District offers parents Zoom tech webinars

The North Ridgeville City School District is holding tech webinars to prepare parents for a new school year.

The North Ridgeville City School District is holding webinars to make sure parents are ready for the online portion of the upcoming school year.

The webinars, which last through Aug. 24, are part of the Ranger Parent Academy, which will cover all the different software and tools students will use to learn in the new school year.

“We are doing a series of Zoom meetings; we will have one session in the afternoon and one in the evening,” said Paul Hieronymus, director of information, technology and integration for North Ridgeville City Schools. “It gives parents the opportunity to look at the tech that will be used this fall, so they can help their children navigate remote learning.”

Hieronymus said the webinars will cover everything students will use.

“It covers everything from Zoom to Google Classroom to PowerSchool, and it will also cover the devices the kids will be using,” he said. “The webinars will last about an hour or so.

“The actual presentations will last about 30 to 45 minutes and then there is plenty of time for questions.”

Hieronymus said the first webinar went very well.

“We had our first one (Aug. 10), and I feel like it went very well,” he said.

“We had 75 parents, which I felt was very good for a 1:30 p.m. session.”

Hieronymus said the first session focused on Google Classroom.

“It was really what parents need to know about Google Classroom,” he said. “Specifically, it was about the Google Classroom as part of the G Suite for education.

“There is some confusion because Google Classroom is not your Gmail account, so not everyone has it. The big question of the first session was where to find grades, and so we had parents go through that process.

“I feel like the session as a whole was really good, and we want to make sure parents know this stuff before classes begin.”

Remaining schedule of webinars:

• Zoom - Connecting to the virtual classroom, 2 p.m. or 6 p.m., Aug. 12

• PowerSchool - Your key to student progress, 2 p.m. or 6 p.m., Aug. 13

• Google - Let’s get organized with Google Calendar and Google Keep, 1 p.m. or 6 p.m., Aug. 17

• iPad - Getting to know the iPad, 3 p.m. or 7 p.m., Aug. 20

• Google Drive - Google Docs, Sheets and Presentations, 1:30 p.m. or 7 p.m., Aug. 24

For more information and to register for webinars, visit nrcs.net/RangerRestart.aspx.