imminent Zoom change will affect upcoming meetings’ urls

Zoom

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 Distance Learning Hub

Adobe Learning Hub

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

Some of their resources include:

K-12 projects — https://edex.adobe.com/distance-learning/k-12-projects

Social Justice projects — https://edex.adobe.com/social-justice

resources for young learners — https://edex.adobe.com/young-learners

resources for welbeing — https://edex.adobe.com/distance-learning/wellbeing-for-educators

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.

Note, there is a Canvas integration.  To create Spark assignments in Canvas, check out https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/canvas-integration.html#educators // students to complete a Spark assignment in Canvas would want to check out https://helpx.adobe.com/enterprise/using/canvas-integration.html#students.

When you are ready to get started with Adobe Spark, you can log in by following the instructions at http://links.pccsk12.com/adobespark.  For a quick tutorial on how to use Adobe Spark, we encourage you to watch this tutorial video from Richard Byrne. You may also want to look at Adobe’s Spark Edu guide. 

Canvas Resources to Help Educators, Monday 8/17/2020 Livestream sessions

Canvas Resources to Help Educators
Canvas Support Livestream Schedule: Helping Educators Self Serve Top Support Issues

Five links to check out

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.

  1. ​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!
  2. ​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).
  3. ​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.
  4. ​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.
  5. ​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!

 

Free webinar on “Using Zoom Video Conferencing Tools for Student Engagement”

Zoom webinar

Simplek12 offers each week free access to various of their popular 30 minute webinars one of which is Using Zoom Video Conferencing Tools for Student Engagement. Some folks may want to check it out as it covers…. ** How to start taking your online learning experiences to the next level with Zoom ** Directions on using breakout rooms, the whiteboard tool, and digital annotation ** Tips on using Zoom in a way that allows for enhanced student engagement

Tuesday | July 28, 2020 5 pm – 5:30 pm

Thursday | July 30, 2020  10:30 – 11:00 am   OR  12:00 – 12:30 pm

FREE WEBINAR SERIES on Ways to Engage Students Online

Webinar Series

For ways to engage online learners, Wayne RESA is facilitating a webinar series that provides practical ideas and instructional strategies for creating a student-centered classroom that has learners connecting and communicating, collaborating, co-facilitating, and continuously reflecting. There are four webinars in the series, but you may elect to attend one, two, three, or all four sessions. (see https://www.smore.com/230vn)

CONNECT AND COMMUNICATE

Discover ways to develop community through synchronous and asynchronous interactions. Learn ways to build student rapport, going beyond the traditional icebreaker activities. Finally, we’ll discuss the importance of creating multiple channels of communication between teachers, parents, and students. Leave with strategies you can use tomorrow.

July 27, 2020 from 1:00-2:00 PM

COLLABORATE

Move beyond teacher-student and student-student communication and explore ways for students to collaborate in their learning. Explore examples (and non-examples) of collaboration, and how to spot the differences. Discover the importance of strategic group assignments as well as defining and assigning group roles. Delve into ways to monitor collaboration to prevent a few group members from doing all of the work.

August 3, 2020 1:00-2:00 PM

CO-FACILITATE

Provide students with opportunities to take responsibility for their learning by giving them voice and choice over what they learn. The teacher can step back as the source and filter of information and become an active participant in the learning process, providing guidance only when appropriate. Discover how to maintain sanity and monitor progress in an online environment, while giving students more options.

August 10, 2020 1:00-2:00 PM

CONTINUE AND REFLECT

Inspire students to take control of their own learning through ongoing reflection. Enhance the metacognitive abilities of your students after a learning experience is complete, and how it can be used as a springboard for future learning. Learn how to create an environment of reflection and exploration for your students to help improve each learning experience.

August 17, 2020 1:00-2:00 PM

Google for Education’s June newsletter highlights

Past Google for Education newsletters have alerted educators to many resources and opportunities.  Google’s latest issue #29 (June 2020) is no exception.  Pasted below are some of its snippets for your review.

Discover the New Google Teacher Center
Discover free technology training and resources for educators of all levels in the new Teacher Center. We’ve updated the Teacher Center with guide pages for our core products, an updated hub of teacher resources, a communities page to connect you to experts and other educators, and more.

VIA20 Google Certified Innovator Academy
Want to solve a global challenge in education? Applications are now open for the 2020 Google Certified Innovator Academy, which will be delivered online to a Global Cohort. Apply before July 10.

