The Refresh: Technology Notes for the Start of the Year

Students are back, so here’s a short rundown of what to check this week, who to call when something breaks, and a few things worth knowing about your accounts this month.

Nothing Changed Over the Summer

Same platforms, same logins, same website. If something isn’t working the way it did in May, that’s a problem to report, not a change you missed.

Your Google Account

Google passwords expire on a rolling schedule based on when your account was set up, so a number of you will be prompted to change yours in the next few weeks. This is routine. The prompt appears after you sign in, and you can set the new password yourself.

Two-step verification is required

Every staff Google account must have two-step verification turned on. Accounts without it will be locked out. If you set this up last year, you’re already done. If you’re new, or you’ve never completed it, take care of it this week.

1. Open your account settings

   Go to myaccount.google.com and sign in with your GPSB account.

2. Find the security settings

   Select Security from the menu, then look under “How you sign in to Google” and choose 2-Step Verification.

3. Pick a verification method

   The quickest option for most people is the Google prompt on your phone, where you tap to approve instead of typing a code. Google’s instructions, with separate directions for computer, iPhone, and Android, are on the Google Account Help page for turning on 2-Step Verification.

4. Print your backup codes

   Keep them somewhere other than your phone. They’re what gets you back in when your phone is dead, lost, or replaced.

Expect more sign-in prompts than usual

Now that everyone is back at once, Google asks more people to confirm their identity when they sign in. It’s a normal seasonal pattern, not a sign that something is wrong with your account. Complete the verification and carry on.

Employee Self Service (Munis)

Munis handles pay stubs, W-2s, leave, and benefits. It’s a separate account from Google, with its own password.

If you’re locked out of Munis, email technology@gpsb.org.

Check Clever This Week

Clever has been syncing since before school started so we could catch problems early. If you haven’t logged in yet, take a few minutes today and see what’s there.

Go to clever.com/in/gpsb and choose Log in with Google, using the same GPSB account you use for email. You don’t need a separate Clever password, and the Badge option is for students, not staff.

Once you’re in, open each program you use and check whether your classes and students are showing up.

If something is missing or looks wrong, contact your school’s techie rather than working around it. Don’t rebuild classes or add students by hand in a Clever-connected program. A hand-built section usually causes more problems than it solves.

Google Classroom works differently

Classroom doesn’t connect to Clever, so you build those classes yourself, the same as always. New teachers should confirm they can create one. If it works, your account is set up correctly. If it doesn’t, email technology@gpsb.org and we’ll fix it.

Inclusion Teachers and Literacy Coaches

Clever builds accounts and classes from the rosters that come out of our student information system, so staff who aren’t listed as the teacher of a section won’t show up in it. That usually affects inclusion teachers and literacy coaches, who work with students across several classrooms without being assigned to those sections.

If that’s you, please don’t submit an individual request. Talk to your HSE instead.

For HSEs

Send technology@gpsb.org a list of the inclusion teachers and literacy coaches at your school who need Clever access, along with the specific classes and students each one needs to see. We’ll create those accounts manually. Sending it as one list from the school keeps the student assignments accurate and gets everyone set up in a single pass.

Protecting Your Account

August is the busiest month of the year for scam email aimed at schools. Everyone’s inbox is full, everyone is expecting messages about accounts and passwords, and attackers know it. Last year we saw messages built to look like they came from vendors we actually work with.

• Never approve a verification prompt you didn’t start. If your phone buzzes asking you to approve a sign-in and you weren’t signing in, tap no. That prompt means someone already has your password.
• Be suspicious of anything involving money. Invoices, payment changes, gift card requests, or a message asking you to update your direct deposit information. Confirm by phone using a number you already have, not a number from the email.
• Check who actually sent it. A display name is easy to fake. Click the sender’s name and look at the real address behind it. A message from your principal that comes from a Gmail account is not from your principal.
• Report it twice, in this order. Forward the message to technology@gpsb.org first, so we can block the sender for everyone. Then open the message in Gmail, click the three-dot menu next to the Reply arrow, and choose Report phishing. Reporting removes the message from your inbox, so once it’s gone we can’t see it.

If you clicked something and you’re not sure, tell us. Nobody gets in trouble for reporting a mistake, and the difference between an hour and a day matters.

Forms to Bookmark

Two forms worth saving now rather than hunting for in October.

The technology support request form is for when your school’s techie is tied up or the problem needs district-level access.

The field trip and activity bus request form requires a few things you’ll want ready before you start, because you can’t finish without them:

• Your student roster as a PDF. Other file types won’t upload.
• Destination address, departure and return times, and student and adult counts.
• For personal vehicles: the driver must be 21 or older, and you’ll need to upload a photo of their license and proof of insurance.

Lead time is set by your school, so check with your principal on how far ahead your campus requires trips to be submitted. Bus availability is usually the limiting factor, so earlier is better.

Before You Submit a Ticket

Most classroom technology problems come down to the same handful of things, and two minutes of checking usually beats waiting for someone to walk over.

• Nothing on the screen? Check that the display is powered on, that the input source matches the cable you’re plugged into, and that the cable is seated at both ends. A loose cable at the wall plate is the most common cause.
• No sound? Check volume in three places: the display, the computer, and the application. Any one of them at zero silences the other two.
• Won’t connect to Wi-Fi? Restart the device. If it still won’t connect, note whether anyone near you is having the same problem. One device is a device problem. A whole room is a network problem.
• Worked yesterday, doesn’t today? Restart before anything else. It resolves more issues than it has any right to.

When you do submit a request, tell us which room and which device, what you were doing when it broke, the exact wording of any error message or a screenshot, and whether it’s affecting one device, one student, or the whole class. Requests with those details get resolved on the first pass.

Accessibility Tip: Use Real Headings

When you’re making a document, it’s tempting to make a section title stand out by bolding it and bumping up the font size. It looks right, but to a screen reader it’s just more body text. A student using one has no way to jump between sections or tell where anything begins.

Instead, highlight the title, open the style dropdown in the toolbar (the one that says “Normal text”), and choose Heading 1 or Heading 2. Same visual result, but now the document has real structure, and you get a clickable outline in the left panel that makes long documents easier for everyone to navigate.

If you don’t like how the built-in headings look, change one to your liking, then use Format, Paragraph styles, Heading 1, and Update Heading 1 to match. Your version becomes the default for that document.

Getting Help

Start with your school’s techie. Every campus has one, and most issues get solved faster in the building than through the district office.

If your techie is tied up or the issue needs district-level access, submit a technology support request. For account and login problems, email technology@gpsb.org.

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