Author: Mark Salzer

Please share with our families information about the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP), a continuation of the Emergency Broadband Benefit (EBB) with a few changes.

• From the FCC’s ACP website: https://www.fcc.gov/acp
  • The benefit provides a discount of up to $30 per month toward internet service for eligible households. Eligible households can also receive a one-time discount of up to $100 to purchase a laptop, desktop computer, or tablet from participating providers if they contribute more than $10 and less than $50 toward the purchase price. The Affordable Connectivity Program is limited to one monthly service discount and one device discount per household.
    • Eligibility
    • A household is eligible if a member of the household meets at least one of the criteria below:
    • Has an income that is at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines; or
    • Participates in certain assistance programs, such as SNAP, Medicaid, Federal Public Housing Assistance, SSI, WIC, or Lifeline;
    • Participates in Tribal specific programs, such as Bureau of Indian Affairs General Assistance, Tribal TANF, or Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations;
    • Is approved to receive benefits under the free and reduced-price school lunch program or the school breakfast program, including through the USDA Community Eligibility Provision in the 2019-2020, 2020-2021, or 2021-2022 school year;
    • Received a Federal Pell Grant during the current award year; or
    • Meets the eligibility criteria for a participating provider’s existing low-income program.

• Let’s make sure eligible families in our community are aware of this federal subsidy that is fairly easy to sign up for. The EBB toolkit has been modified for the ACP, but still has all the printable resources needed to spread the word (in English and Spanish). Here’s the link to the ACP Toolkit website: https://www.fcc.gov/acp-consumer-outreach-toolkit.

LANSCHOOL This is a reminder that teachers in grades 2 through 8 can use LanSchool to monitor and manage the district Chromebooks their students are using.

For elementary and middle school teachers whose students use Chromebooks, the following linked directions will NOT apply to new teachers or those new to LanSchool.  If you are a new-to-the-district teacher OR if you did not install LanSchool in the past please first submit a service request asking for LanSchool so that a technician can assign you a channel to use when you run the installation: Service ticket

Please follow these directions ONLY if you have used LanSchool in the past: Click Here  While the directions have a lot of “clicks”, it should actually only take a couple of minutes to load and install.

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APPLE CLASSROOM This is a reminder that teachers in lower elementary can use Apple Classroom to monitor and manage the district ipads their students are using. Please submit a service request asking for Apple Classroom training so that a technology integration specialist can further assist you: Service ticket

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SECURLY HOME This is a reminder that OUR FAMILIES can now monitor/manage district take home ipads and Chromebooks internet usage by their student using SECURLY HOME. All take home participant families were emailed sign up details. There are no costs to our families to use this service. Using Securly Home, parents/guardians can monitor and restrict the content that their students can access on their district-issued devices. Here is a brief 90-second video for more information about Securly Home. Families can check out the FAQs on the Securly Home help site or submit a support ticket with Securly for further assistance.

BrainPop’s January newsletter for K-12 instructional staff can be found HERE.

As a reminder, all district students, K-12 can access our paid subscription to BrainPop/BrainPop Jr via Clever at https://clever.com/in/pccs

Pics below show some of what’s in their latest newsletter.

— One of 2021’s Webby Awards in the Education category honoree’s National Geographic’s MapMaker empowers learners to explore Earth’s interconnected systems through a collection of curated basemaps, data layers, and annotation tools.

— The Blue Marine Foundation’s The Sea We Breathe is an interactive online project that won an FWA (Favorite Website Award of the month) earlier this year. Dive into 3 immersive underwater journeys and discover why a healthy ocean means a healthy planet.

— Perhaps for some lower elementary students using the interactive flat panels, this story of a little bird crossing the river that also won an FWA.

— Fingerspelling.xyz uses Hand Tracking & Machine Learning to help teach the ABCs in American Sign Language. Created together with the American Society for Deaf Children (also an FWA noted site).

— Google’s Internet Saathi project highlights stories of women breaking cycles of inequality (FWA cited).

— Solve artistic jigsaw puzzles together with family and friends in this Google Arts and Culture experiment 

 

PHOTOS ONLINE — The following are just some of the sites that house collections of photos from the past year. One or more might serve as a conversation starter in your learning environment.

The Guardian’s best photographs of 2021 – and the stories behind them 

AlJazeera’s 2021 In Pictures: The best photos from around the world

TIME’s Top 100 Photos of 2021

My Modern Met’s Best of 2021: Top 50 Photographs From Around the World

National Geographic’s top photos and stories from 2021

25 of 2021 NORTHERN LIGHTS PHOTOS

 

 

 

By logging into our SMART system’s web interface at https://smart.resa.net/ staff can view their eEmployee information, including payroll and attendance and soon be able to input certain health information. An earlier blog post noted that as of this past July, two factor authentication was being enforced (see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WtHg2tbpkhZRPFg4UJVOITZByKxgUnCN/view?usp=sharing for guidance).

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The information below is meant to assist THOSE STAFF who HAVE NOT logged into SMARTweb before.

