What's New - Fall 2025

Each August, I start off the year by sharing everything new that came up over the summer. Well we've had QUITE a summer! Check out the following updates and new-to-us tools!

Updates

Securly Pass - Queue Feature

New this year, Securly Pass will feature a "Queue" when limits are reached on locations. If only 3 students are allowed in a bathroom and someone requests a pass to that location, they will be added to the queue and then be able to start their pass once someone leaves. This should eliminate the need for students to continuously request a pass and get denied if a location is full. The queues will all be cleared at the end of each period.

When a student requests a pass to a location that is full, they will see something like this:

From the teacher dashboard, there will be a new tab to see any students waiting in any queues:

Once the location is clear, the student will be moved to the teacher's "Active" dashboard for approval. If the location is eligible for an auto-pass, the student can start their own pass when it is their turn.

Gemini in Google Classroom

You may have noticed that there is a new tab in Google Classroom for Gemini. In it, you will find a variety of AI tools that could help you:

The ones with the little star icon will open a new tab and take you to Gemini and the others will stay right in Google Classroom and give you some fields to fill out. You are welcome to explore these new features!

SchoolAI 2.0

This summer, SchoolAI released a beta version of their major update! You can access it now if you want to explore all the cool things it has to offer. This will be the interface moving forward. As of now, they expect it to release fully in the "fall" but there is no set date. If you want to test it out, click the "Unlock 2.0 Beta" button in the top right corner:

If you decide you want to go back, you can head over to the left side of the screen and select "Return to previous experience":

I promise to offer lots of professional development opportunities on this, so stay tuned for more information on that!

New to Londonderry

Securly Classroom

You've been asking for years...isn't there any way we can lock down the students' browsers while they are taking a quiz or writing a paper? I am happy to announce that...YES, there is! Not only that...you will now have the ability to push your screen to your students so they can more easily follow along if they struggle to see your projector/smart board. You can observe the tabs they have open in their browser and request that they close them via a discreet chat (or close them yourself and subsequently block the site if they don't comply). You can allow students to raise their hand or ask a question via a computer to help those who might be embarrassed to do so. Oh, and it syncs with Securly Pass, so students can request passes within the tool and teachers can approve or deny them as well! Here's the catch - it only works on district-issued devices. So if a student has their own laptop, it will not connect to them.

We are not quite ready to roll out with this yet, but I am looking for some volunteers to test it out with their classes, so if you are interested, please let me know! Additional training will come after the testing phase - hopefully in just a couple of weeks!

MagicSchool

Another AI website you are welcome to explore this year is called MagicSchool. In the past, they would not sign a data privacy agreement for the free version, but that has changed, so you are now welcome to add it to your box of AI tools. More information and professional development will be forthcoming on this one too!

GimKit

I mentioned this last year, but we do now have a school license to GimKit. I will email out the link to join our account so you can have full access.

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As always, if you have any questions on any of these new features/tools, please reach out. I will be working hard to develop lots of training content and professional development to support you. Good luck in the new school year!