Ditch Summit’s Free Online PD now available through January 6

Ditch that Summit

As mentioned in one of our last month’s blog posts, 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 80 — 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.

Ditch Summit

Odds n’ Ends

Odds n Ends
  • This week, Google announced Chrome users can now search their tabs, bookmarks and history in the Chrome address bar. These new shortcuts let you quickly search your tabs, bookmarks, and history. To do this you simply type “@tabs” or “@bookmarks” or “@history” followed by your search term to search within your tabs, bookmarks, or Chrome browser history.
  • The Florida Center for Instructional Technology hosts two great resources for teachers and students in search of free clipart and pictures for classroom projects. One of those is ClipArt ETC and the other is Clippix ETC. Their catalogs are arranged in thematic collections and sub-collections. Simply pick a collection then a sub-collection to find the resource that you want to use. The resources are available in three file sizes to meet most needs.
  • This video reviews three helpful features within YouTube including adjusting the size and color scheme of subtitles, accessing and saving a transcript of videos, and clipping sections of YouTube videos.  A reminder that inserting a dash between the “t” and the “u” in a video provides a video that is playable without ads, comments, and is in full screen mode. https://www.yout–ube.com/….

Remain vigilant against online scams and phishing attempts

Just a little reminder, ’tis the season for on-line shopping…which also means ’tis the season for on-line scams.

Remember – Stay Vigilant:

1. If it looks too good to be true…it probably is.

2. Never type in your email address and password (or any other information) unless you are 100% sure it’s ok. If in doubt, stop, and ask questions.

3. Be careful downloading applications that promise awesome savings/gift cards or other such silly stuff…..(see #1).

4. Amazon doesn’t give away $500 gift cards just because they like you, or for filling out a survey (same with Walmart… see #1 ).

5. If there is ANY doubt in your head……submit a tech service ticket. We’d much rather spend 30 seconds answering your ticket than reimaging your laptop and seeing you upset and/or taken advantage of.

6. Don’t click on FedEx / UPS / USPS links in emails that come out of the blue …..  and if you do follow a link…remember # 2
(FedEx / UPS don’t need your Credit Card number or your Social Security number to verify your identity and shipping address.
Some of the emails the scammers send are *pretty* convincing, and they make them seem urgent, so pay attention and be EXTRA aware when dealing with any email about packages).

7. READ and LOOK at emails before you do anything…is the grammar just a little “off” ? Is the graphic kind of cheesy looking ? Who is the email from (does the address match who the person says they are)?

8. Some of the scammers have started setting up web sites that look very real / legit…but they are selling items at 1/4 the going rate…… do some shopping…is anyone else in the world selling the item that cheap ?….(see #1 )

9. Microsoft (or other computer companies) will NOT call you if your computer is having issues. They also do not have random Internet pages pop up telling you that your computer needs work.

10. If you have even the slightest doubt…. you can always just copy the text of the email into a google search. If it’s a scam, you’ll usually get lots of hits.

Happy holidays. Let’s be careful out there.

Beware of Phishing

REMC December free PD opportunities

REMC December courses

Give yourself the gift of learning during the holiday season with a REMC course

Treat yourself to a REMC December course!  Our professional learning is the best way to beat the winter blues and enhance your classroom learning in the new year. This month, our courses include tips to help struggling readers, ways to improve critical thinking through coding and how to lead a culture of change in your school …just to name a few.

Registration deadline is Thursday, December 1st, each course begins on Monday, December 5th. Through the support of REMC SAVE’s vendor partners, all courses are FREE and there are no SCECH fees. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn, connect, collaborate and grow with REMC courses.

Check out December courses:

Register by Thursday, December 1st. You will receive a welcome email with the course login and other information prior to the course start date. If you have questions or need further assistance with your course registration, please click here.

BrainPop’s December Teacher’s Lounge

BrainPop Dec Lounge

Highlights in the BrainPop’s December Teacher’s Lounge

  • Kick off Computer Science Education Week and Hour of Code on December 5 with movies and learning activities–including coding projects–to inspire students in these essential 21st-century skills.
  • Calling all teachers! Learn ways to integrate Hour of Code into your instructional plans — no coding experience required! Join us for BrainPOP Connect on December 5 for free, live virtual programming to kick off CSEdWeek.
  • Explore wintry topics to help teach your students how different creatures (including humans!) adapt and celebrate the change in season.
  • Live Brainpop

screenshot BP

BP Dec

PCCSK12-Staff wireless network change to occur December 5th

change coming

In the advent of increased cybersecurity threats to educational institutions and at the insistence of our firewall support team, the P-CCS Technology Department will be adjusting access permissions for devices connected to the PCCSK12-Staff wireless network. This network was established so that staff could connect their personally-owned devices to our district network. P-CCS does not own or manage these devices, therefore, we have limited ability to monitor or protect them from digital and online threats. By restricting the access of personally-owned devices to internal network resources, we can significantly reduce the chances of potential equipment and data compromise.