Register as a First Time User

To sign on to eEmployee, log into: http://smart.resa.net.
The first time you login, you will need to register. Click the “Register if you haven’t already” link.

The following screen will come up. Start typing our district name (Plymouth-Canton) in the District box and select our district from the list that comes up. Then, enter your birth date and either the last four digits of your Social Security Number OR your Employee ID number and click Confirm.

After you click confirm, the screen below will come up to set your password. The Password Policy set by our district will be shown. Key in your password twice and click Reset.

Forgot Password??
Employees
From the login screen, fill in your User Name and District (start typing our district name in the District box and select our district from the list) and then click on “Forgot Your
Password.

You will then be prompted to set a password. The Password Policy requirements for our district will be listed. After keying in your password and confirming it, click reset.

Forgot Username??
From the login screen, fill in our District (start typing our district name in the District box and select our district from the list) and then click on “Forgot Your Username.”

The following screen will come up. Start typing our district name in the District box and select our district from the list that comes up. Then, enter your birth date and either
the last four digits of your Social Security Number OR your Employee ID number and click Confirm.

The Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit hosted by Matt Miller promises valuable knowledge from top innovators AND tips you can implement immediately. All videos — more than 70 — will be available in December and early January. Like any other conference, when it’s over, it’s over and the videos will disappear. Speaker videos last anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour. They’re practical and inspirational, from hand-picked education leaders. Each video is accompanied by a PDF notes page summarizing the message. Download the notes, share, and keep them as long as you want.

To get a flavor for what might be shared, check out some past Ditch Summit Sketchnotes created by Jen Giffen (@virtualgiff) below:

Take a peek at some of the latest enhancements included with our BrainPop renewal this year.

IMMERSIVE READER: Level the playing field with more support for students across all reading levels on BrainPOP Quizzes with Microsoft’s Immersive Reader.

Teachers and students using BrainPOP’s Quizzes now see the icon for Immersive Reader. Through features such as read aloud, line focus, translation and grammar markings, as well as the ability to adjust the size, style, and color of the font, learning becomes even more accessible to all students.

MODIFICATION STRATEGIES: Get helpful ideas for adapting BrainPOP tools and features for a variety of contexts and learners.

This modification “chart” features strategies for modifying each BrainPOP tool and feature for varied context and learners.  This includes synchronous and asynchronous learning, offline instruction, diverse learners, and language development for ELLs.

The table is organized by a traditional learning arc. This will support teachers and students to use BrainPOP to build background knowledge, practice thinking skills, and assessment or reflection.  Download this useful reference for planning lessons and differentiating instruction.

NEW READY-To-GO STANDARDS ALIGNED LESSON PLANS: Looking for ideas about how to use BrainPOP with your students? Click HERE to find top-notch lesson plans from the BrainPOP Educator community. Explore our growing collection of lesson plans or submit your own!

Want to quickly find lesson plans for a specific BrainPOP topic or game? Click the “Lesson Ideas” button that appears on every topic or game page. You can also find a collection of lesson ideas for each topic in the BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr, GameUp, or, BrainPOP ELL directories that appear in the Lesson Plans menu.

COVER THE LATEST TOPICS: Timely content: Explore 40+ new and enhanced SEL and academic topics including—
COVID-19, Self-Esteem, Graphs, Voting Rights, and more.

Coming Early 2022: Movie Pause Points: Engage students with embedded questions to encourage active viewing and meet more standards.

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As a reminder, all district students, K-12 can access our paid subscription to BrainPop/BrainPop Jr via Clever at https://clever.com/in/pccs

REMINDER: Due to the nature of YouTube, and the easy availability of inappropriate content, the Tech Department has enabled severe restrictions on YouTube for elementary students and moderate restrictions for middle school students. However, it’s easy for staff to approve content on the fly when they need to. Please note the following steps to approve content, but please remember to approve only the content that you would want students to access. 

Visit YouTube. https://www.youtube.com 

1. Click sign in on the top right if you are not already signed into a YouTube account. 
2. Make sure that you are signed into your district YouTube account. Click on the icon in the top right to verify. Should say managed by pccsk12.com (see pic below) 

 

      3. When you go to any YouTube video you will find a blue bar stating the status of the video below it. This video can be approved for our organization — when someone is signed in to YouTube — so at this point, not applicable to elementary as is. See pic below. 

   

      4. If the video was already approved you will see the remove button. Anyone can click this to also remove the video from approval. 

      5. Some videos are allowed by YouTube automatically. It will say watchable. 

      6. You can also approve a whole channel. This will allow you to approve school channels or curriculum sites, for when and if we opt for restricted mode, but permit sign in where we can then allow all white-listed videos to be accessible. 

7. Important note: By approving or removing videos from YouTube, you are a affecting the entire district, and therefore it is important to approve videos ONLY if they are appropriate for K-12. 
8.  All creators are now required to tell if their content is made for kids in order to comply with the Children‘s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws.   As part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, YouTube is now requiring YouTube creators to set future and existing videos as made for kids OR not. Even creators who don’t make content for kids need to set their audience.  See this posting for more information https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9527654