Blocked Websites

Lately, we have received a few tickets about blocked websites. Please keep in mind that certain websites may not be blocked for teachers, yet are blocked for students. As far in advance as possible before starting a lesson with students that involves an online activity, please confirm that a student can successfully get to the website and the activities you hope to use with them on the site. If the site/video/activity is blocked you can submit a tech ticket to request that it be unblocked. Keep in mind that we have different access permissions set at our three grade levels – elementary, middle and high – and you should confirm with an account of the same level as your expected lesson audience. So for example, if you teach middle school students, but have an elementary student at home, testing a site on their account may not be an accurate picture of access for your middle schoolers.

Related Notes:

  • Some YouTube videos must be approved before students will be able to view them (see this blog post on how to approve)
  • Google Sites from domains other than P-CCSk12.com are blocked for elementary students. If you submit a ticket well in advance, the tech department may be able to get a copy of the site to place in our own domain, provided it is not a Google site of a personal Gmail account.

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

Need Canvas Help?

image of Canvas help menu

Canvas is an important learning tool in our district. We hope that you continue to find it a valuable teaching and communication tool. If you are new to the district or have questions come up about it, we want you to be aware of several resources that are available to you.

First, click the “Help” icon on the Global Navigation Menu. For general and common questions try searching the Canvas guides. If your problem or question is unique and specific to your situation you can chat online or call the Canvas Support hotline. You can be connected with a support agent that can help you almost immediately.

image of Canvas help menu

If you would like to slowly browse resources, please check out our resources at the P-CCS Tech website, https://tech.pccsk12.com/canvas-lms/

If you are instructional staff working on meeting your PD expectations, please note we have a number of courses including the following listed below (all of them are 3 hours) that can help increase your understanding of how to use Canvas effectively available for you in the Catalog. https://catalog.pccsk12.com/

  • Canvas 1.0 (new)
  • Canvas 2.0
  • Canvas 3.0
  • Canvas in the Face to Face Classroom
  • Simplify and Streamline your Elementary Classroom with Canvas (new)

As always, please submit a tech ticket if you have any questions. https://links.pccsk12.com/helpdesk

 

BrainPop’s November Teacher’s Lounge

Highlights in the BrainPop’s November Teacher’s Lounge

  • Get ready to celebrate National STEM Day on November 8, and keep the learning going all year long!
  • Before your students dig into turkey and pumpkin pie, explore the real story of Thanksgiving, including the origins of this holiday.
  • Explore and celebrate the rich history, diverse cultures, and significant contributions of our nation’s first people in the past and present.
  • Get ready for other November Holidays like Day of the Dead, Veterans Day, Daylight Savings time, and more!

Click here for all the details!

Nov Newsletter

Gamify with Canvas and Ditch Summit

Many teachers have heard of break-out style lessons that build problem-solving and collaboration skills in students. They may be used more often to help engage students as holiday breaks inch closer. Did you know you can create your own digital break-outs with a Canvas module? You can go beyond a one time game and gamify an entire unit with a storyline. Check out the guest blog post on Ditch that Textbook for more information. https://ditchthattextbook.com/gamify-canvas-lms/

While you are there, you might consider signing up for the annual, free Ditch Summit.

In this online “summit” there are nine video presentations from awesome presenters on topics related to tech and solid teaching and learning. Including previous years’ sessions, you’ll have access to more than 80 video presentations!

This year, it’s scheduled for December 12, 2022, to January 6, 2023.

Get registered for free at: DitchSummit.com.

HOW IT WORKS: New presentations are released every day. They remain available until the end of the summit so you can re-watch or catch up on any you’ve missed. They’re pre-recorded, so you can watch them whenever you want until the summit closes. After that, the summit ends and the videos are unavailable to watch anymore.

Sign up for the digital summit at DitchSummit.com.

This year’s speakers include:
Ken Shelton, education leader and techquity advocate
Cornelius Minor, author and consultant, The Minor Collective
Jed Dearybury and Julie Jones, authors and playful learning advocates
Holly Clark, author, speaker, and blended learning expert
Amanda Sandoval, history and EL teacher
Hedreich Nichols, consultant and award-winning educator
Mandy Froelich, educator mental health change agent
Al Thomas, educator, filmmaker, photographer, YouTuber
Michele Eaton, online academy director, author, speaker

 

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

 

EdPuzzle Design Time (for secondary teachers)

flyer for edpuzzle design time

EdPuzzle is introducing a design time for teachers in grades 6-12. This month they will demonstrate (15 minutes) the Live Mode feature and then allow for 30 minutes of design time with personalized support from members of their School Success Team.

With Edpuzzle’s Live Mode feature, you can project your video live in front of the whole class while students answer in real-time on their own devices!

Why might you use Live Mode?

  • If you want to assign Edpuzzle videos for students to do independently, you can model how to interact with an Edpuzzle as a whole class
  • Use it for a read-aloud and circulate the room as students answer comprehension questions
  • Experience a poetry reading and allow students to analyze and make predictions
  • Go on a virtual field trip using 360 video
  • Review an Edpuzzle video students had for homework
  • Showcase final projects from students and allow students to give peer feedback
  • Observe a science experiment to practice making predictions and evaluating the results

Design Time will be on Wednesday, November 9