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/
Please also remember to choose “Black and White” in the drop-down menu.
The district-purchased BrainPOP subscription for elementary and middle school students and staff is to be accessed through the portal Clever. Creative resources such as Make-A-Map and Make-A-Movie as well as assignments, quizzes, and projects await. Staff planning to use BrainPOP should check out this 30 minutes BrainPOP101 course to get an overview of all the neat resources and tools available to you!
The following items below are links to resources that will help you use BrainPOP in your classroom as well as help you access Clever, our Single Sign On (SSO) solution for the district. [As a reminder, Clever provides students and staff a single portal with one click access to district provided (and sometimes rostered) apps.]
Like staff, students will also login to BrainPOP and some other rostered apps via the Clever link. Included in the documentation below is a letter that can be shared with families that also contains directions about how students access BrainPOP and other apps via Clever. Middle and High School Students have landing pages that automatically load on their Chromebooks when logged into the district Google Account.
Teachers/Staff please consider bookmarking the applicable startup page for your building’s students when they log into a Chromebook.
Teachers, staff, and students who have rostered access to Clever and other associated apps will use the following link either via one of the pages above for secondary, or Symbaloo pages at the Elementary level. (Media specialists are adding a Clever link to Symbaloo) Teachers, you may wish to bookmark THIS LINK for your convenience: clever.com/in/pccs
Once you or your students click on the Clever icon/link, they will be presented with the following dialogue box. Then click the Log in with Google button! Just that simple and you are in!
As always, if you need help with technology integration, please submit a service request via the same system you use for technical help, and the appropriate technician or integration specialist will be happy to help you!
· BrainPOP Effectiveness Study – A study which assessed student performance by comparing BrainPOP subscribers to nonsubscribers- the results found that students in schools using BrainPOP showed a greater increase in standardized test scores
· BrainPOP Program Guide– Overview of our different BrainPOP resources (BrainPOP, BrainPOP Jr., ELL) and tools available to efficiently and effectively “Run your classroom on BrainPOP”
· BrainPOP ELL– In this brochure, you will find information on the various (90) lessons, placement tests, topics, levels, ideas on how to use them with students, standards, etc.
· Creative Coding– Creative Coding was developed in partnership with Scratch and Vidcode, and offers access to both block- and text-based projects that are tied to the curriculum
· BrainPOP Families Letter Home– Use this letter or a modified version of it (Make a Copy) to send home to your families to help students access Brainpop easily from a home device or their district provided Chromebook.
Hereyou will see samples of Creative Coding student projects
· BrainPOP PD- There is no better way to really get the most BrainPOP learning and for teachers to continue getting the wheels turning on how to use BrainPOP’s resources in their classroom than a BrainPOP PD workshop. Our PD workshops are led by our Educator, Robert Miller, who caters each workshop to the needs of your district. Our workshops are engaging, extremely informative, and fun.
You will also see two intro letters in the folder link above, one is for families and the second for teachers, please feel free to edit and change to fit your needs.
The Technology Department appreciates elementary instructional staff’s patience as we work to prepare to release into their care classroom iPad and Chromebook carts.
Our department will start to unlock carts and sign out keys starting on Thursday, September 12th and plan to complete the task by Friday, September 20th.
A Special Note: In certain instances, there will be some carts that will not have enough devices for every student in your class. The department is aware of this, and we are working hard to balance the devices in the carts and ensure that each student will have a device as soon as they are available. IF your classroom does not have enough devices for each of your students, please DO NOT submit a service ticket. We are working hard to compare counts to MISTAR rosters and will be in communication with teachers on when to expect any missing devices.
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
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)
Wayne RESA has shared a flyer listing some learning opportunities they have scheduled in the coming months focused on EdTech In the Classroom. Please note, two of their twelve opportunities — the Google CS First and the Code.org CS Fundamentals sessions — are designed for users who are already implementing elements of these programs in their classrooms and are looking to take a deep dive into the content/curriculum.
Over this past weekend, the MISTAR Consortium implemented version 3.7.0.1 of MISTAR-Q. This version includes free NEW MOBILE apps for both PARENTS and STUDENTS allowing them to access their portals from Android and iOS devices as well as various improvements and bug fixes. To read an overview click here.
Mobile App Installation Instructions
To connect to our school district, there is now a FREE mobile application for smart phones or tablets.
It is quick and easy to get started!
On the device, connect to the Android Play store or the iOS App Store.
Look for the Q Parent Connection app, or Q Student Connection icon, like the icons below:
Select the “Connect to school district” option. Use the filter to select the state, county and school district.
Click the “Enter Parent Connection” button OR “Enter Student Connection” button.
On the top right corner of the app, click the “Log in” button.
Enter the Parent Portal PIN and password. These are the same PIN and passwords used on a desktop computer. For Student Connection, use the same credentials as on a desktop too.
