You can quickly create new files directly from your browser with “.new” domains for several Google products. For example, you can type “Cal.new” into your browser to create a new Google Calendar event.
The current “.new” domains are:
Note, the above are not case-sensitive (Docs, dOcS and docs will all work) and you can type either the singular (doc, sheet, slide, form, site) or their plural (docs, sheets, slides, forms, sites) before the “dot” new.
Educator and author Larry Ferlazzo shared his 2019 picks of potentially useful Web 2.0 websites that are accessible, free, classroom appropriate and browser-based at his blog. Interested educators may want to consider skimming his posting to learn a bit more about sites such as EduCandy (https://educandy.com/), Fluent Key (https://fluentkey.com/), and FlexClip (https://www.flexclip.com/) as well as consider checking out his 2018 picks and bookmarking his site for revisit.
Slido is a polling tool that has recently launched a Google Slides add-on and a corresponding Chrome extension. With Slido installed you can create polls directly in the Google Slides editor. The poll will appear as a slide in your presentation. The poll slide includes your question and the directions for your students to respond to your poll.
When your students responds to your poll, their responses will appear on the slide. By using Slido‘s Google Slides add-on you don’t have to toggle between your presentation and a polling website in order to view poll responses.
Boclips for teachers is a subject-rich platform with ad-free content that takes a lot of stress out of showing videos in class; videos are searchable by length, age range, and topic.
It’s a pressure-free place to start looking for high-quality videos to supplement existing lessons in traditional, one-to-one, or flipped classroom models.
It’s free, so sign up and try it out by visiting https://www.boclips.com/teachers
To see a listing of their more than 120 content partners and details to explore those channels, visit https://www.boclips.com/content-partners
Teachers with K-2 students and iPads, please keep in mind that you can visit the following link to know what iPad apps are available on district student iPads: https://tech.pccsk12.com/mdm-apps/
As new apps are requested and approved, these pages will be updated. Please notice that when you navigate to the page, you can click on either Filewave or eSpark since the app sets available to students are different depending on whether or not your building uses eSpark or IXL. Once on the particular MDM’s page, you can click “Install” to be taken to a page with more details on that app, but you don’t need to download/install it from that page.
For those at Filewave schools (not where eSpark is used) please see these directions for how to add apps to student ipads using Filewave: bit.ly/filewavehowto
eSpark iPads have a fixed set of apps that are automatically pushed to the iPads once apps are requested or approved. That said, due to the nature of how eSpark works, students have a custom set of apps based on their individual needs.
For help and training in your classroom with any of this, please remember that you can request Tech Integration Help via the Tech Department Service Request System (JIRA): Service ticket
The leaves are starting to turn and the days are getting shorter. Grab your PSL and enroll in a free REMC Virtual Course! Here’s your opportunity to earn 10 free SCECHs without ever leaving your classroom. No substitutes, and no paperwork required.
Seven courses are offered in November. Each course is open for three weeks and consists of two (2) one-hour “live” webinars that are recorded, available viewing later and eight (8) hours of resource review, assessment developments and written reflection. All REMC courses are open to all Michigan school personnel. There are no registration or SCECH fees.
November 2019 Course Information
November courses begin on Monday, November 4. The deadline for registration is Friday, November 1.
Courses descriptions are provided below. If you have questions or need further assistance with your course registration, please contact Erin Rommeck.
COURSE DESCRIPTIONS
Transforming Education – Maker Movement
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
The popular Maker Movement encourages making and creating in the classroom. Authors Sylvia Martinez and Gary Stager write in Invent to Learn, “Maker classrooms are active classrooms. In active classrooms, one will find engaged students, often working on multiple projects simultaneously, and teachers unafraid of relinquishing their authoritarian role. The best way to activate the classroom is to make something.” As an introduction to the Maker Movement, participants will learn about the resources and techniques teachers are using to transform their classrooms and educational environments to emphasize making, inventing and creating. Participants will also learn what is available to them through each of the local REMCs. Maker Kits are available through each REMC. Also, learn how districts can purchase maker resources from the REMC SAVE project.
Leading a Culture of Change in your School
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
Explore the essential needs of Leadership and Culture. This course is designed for school, district, and teacher leaders who wish to implement a change effort in their school or schools. Leaders is a broad category and can include coaches, teachers, technology specialists, aspiring leaders, or others interested in supporting school change. This course will focus on technology initiatives and other ideas that incorporate change.
Introduction to Personalized & Blended Learning for All Students, Level 1
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
Getting started with blended learning is simple. Lay the groundwork with effective strategies to support professional growth and applications for student learning. Study different structures for in the classroom and outside the school. Explore the different approaches and find the best methods to support students’ blended learning experience.
Literacy Instruction and Technology: Foundational Elements, Level 1
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
The course opens by providing the foundational elements of literacy development from kindergarten to high school, and the importance of teaching critical thinking skills. The literacy component provides an understanding of the developmental stages of reading and writing for elementary teachers. For secondary educators, the literacy component provides a deeper understanding of how students may struggle with reading content. During the second half of the course, an array of technology tools and resources will be introduced. The instructor will hare differentiated examples of technology integration for elementary and secondary classrooms. Participants will learn how to provide critical thinking opportunities in literacy, and design a lesson integrating technology and encouraging deeper thinking for their students.
