Category: Blog

We hope this blog post finds you safe and well.  

The Technology Integration Team wants to ensure that EVERY staff member feels supported. Please read on to learn how we are working to support you. 

ONLINE HOME TEACHING HUB

We created a GREAT site (but don’t take our word for it) thoughtfully filled with resources to assist you in successfully navigating online teaching and better understanding various tech tools and services. Please consider bookmarking (click star in the address bar) our home teaching hub site: links.pccsk12.com/hth. 

USING WEBEX 

With Webex being our required platform by May 15th for any student video conferencing, we have created a dedicated Webex and Videoconferencing page filled with how-tos and best practice guidance on the Home Teaching Hub. 

CALENDAR OF AVAILABLE TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES

In addition, on both our Webex Help page and the professional learning page, we have a public calendar listing available webinars on how to use Webex Meetings and Webex Events offered both by Cisco Webex staff and by the TIS team. Other training sessions are available through Teq(OTIS), Seesaw, and other vendors. The district-led training offered by Rick and Matt can be identified by the label “P-CCS” at the beginning of the webinar title.

Please note we have 2 Webex training sessions this week. 

Wednesday, May 6th- Webex Meeting Training- 12:00-1:00 p.m. – Click to copy to calendar

Thursday, May 7th- Webex Events Training- 12:00-1:00 p.m.- Click to copy to calendar

TO ACCESS and REGISTER for TRAINING and WEBINAR EVENTS:

Click on the specific event shown on the calendar (see sample below from our Professional Learning Page):

Then click on ‘copy to my calendar’. It’s now on your calendar. Happy learning!

PERSONALIZED APPOINTMENTS

We also understand that some staff would like more individualized support. We’d love to help! Both Matt and Rick have open virtual office hours four hours every day, two hours in the morning and two in the afternoon (9-11 A.M. & 1-3 P.M.) To make a 15 minute (or longer) appointment with us, please click on this link: https://calendly.com/tis-pccs/15min. This link is also located in the signature of our emails.

Please know that we are here to support you however we can.

Thanks!

Your TIS Team,

Matt & Rick

tis@pccsk12.com

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.

• Making the Most of Your Google Classroom
• Ready Set Go 21 Things
• Engaging Students in a Personalized Classroom
• Dynamic Presentations
• Increasing Efficiency and Productivity
• OER to Support Competency-Based Education (CBE)
• Google for Learning: Using SAMR and DOK to Design Authentic Learning Opportunities
• OER: Student-Designed OER for 21st Century Learning
• Google: Applying Google Apps for Education in Chrome, Lvl 1
• Introduction to Personalized & Blended Learning for ALL Students, Level 1
• Social Media: Improve Student Critical Thinking and Collaboration, Level 2

Kaizena, another tool (apart from Read&Write for Google) for staff to provide feedback to students within various Google apps, is now installed and available for staff and student use when logged into their Google accounts.  Kaziena helps students, teachers, and administrators provide effective and relevant feedback for diverse learners. Its features include: text comments, voice comments, lessons (small micro-units of learning), and skills and rubrics.

Information and videos on getting started and using the add-on can be found at https://help.kaizena.com/en/collections/60518-kaizena-for-google-docs 

Easy to associate micro lessons, another feature of the add-on, are described at https://www.kaizena.com/features/lessons 

Below are a 2 minute overview video and one that showcases the feedback options:

As the use of online communication has increased for so many of us, here are some email safety tips/reminders in visual form.

Our Assistive and Instructional Technology colleagues have a spring newsletter staff are invited to check out. Their main website can be found at https://pccsa-it.weebly.com/ and their Read & Write for Google website can be found at https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/rw4g-pccs/ 

Pictures of the newsletter are below. Click on the link to go to the actual newsletter where features are described with hotlinks to videos showcasing those features.

https://www.canva.com/design/DADy5KzWpkI/Zm55pKeeg1a92SGFPvoQRg/view?utm_content=DADy5KzWpkI&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link&utm_source=homepage_design_menu

The online Sora app was designed around the modern student reading experience. This app, developed and curated by Overdrive, empowers students to discover and enjoy ebooks and audiobooks, for both leisure and class-assigned reading. ALL STUDENTS in schools that don’t already have an OverDrive subscription AND ALL STAFF can now log into our Sora page using their Google Accounts at http://links.pccsk12.com/sora and begin checking out ebooks!

