Google Docs Email Templates

Ever find yourself writing emails and thinking that you should really save it to re-use later? Google Docs now makes it easier to draft an email in Docs and send it with just a few more clicks.

Entering @email in docs.google.com will load a template complete with To, Cc, Bcc, and Subject lines. It can also be accessed via Insert > Building Blocks > Email draft.

preview of email template screenYou can access your contacts and enter them directly in the correct fields. Then you can draft your email. Because you are in Docs you can share it with your grade-level team or co-teacher for feedback and suggestions.

When you are ready to send, click on the Gmail icon and it will automatically populate the Gmail message with what you entered in Docs. Then congratulate yourself because that yearly email or other frequent communication is saved in Drive to save you time in the future.

Draft email in Docs

This feature was previously mentioned along with some other exciting updates in this blog post.

April 2022 Canva Monthly Newsletter

Greetings from the Canva K-12 Education team! This monthly newsletter includes new feature updates and tips for getting the most out of your enterprise-level Canva for Education tools.

Canva Tutorials for Students

Help students create, communicate and utilize Canva for Education. Short, easy-to-follow video tutorials help students of all abilities get the most out of Canva for Education whether creating presentations, editing photos, collaborating with classmates and much more!. SEE TUTORIALS

Comment-Only Links

Now you can share your design with others with a comment-only link! This link allows recipients to comment on your design and provide meaningful feedback without changing or editing the content. LEARN MORE

Awesome Analytics with Canvas Studio

Canvas Studio is a tools that allows instructors and students to actively collaborate through video and audio media.

It has the ability to:
Why would you use it?
And newly-updated View Insights!
  • You have always been able to view graphs on who viewed you video and for how long.
  • Now you can also see what parts of the video get played or replayed most often so you can better understand what was useful for students.
  • You can see a viewer list and easily see the completion rate for each.

Image of Studio viewer list

If you want to chat more about the possibilities with Canvas Studio, submit a tech ticket and we’d be happy to answer your questions and walk through it with you.

Check out the redesigned REMC Classroom Resource Page

from REMC’s latest newsletter…

The REMC Association of Michigan is dedicated to improving learning by empowering educators through top-notch professional learning and ready-to-use classroom resources. We strive to make our tools easy to access and implement. Check out our newly designed Classroom Resources webpage with FREE resources and classroom tools.

Looking for a lesson in Digital Citizenship? Interested in starting an Esports program?  Need a free place to access and store videos? It’s all located at: https://www.remc.org/classroom-resources/

We provide lessons and activities for students to grow their effective use of technology and be successful digital learners. There are also toolkits specific to presentation skills, media literacy and digital citizenship. Check out MI Streamnet to learn more about how you can avoid ads and distractions that occur when accessing videos and educational content from other sites.

Moving educational technology forward also requires professional learning for those in the trenches. We have a section dedicated to resources for those of you providing training and support services. The best part is everything is FREE and all content is licensed under a Creative Commons license so there is no need to worry about use or altering resources to meet your needs.

BrainPop’s May Teacher Lounge newsletter

BrainPop May Teacher's Lounge

BrainPop’s May newsletter for K-12 instructional staff can be found HERE. As a reminder, all district students, K-12 can access our paid subscription to BrainPop/BrainPop Jr via Clever at https://clever.com/in/pccs.

Pics below show what’s in their May newsletter.

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May 2022

Dear Educators,

May is Mental Health Awareness Month—a time to prioritize social and emotional well-being. Late spring can be particularly challenging as you juggle assessments and finish up the school year strong. No wonder Teacher Appreciation Week falls in May! We hope you take time for yourself this month (and always).

To support mental health awareness with your students, this month’s newsletter features movies highlighting topics such as self-esteem, conflict resolution, and mindfulness.

Warmly,
Jackie Glassman,
Director of Educator Content

Highlights from the April Google for Education newsletter

Google for Ed newsletter
Here are some highlights from the latest newsletter for your consideration.

 

Some digital resources to consider checking out….

Misc Digital resources

Online Safety

Online Safety Basics
Learn how to protect yourself, your family and devices with these tips and resources from the National CyberSecurity Alliance.

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Critical Media Project

Critical Media Project (CMP) describes itself as a free media literacy web resource for educators and students (ages 8-21) that enhances young people’s critical thinking and empathy, and builds on their capacities to advocate for change around questions of identity.

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MathTV

The MathTV library contains over 10,000 videos, from basic math through calculus. Many video sets have one conducted in Spanish, by a native speaker. To search for a specific video or example, click the magnifying glass icon in the toolbar. Instruction by a peer tutor can help students gain confidence in doing math. Each video is done by a different instructor so that students can see slightly different approaches and strategies to solving each problem.