A Practical Guide to Global Success Skills in the Classroom for the 21st Century and Beyond
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
Global Success Skills (GSS) are critical to student development to ensure students can successfully navigate college and career opportunities. A 2016 survey conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employees (NACE) identified a high need for entry-level students and employees to have practical skills in the following areas: leadership, communication, collaboration, and problem-solving. This course provides an in-depth understanding the Global Success Skills. Learn how to apply the skills in classroom instruction and professional growth lessons. Personalize learning experience by choosing areas to explore using the tools provided in class.
OER to Support Early Literacy
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
Open Educational Resources (OER) are free, high quality, openly licensed educational tools that can be retained, reused, revised, remixed, and redistributed. Participants will learn about, explore, and implement OERs to support early literacy initiatives. These resources may include Read Aloud, Oral Language, Phonological Awareness, Letter/Sound Recognition, and Emergent Writing Tools; Tools for Enhancing Dramatic Play; Lesson, Unit, and Project Plans; Screening and Assessment Tools; Early Childhood Books in the Public Domain; Interactive Simulations and Game-based Learning Programs; Online Course Curricula and Professional Learning Programs (for teacher support); and Tools for Supporting ELL and Special Populations. Additionally, the course will build upon the Michigan Department of Education’s Essential Instructional Practices for Early Literacy.
Making the Most of Your Google Classroom
November 4 | 10 SCECHs
Google Classroom is an easy way to organize and distribute your classroom assignments. You can share documents through Classroom, and create safe, two-way conversations between you and your students. Learn all the ins and outs of Google Classroom including how to add and grade assignments, post daily warms up, add parents and guardians, and much more. Plus, we’ll show you the many ways you can integrate multiple applications into Google Classroom. (e.g., Geogebra, Discovery, Flipgrid, edPuzzle, etc.)
The PDF Reader allows for SEAMLESS Google Classroom Integration! This makes it possible to go COMPLETELY PAPERLESS! Check it out!
RW4G@PCCS website: PDF Reader
https://sites.google.com/
RW4G@PCCS website: Tools Demo
https://sites.google.com/
Read&Write for Google PDF Reader Tip Sheet
https://docs.google.com/
We are so thrilled you found an app or extension that you believe will help your students grow! We want to help, but please keep in mind that the scale and volume of devices that we currently manage is challenging for a small department, and we need to have a process so we can make sure everything is taken care of while we comply with federal laws like COPPA and CIPA, as well as measuring an app’s value in terms of the Triple E Framework.
If you are interested in adding another iPad app to your student ipads or having a Chrome app/extension be unblocked so that your students can install it, please make sure to fill out the appropriate form linked below. Once an app is requested, the app can be delivered to the App Portal on student iPads or added to the Chrome Web Store for P-CCS on the last Friday of each month!
LanSchool, the program the district offers teachers for student device management and monitoring, can now be used with dynamically updated student rosters. For those teachers who have students using Chromebooks, especially teachers of 3rd through 8th graders, you can now install and use LanSchool by following directions we are providing. Please note, the following linked directions will NOT apply to new teachers or those new to Lanschool. If you are a new-to-the-district teacher this year, OR if you did not install Lanschool last year, please submit a service request so that a technician can install LanSchool for you: Service ticket
Additionally, if after following the directions linked below, you cannot get LanSchool to load your student rosters, you will also need to submit a service request: Service ticket
First, we’d like to apologize for the Lanschool delay. There were some unforeseen backend issues that had to be addressed related to rostering, Clever*, and Wayne RESA. Our department spent many hours over several weeks working with staff from Clever, LanSchool and WayneRESA to address these issues and we’re not quite done, but for many of you, the install and load should now be doable without our further assistance. Please follow these directions ONLY if you were using LanSchool last year: Click Here
While the directions have a lot of “clicks”, it should actually only take a couple of minutes to load and install.
*A quick note about our Clever / LanSchool integration. Since Clever (Single Sign-on), syncs nightly with MISTAR, and then LanSchool syncs with Clever, unlike last year, class rosters in Lanschool can now be kept up to date and all classes a teacher has in MISTAR (including previously unavailable homeroom classes) can now be loaded in LanSchool.
As the school year moves forward, we understand that everyone gets busy and sometimes details get lost in the mix. In particular, the Tech Department would like to remind everyone that it’s important to secure both your teacher devices and student cart-based devices when not in use, and especially over night.
Please secure your district-provided device in a locking closet, cabinet, or desk, and make sure the student device carts have all of their devices in them and are locked each night. We all want to protect these valuable investments!
Additionally, with the colder weather coming, it’s important to remember that district devices should not be left in cars in that cold weather. When a computer/ipad is brought from consistent cold temperatures into a warm building, its ambient temperature change causes condensation internally; condensate (water moisture) in turn can cause damage to the system board and other electronics. Everyone knows how important our computers are to us on a daily basis and we don’t want anything to happen to them so please help keep our devices from experiencing “temperature swings”! Thanks.