Students at all of our middle schools and three of our elementary schools already have OverDrive and Sora account access and should continue to access their collections as they normally have in the past, with the new knowledge that all of the additional premium titles our district account has access to also have been added to their respective school’s collections. For those uncertain how students can access Sora and your schools’ OverDrive account, please contact your school’s media specialist.

Inspired by educator and student feedback, Sora was created to excite kids about reading and remove distractions to promote a focus on learning.

Once logged in, students are able to “check out” for free one or more ebooks from a selection of more than  200 premium ebook titles, some with audio accompaniment.  Sign in to see what’s available or browse this list of titles that were available earlier in the month. The selection of what’s free and available for unlimited simultaneous check out changes monthly, and while access to some of the premium titles will end in late June, access to some titles will continue throughout the coming school year.

Below are some of the available titles and a brief introductory video.

Time sensitive – Happening today, Thursday, April 23rd, so heads up. This swift-paced free session (offered from 10:30 am – 11 am and again at noon – 12:30 pm) is a very efficient use of 30 minutes! Join Google Certified teacher Matt Bergman for a fun and exciting session that will leave you walking away with 10 new tools to implement in your Google Classroom immediately. He will introduce the tools, show you how to use them, and provide practical classroom examples of when you might want to use ’em.

Register and more info here: https://simplek12.lpages.co/event-10googleapps-v1/

This is sponsored by SimpleK12, a site and service that offers PD. While this is a free session and no purchase is necessary, should you sign up, you might get future email alerts for both free webinars they offer as well as ones that involve a subscription that they will encourage you to purchase.  To learn more about their offerings, including future free webinars, visit https://www.simplek12.com/tier/free-event/

Some of their upcoming free events…

The Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning (MACUL) has composed and shared useful guidelines around supportive considerations in a successful transition to online learning.  Please browse to https://macul.org/online-learning-guidelines/ to check them out.

The Michigan Dept of Ed’s (MDE) Learning at a DISTANCE Guidance is billed as [a] largely teacher-written effort to help address the immediate needs of staff who must address the immediate needs of children – at a distance – during a pandemic.

As a tech integration team, we want to ensure that every person that belongs to the P-CCS community feels supported and they have all the tools they need to be successful during this challenging time. The team has been working around the clock to create various resources that are user-friendly, reliable, and relevant to the work that we are doing every day. Below you will find four resources that will help you support your students.

1. The Home Learning Hub– Unveiled in early April, this site is designed for parents and is updated on a weekly basis. The newest change to the site is the Family Tech Resources section. On its main page and its sub pages, parents and students can find information on our learning platforms including Google Classroom, Seesaw, Clever, and Read and Write for Google. If parents have questions on these platforms or any other questions regarding technology, please consider directing them to this site: https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/hlh/home
2. The Home Teaching Hub– Teaching in an online space can be similar to face to face, but is also different. We have created this site for you as educators. On the hub’s pages are targeted supports for the above platforms, remote teaching resources, and online PD. We hope you find the information on this page useful. To access the site visit https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/hth/home
3. Virtual Office Hours– Both Rick and Matt are available for one on one support. We have created a program with Calendly where you can schedule a time to meet with either of us.
   • Virtual Office Hours: 9-11 a.m. and 1-3 p.m. But we can sometimes accommodate different times.
   • Once confirmed, Calendly will automatically create a Google Meet and you can add it to your calendar.
   • To access the Calendly, visit https://calendly.com/tis-pccs/15min.
4. Webinars (Coming Soon)- We will soon start offering weekly webinars that focus on what is going on in the “classrooms.” This could include topics such as “How to engage learners online with Google Classroom” or “How to differentiate for online learners using Seesaw.” Please be on the lookout for calendar invites and posts in the Home Teaching Hub and on the blog.

We hope that this information helps you navigate how to teach in an online environment!

Thanks,

Matt and Rick