Starting December 5, 2022, devices connected to the PCCSK12-Staff network will only be able to access the internet; access to internal network resources, such as network drives and printers, will no longer be permitted. Network drives and printers will only be accessible to district-owned devices on the PCCSK12-Devices or PCCSK12-Secure networks. We recognize that this may be an inconvenience for some, but it is a necessary step to help secure our district network equipment and data.

If you are impacted by this change and need assistance with accessing internal network resources, such as network drives and printers, from your district-owned device, please submit a service ticket.

Highlights from the November Google for Education newsletter

Google for Edu November 2022

Check out Google for Edu’s latest monthly newsletter HERE. Some highlights are noted below.

 

National Disability Awareness Month
October is National Disability Awareness Month, a time for us to highlight helpful innovation for and with people with disabilities. We’re highlighting updates to features that are built into ChromeOS and Workspace to help students learn in the way that works for them, and helpful apps and extensions from Texthelp and SnapType.

More accessible

Give Thanks with Applied Digital Skills
Teachers – celebrate Thanksgiving with the Applied Digital Skills lesson Show Appreciation with Google Slides. In this lesson, students express appreciation for someone by creating a digital card using Google Slides.

Give Thanks

Arts & Culture: South African Creativity
“I Am Because You Are” is a celebration of South African creativity, community and craft. Learn about customs and rituals, take virtual tours of museums, discover early art and explore decorative crafts.

I am because you are

Learn with Google Arts & Culture
The learning pages on Google Arts & Culture have had a refresh, with new content, menus for each subject page and a new lesson plans / resources page. For inspiration and some cool, expert content check out Learn with GA&C now.

Arts and Culture

Looking for past issues of the Google for Education newsletter? Find them below, and sign up to hear from Google for Education.

2022 Newsletters

2021 Newsletters

Another random handful of websites that might be helpful

Useful Sites

In no particular order, here is another smattering of websites that instructional staff might find have a use case…

  1. ​Magic Eraser – this photo editing website magically removes unwanted objects from a photo. It’s surprisingly effective! Free to use if you don’t need high-resolution images.
  2. ​Google Trend Halloween Predictions – Google Trends is a fascinating resource for observing local, national, and global trends. If you teach psychology, statistics, or government, this is a resource you should check out for use in your classroom!
  3. Easy accent marks – This simple Chrome extension makes it easier to access non-standard keyboard characters for Spanish, French, German, and hundreds of other languages.
  4. ​Editing audio from a Chromebook – There are a number of audio editing options on a Chromebook, including 123apps.com (basic editing) and Twisted Wave (intermediate editing).
  5. Wordwall – Even their free plan allows you to make numerous custom activities for your classroom. Quizzes, match ups, word games, and much more. It’s another way to create teaching resources, BUT also you get access to masses of shared content from other educators across the globe in the community section.

Zoom Breakout Room features and the mmhmm app

Zoom and mmhmm

Here are a few Zoom BREAKOUT ROOM reminders, a recent feature add AND an app that works within Zoom to possibly make it more engaging….

As the host of a meeting, you can still communicate and share information with participants from the main session even after you have assigned and moved participants to breakout rooms. This includes sharing your screen, sending a message, or broadcasting your mic audio to all open rooms. See this help guide to learn how to broadcast your microphone audio to all breakout rooms in a meeting. This setting is controlled separately from the broadcast message option.

The adjustment is now meeting hosts can view activity statuses of participants in breakout rooms (e.g. share screen, reactions).

 

If you’re a regular Zoom user, especially if working with students, and looking to enhance how you are seen in it, consider signing up for a free-to-educators premium mmhmm account (premium for 12 months, then reverts to basic version). The mmhmm app works with Zoom and lets you choose from a variety of virtual backgrounds or add your presentation slides as your background. There are also a variety of special effects that let you grow, shrink or turn yourself invisible.

from https://www.mmhmm.app/blog/mmhmm-premium-is-free-for-students-and-educators-for :

How to register as an educator (or high school student)

1. If you’re new to mmhmm, download the app and create an account. (it’s now available on Macs and Windows – and there’s even a web version.)

2. Once you have an account, or if you’ve already signed up, go to account.mmhmm.app/education and log in to your account with your e-mail and password.

3. To verify your eligibility, add your school e-mail address and tell us what you do.

4. Verify your e-mail by following the link we send.

5. Approvals can take up to five business days to complete. Once approved, your account will reflect the additional 12 months of Premium.

A couple of videos on how you might use the app.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1qhjEcpDjs

 

REMC November free PD opportunities

REMC courses offer educators new ways to engage students and enhance classroom learning from the convenience of their home. Their professional learning offers something for everyone – from those interested in a new skill to those looking to strengthen student achievement and engagement through the use of technology integration.

Registration deadline is Thursday, November 3rd, each course begins on Monday, November 7th. Through the support of REMC SAVE’s vendor partners, all courses are FREE and there are no SCECH fees. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn, connect, collaborate and grow with REMC courses.

Check out November 2022 courses here:

Register by Thursday, November 3rd. You will receive a welcome email with the course login and other information prior to the course start date. If you have questions or need further assistance with your course registration, please click here.