Simplek12 is again offering access to one of their recorded sessions on Canvas several times this week. Visit https://simplek12.lpages.co/event-canvas-v1/?cc=email-basic1-canvas to register for one of the sessions being offered Monday (9/14), Thursday (9/17) or Saturday (9/19). Deb Norton will review embedding Google Forms and Edpuzzles to building badges and making breakout sessions, all in Canvas!
SimpleK12 also offers several other free 30 minute sessions on other topics including Jamboards, Bitmojis, Choice boards and Edpuzzle. You can check out their listings and register at https://www.simplek12.com/tier/free-event/
Flipgrid is a simple, free, and accessible video discussion experience for educators, learners and families. Create a discussion Topic, share it with your learning community. Learners record and share short videos with you and your class. Richard Byrne has a getting-started-with-Flipgrid video to help teachers understand Flipgrid and what students see when they use the tool. Visit admin.flipgrid.com to log in or create your 100% free educator account.
Note, students can be provisioned through Clever as well as interact with your Flipgrids within CANVAS.See this support page or PDF if interested in integrating Flipgrid into one or more of your Canvas courses. The Canvas Community’s also reviews the integration here. Note, in your Flipgrid Admin account (admin.flipgrid.com) within the Actions button to Edit Grid. Under section 2. Security and Privacy, you have the choice to enable or disable a Canvas Only option for grids.
CommonLit is a nonprofit education technology organization working to support all students with reading, writing, communication, and problem-solving skills. The CommonLit Literacy Model is built on a foundation of over 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12, complimented by aligned interim assessments, growth oriented goals, and expert led teacher development. Teachers can assign Mini Units (short, self-paced thematic units for grades 5-12) and Text Sets (relevant reading passages from a variety of genres). Their blog for teachers reviews much more.
Are you a teacher that wants to set up your Clever classes on CommonLit? Scroll down to the subheader that most accurately describes you below:
I have never used CommonLit before.
I have a CommonLit account.
Directions: I have never used CommonLit before.
Once you click on the CommonLit icon in your Clever Portal, you’ll be brought to the screen below.
Since you’re new to CommonLit, select “No, not yet.” After asking you a few follow-up questions, we will create a new CommonLit account for you with all of your Clever classes and students.
You and your students will now be able to log in to CommonLit using Clever by clicking the CommonLit logo on your Clever dashboard, or by choosing “Log in with Clever” from CommonLit’s Login page. Plus, now Clever will regularly update your classes if any students are added or removed at any point throughout the school year.
Now that you’re all set up, do you want to learn more about how to use CommonLit? Check out this great video tour of CommonLit and our resources.
Directions: I have a CommonLit account.
Once you click on the CommonLit icon in your Clever Portal, you’ll be brought to the screen below.
Since you already have a CommonLit account, select “Yes, sign me in!”
We’ll then ask you to log in to your CommonLit account.
After logging in, we’ll import your classes and students from Clever into your CommonLit account.
You and your students will now be able to log in to CommonLit using Clever by clicking the CommonLit logo on your Clever dashboard, or by choosing “Log in with Clever” from CommonLit’s Login page. Plus, now Clever will regularly update your classes if any students are added or removed at any point throughout the school year.
Now that you’re all set up, do you want to learn more about how to use CommonLit Digital? Check out this great video tour of CommonLit and our digital resources.
In case your Google apps launcher (waffle) isn’t available or doesn’t show the app icons you were expecting, please consider browsing to your Google apps dashboardhttps://gsuite.google.com/dashboard instead or log in directly to the specific app, such as the three shown below, with the urls below.
With many staff members to support, it’s important to have a system to track issues, document trends, and assign support to the appropriate technicians or tech integration specialists. If you are needing assistance with anything technology related, we ask that you use our Service Request ticketing system.
As we head into a new and unusual school year, we will appreciate in advance your patience with our department’s sometimes uncharacteristically delayed responsiveness as we are also spearheading the issuance and support of many student devices and family tech concerns. We will get to your ticket. Thank you!
Once there, to log in, you will input your district GMAIL Email address for your “Username”.
For “Password” you will input your network password (not necessarily your Google password) – Your network password is the password you would use to log onto a district desktop computer.
Then you fill out the service form with the details that best describes your situation and support needs.
We expect a change sometime today to our district Zoom account that will likely “break” the urls of any meetings that were scheduled, but hadn’t yet occurred, prior to the change. The domain url we have been assigned will be changed from https://pccsk12-com.zoom.us to https://pccsk12.zoom.us. After that change happens, it is our understanding that “upcoming” meetings will likely need to be rescheduled and invites / postings about them, updated to reflect their new meeting urls. The Technology Department regrets any inconvenience that this url change may cause.
Adobe has assembled resources and learning opportunities to help educators engage remote students through online learning. Check it out at https://edex.adobe.com/distance-learning
One of the main tools they reference is Adobe Spark, its suite of tools for helping users create visual content. Spark enables non-graphics experts to design professional-looking graphics, mix text and images and create animated videos simply and quickly. As a reminder, all P-CCS staff and secondary students have access to Adobe Spark for Education, a premium, yet free, version of Spark which is made available to schools and colleges.
Spark supports live collaboration through the web. It comes in multiple languages, including French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese. Adobe has added or will soon be adding project commenting; real-time, synchronous co-editing; mobile project sharing; and “support for multiple brands” for users who participate in more than one team.
John Sowash is a former HS biology teacher and principal who helps teachers use technology to improve instruction. A few links he has posted on his blog https://www.chrmbook.com/blog/ are shared below along with his commentary.
Link to a specific portion of a webpage – Google released a handy Chrome Extension that makes it easy to point someone to a specific portion of a web page. It even highlights the text you want to emphasize!
The Anywhere School 2020 – Google is planning a special back-to-school event in mid August. Details are sparse, but they claim it will be awesome! RSVP to attend (free).
The best ELA tools for your classroom – in this blog post [John] shares his favorite web-based ELA tools for helping students become strong readers and writers.
Turning paper assignments into digital activities – Assignments that were designed for printing, don’t always translate well into digital activities. Here’s a look at how [John] redesigned a paper assignment into a remote learning activity.
25 Novel Hyperdocs – Karly Moura (@KarlyMoura) shared her collection of ELA hyperdocs over on the Ditch that Textbook blog. If you are doing a novel study, this is an awesome resource!
isn’t available or doesn’t show the app icons you were expecting, please consider browsing to your Google apps dashboard 
CANVAS
FRONTLINE
ZOOM
