Author: PCCS TIS

by Rick Coughlin

Look, I know this teaching gig is hard. You know that on a daily basis, you make more decisions that an air traffic controller, and that’s a documented fact. Many of the decisions you make are HARD. I know that TOO. After all, you are working with the most precious cargo anyone could ever work with…someone else’s children. I don’t have to get into the nitty gritty of why that’s so important, because you’re a great teacher and the gravity of that is not lost on you. You GET IT.

That said, I’m hoping you’ll consider making decisions around how you use technology in the classroom this year a bit differently. This way of making decisions around technology can have a big impact on your students and will free you from the mindset of thinking that you have to use technology, because sometimes the answer really is…wait for it…. No technology. Or instead of every student having a device in front of them, maybe the BEST answer is that students are in small groups and only ONE student has a device to use with the group, or that there are students in pairs where only ONE student has a device.

I highly recommend you spend a touch of time, as you get to know your students in the coming weeks, also getting to know the Triple E Framework. I promise, it’s not complicated or time consuming, it is simply a way of THINKING as you prepare your lessons, projects, and plans for the year. The Triple E Framework, is “for educators to measure how well technology tools integrated into lessons are helping students engage in, enhance and extend learning goals.”

Ultimately, the Framework asks a series of questions around the technology that you are considering using, and presents you with a score on how well the technology really performs in the context of the learning goals. Read all about it here, as well as access the handy online rubric that automatically generates the score: https://www.tripleeframework.com/about.html

Once you integrate these questions into your way of thinking about technology use in your classroom, you might not even need the rubric every time! Trust me, you’ll feel better and more confident in your use of technology, and better be able to justify it’s use when having conversations with families, students, and your evaluating administrator. 😉

Welcome back team! I know it’s going to be a great year at P-CCS!

The Find-Me printing choice continues to be our best and most popular option for timely releasing and roaming print jobs. Please review the following diagram to understand how to set up “Find Me Printing” after which, when you select it, you may then walk up to one of our new multi-function printers and upon logging in, be presented with the choice of which jobs to print. This guidance and other helpful tips for staff laptops can be found at https://tech.pccsk12.com/devices-hardware/hp-probook-g5-handbook/

Here’s a reminder that this school year ALL P-CCS students will have access to a powerful Universal Design for Learning (UDL) tool that can improve their educational outcomes. Read & Write for Google offers a range of powerful support tools to help students with reading, writing, studying and research.

Some of those tools include:

• CHECK IT tool, an innovative spelling & grammar check
• Translation tool (single word; over 150 languages!)
• Text-to-speech to hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting
• Dictionary definitions and pictures to identify the meaning of words
• With speech-to-text, dictate words to assist with writing, proofreading & studying
• Word prediction offers suggestions for the current or next word as you type
• Collect highlights from text in documents, from a web page or PDF for summarizing and research
• Create and listen to voice notes directly inside of Google Docs
• Simplify text on web pages to remove ads and other items that can be distracting
• “Talk to the Text” digital annotation (in PDF files)
• Tools to make digital text accessible (in EPIC!, MeL, MI Open Books, etc…)
• Seamless integration with many of the district’s online curriculum resources

For more information, go to the R4WG@PCCS website: bit.ly/RW4GinPCCS

As we begin the school year, we recognize that many instructional staff, perhaps especially those new to the district, will continue to have questions and/or welcome support to better use their HP ProBooks. With this in mind, here’s a reminder we’ve made a help page for the ProBook and will add to it as the year unfolds.

If you still have questions after visiting the link or if you have some wonders related to implementing educational technology in your classroom or have a software issue in your office, please submit a service request and ask for assistance from a Tech Integration Specialist (Matt Smoot or Rick Coughlin)

Service Request

HP ProBook Help

More and more, P-CCS will be relying on Clever to provide a single sign-on solution for our staff and students, making it easier for everyone to access many digital learning services and tools. Our department encourages staff to learn more about the Clever Portal, how it works and how it can benefit you and your students.

Clever is hosting a live training on August 12, 10:30 am PT / 1:30 pm ET to provide a detailed overview on how teachers can use the Clever Portal in the ‘19-’20 school year (registration link here). This is a great opportunity to ensure you have all the information you need to use Clever in your classroom. During the training Clever will provide (i) step-by-step instructions on how to use the Clever Portal, (ii) instructions on how to access Clever Academy, and, (iii) review exciting new product updates for teachers.

As a next step, please register for the live training using this link. If you cannot attend, we will send out the recorded webinar afterwards so that you can check it out when it is more convenient for you!

As a bonus, Clever will also give away a prize for one lucky attendee… this limited edition Clever Academy duffel bag. 😉

Last August, Google introduced a new version of Google Classroom. This included the most notable and popular feature of ‘Classwork,’ which allowed teachers to organize assignments and questions by modules and units.

On September 4th, 2019 all previous versions of Google Classroom (classes without ‘Classwork’) will be reverted to the newest version and will now include the ‘Classwork’ tab. This means that instructors will not have the ability to revert back to the older version of Classroom on or after 9/4/19.

When classes still using the previous version are automatically converted to the new version of Classroom, any class materials that exist in the Class Settings page will not be carried over to the converted classes. You will still be able to access these materials, excluding any YouTube content, via the Drive folder. To learn how to add materials to ‘Classwork’ page click here.

• If you use the previous version of Classroom, you can convert it to the new version before September 4 by adding the Classwork page. 

As always if you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Technology Integration Specialists via a service request.

For the coming school year we’re excited to announce that all students will be able to use the premium version of Text Help’s Read & Write for Google Chrome. 
Read & Write is a powerful UDL (Universal Design for Learning) tool and Chrome browser extension and its premium version has been of benefit for students at both Eriksson and Field.

While we will be offering additional training opportunities for teachers as the school year progresses, we are offering two early-bird sessions on August 19th for those with time and interest to come and learn more about this UDL tool.  Please see the form below for more information and sign up for the offered times on the 19th: forms.gle/GYMnZzzma1adfGLi8

If you would like to learn more about Read & Write, watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Bp0to8a9Z0

Or visit the website: https://www.texthelp.com/en-us/products/read-write/read-write-for-google/

Please note, the 2.5 hour trainings on August 19th are not compensated training; if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at tis@pccsk12.com

Common Sense Education is considered by many educators to be the gold standard when it comes to digital safety, reviews of edtech software, and digital resources for teachers. Common Sense has teamed up with edWeb.net to provide timely monthly webinars that explore innovative technologies, digital citizenship strategies, formative assessments, the development of critical thinking skills and more.

Both companies have also archived and posted all previous webinars which can be viewed anytime for free. Check out the site to watch previous webinars.

ISTE stands for International Society for Technology in Education. Each year they hold a conference in the summer that brings tens of thousands of people from all over the world to learn about innovative educational technology and its impacts on education. This year in Philadelphia, ISTE wanted to highlight the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. Nearly 20,000 educators engaged in their NASA Playground which included 2D and 3D modeling, augmented reality and other innovative technologies. Check out this article!

Noteworthy Resources:

Be A Nasa Scientist Poster w/ QR codes

NASA resources: A universe of learning at your fingertips (Tons of NASA Resources)