you have found the simulated phishing emails educational and that they have sparked conversations about security and privacy as we all seek to improve our duty of care for personal and school data. As a reminder, please use the Phish Alert button so you know what is actual phishing and what is simulated by the school.

Don't be a stranger!

Don't hesitate to contact us at help@overlake.org or 425.602.7007 if there is anything we can do to help. Have a great summer!