Getting Started with Google for Education
New to Google tools and not sure where to start? Register for our 8-week “Getting Started with Google for Education” email series to receive 10-minute, video-based lessons on the Tuesday of each week. Content is available with subtitles in over 18 languages.

Make Remote Learning Work for Everyone
On May 21st Google celebrated Global Accessibility Day. Learn more about how to make remote learning work for everyone.

Google Play’s Change The Game Design Challenge
For all kids 13-18: Submit to the Design Challenge today! Participants will score an online game dev workshop with other game changers. Clock the entire course to earn a certificate of completion and a new Chromebook!

Remote Reading Support from Rivet
Access remote reading support with one click now that Rivet’s library is available on the web. Includes 3,500+ free, leveled books across 14 kid-friendly categories and word help on every page in addition to recently added books in Spanish.

“Learn Anywhere” with Google Arts & Culture
Created with home learning in mind, 11 Learn Anywhere lesson plans launched on TES. Flexible enough to use in the classroom or for students to work through on their own, they cover a range of subjects, from Dinosaurs to Bauhaus.

Make Remote Learning Fun with Applied Digital Skills
The new Digital Art & Games collection from Applied Digital Skills features 10 at-home lessons to help your students express their creativity and have fun, all while learning digital skills. Students can create a meme with Google Drawings, make a word game in Google Sheets, write an emoji story in Google Docs, and more!

A Guardian’s Guide to CS First
This how-to guide for parents and guardians helps you and your kids get started with CS First, an engaging video-based curriculum that teaches coding through hands-on activities. A great activity to use over summer!

Navigate the Digital World with this Guide
Parents and Guardians can use this Digital Wellbeing Guide to help them spark productive conversations, practice healthy habits, and identify engaging activities with their families.

Please Secure Equipment Before Leaving For Summer Break

Instructional staff, before leaving for your well-deserved summer vacation, please comply with the directions of your principal and main office to turn in or secure all classroom technology equipment such as document cameras, microphones, interactive pens, and remotes. Please leave any Ethernet and USB cables / whips in place, but off the classroom floor. On your last day in your school, would you please also power off all electronics including projectors, interactive flat panels, sound amps, and desktop computers. Please leave printers and copiers plugged in and powered on.

Please also secure or take home all District-assigned devices (laptop, Chromebook, iPad, etc.), as well as all personally-owned devices.

For those that have a classroom cart with student devices (iPads or Chromebooks), please lock your cart after ensuring that all of the devices in your classroom are inside and connected to charge. On a sheet of paper, please print your name, room number and the number of devices contained inside and tape the sheet to the top of your cart. Please make sure that the cart is plugged in to charge and leave it charging in the classroom (unlike past years, please don’t take it to the media center). Please hand the cart key to your building secretary (or in some cases, your principal) and make sure that they have recorded that you turned it in.

District-assigned devices should be brought back when you return to school in the fall OR upon separation of service from the District (retirement, resignation, lay-off, etc.) (please see this document if you are separating from service).

Thanks for your cooperation in helping safeguard district tech!

BrainPOP: High School Access AND an issue with Class Data

BrainPop
HIGH SCHOOL ACCESS: For the remainder of the school year, PCEP and Starkweather students and staff have full access to BrainPOP via our Clever portal. Creative resources such as Make-A-Map and Make-A-Movie as well as assignments, quizzes, and projects await. Staff planning to use BrainPOP can check out this 30 minutes BrainPOP101 course to get an overview of many of the resources and tools available.
 
Class data: Due to an unplanned change in sharing rules, teachers are no longer able to see prior student work  easily in their teacher dashboards. Any new assignments they create will display as normal. Though they are unable to view the older assignments, the data has not been lost: it remains in the students’ accounts and is still visible in the student dashboard.  If a teacher ever wants to see everything a student has done, they can click on “View Students” and click the student‘s name to view their timeline with all their quiz scores regardless of whether they were submitted to the teacher or not.

Registration closing soon for free virtual courses offered by REMC in May

REMC May 2020 courses

For those interested, there’s still time to enroll in a free REMC Virtual Course and earn 10 free SCECHs. To see a description of the courses offered and to register, visit https://mailchi.mp/71fc6deb90f9/theres-still-time-to-sign-up-for-our-free-virtual-learning-courses-3686790?e=67db2526b4

May courses begin on Monday, May 4.  The deadline for registration is Friday, May 1. Eleven courses are offered (see list below). Each course is open for three weeks and consists of two (2) one-hour “live” webinars that are recorded and available for viewing later, and eight (8) hours of resource review, assessment developments and written reflection.