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Kanopy

Kanopy makes thousands of videos available for free through public and university libraries. To check out a movie or video, you’ll just need a library card, and that library must subscribe to Kanopy (both Plymouth and Canton Public libraries subscribe – both libraries have shared with the tech dept that any teacher in the district can approach them and be issued a card even if they are not residents). Categories include movies, documentaries, foreign films, classic cinema, independent films, and educational videos. Kanopy Kids is a subset of this collection. Check out even more resources available at our local public libraries (Plymouth and Canton for elementary and secondary).

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Hoopla

Hoopla. Borrow movies, TV shows, music, audiobooks, ebooks, and more for free from public libraries that subscribe to Hoopla (both Plymouth’s and Canton’s Public libraries subscribe – both libraries have shared with the tech dept that any teacher in the district can approach them and be issued a card even if they are not residents). All you’ll need is a library card. You can use the categories or search filters to find a solid selection of content for your classroom. The KidZone is a section with children’s movies.

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Cosmo Learning

CosmoLearning (CL) is a non-profit educational website committed to improving the quality of homeschooling, teaching and student excellence and offers streaming and downloadable content for schools.

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TED-Ed

TED-Ed continues to add video content and lessons plans around subject matter.

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Go Noodle

Go Noodle curates fun collections of music videos, games, and activities offer opportunities for short bursts of physical exercise in the classroom — aimed at helping kids focus and build brainpower.

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Bigread

Big Library Read, facilitated by OverDrive, is a reading program through libraries that connects readers around the world with the same free ebook at the same time without any wait lists or holds. Currently you can checkout the free ebook and audiobook of Music is History by Questlove.

eyechart

And now, for something just for fun. You can use for classroom posters, something inspirational. So easy, no login. eyechartmaker.com

Microsoft Office 365 Now Available for Instructional Staff on New Dell Laptops

MS Office 365

We are very excited to announce that, starting today, all P-CCS instructional staff with a new Dell laptop are now able to access Microsoft Office 365. Prior to today, only a limited number of staff had access to Microsoft Office. Now, all instructional staff with a new Dell laptop can access the web version of Office 365 and/or install it on their new district laptop.

To install Microsoft Office 365, simply open the Company Portal, select Microsoft Office 365, and click install. For more detailed directions, please follow these step-by-step instructions.

As a reminder, please be patient while software is installed through the Company Portal. If you are logging into your laptop for the first time, the initial setup of your laptop (including the install of the Company Portal) can take up to 2 hours.

Additionally, students do not have access to Microsoft Office 365 through P-CCS, so please be sure to provide documents in a format that is compatible with Google Drive.

Please note that while we are able to offer free access to Microsoft Office 365 due to our current agreement with Microsoft. Microsoft is able to change these terms at any time. While not expected, if this occurs, we would no longer be able to offer staff continued access to Microsoft Office 365 and would do our best to notify affected staff as soon as possible should we need to rescind access.

Spring Book Study Opportunity

details for book study, can be found in post

The P-CCS Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Department (DEI) is pleased to invite you to participate in a spring book study with the Assistive & Instructional Technology (A&IT) and Technology Departments.

We will be reading and reflecting on the book, Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success authored by Andratesha Fritzgerald. This book will build on the concepts of Culturally Responsive Instruction and provide practical next steps for building more equitable and inclusive classrooms.

To participate, please be prepared to commit to the following schedule:
– attend two Zoom meetings to discuss the book (April 14 & April 28, 7-8 p.m.)
– complete asynchronous discussions & activities via Canvas LMS.

Course activities will conclude by May 12th. SCECHs will be available and the book will be provided. Space is limited. Reserve your spot by completing this form.

Create externally friendly booking pages with appointment scheduling in Google Calendar, available starting in April

In addition to appointment slots in Google Calendar, in mid-April Google will be introducing appointment scheduling for users to share their availability via a booking page, which can be used by those with OR without a district (or any) Google account. For those using calendly, youcanbook.me, and similar services, this upcoming feature addition might suggest you can switch at some point instead to using your Google calendar with its native integrations.

Why you’d use it

The existing appointment slot feature in Google Calendar is helpful for internal use cases, specifically if you don’t know who needs to meet with you, but you want to make yourself available for others with district Google accounts. For example, counselors can invite their students to office hours each week.
The new appointment scheduling feature is suited for external use cases, allowing external users, including those without a Google account, to schedule meetings. Additionally, with automatic conflict detection with existing Calendar events, this feature helps reduce time spent finding and rescheduling appointments.
appointment scheduling
Visit the Help Center to learn more about using appointment slots and appointment scheduling.