Read&Write for Google Tool of the Week: PDF Reader & Toolbar

Read&Write for Google PDF Reader

The Read&Write for Google PDF Reader toolbar can be used to access PDF files in the Chrome browser. Students and staff can use supports like text to speech, word prediction, talking and picture dictionaries, study skills highlighters and more.

The PDF Reader allows for SEAMLESS Google Classroom Integration! This makes it possible to go COMPLETELY PAPERLESS! Check it out!

RW4G@PCCS website: PDF Reader
https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/rw4g-pccs/toolbars/pdf-reader-toolbar?authuser=0

RW4G@PCCS website: Tools Demo
https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/rw4g-pccs/toolbars/tools-demo

Read&Write for Google PDF Reader Tip Sheet
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1KdbbIIvAz_66AIE5e3xsZdNYvhLGqERpjfkKLkMmEFo/view

iPad Apps and Chrome extension requests for student devices

App request forms

We are so thrilled you found an app or extension that you believe will help your students grow! We want to help, but please keep in mind that the scale and volume of devices that we currently manage is challenging for a small department, and we need to have a process so we can make sure everything is taken care of while we comply with federal laws like COPPA and CIPA, as well as measuring an app’s value in terms of the Triple E Framework.

If you are interested in adding another iPad app to your student ipads or having a Chrome app/extension be unblocked so that your students can install it, please make sure to fill out the appropriate form linked below. Once an app is requested, the app can be delivered to the App Portal on student iPads or added to the Chrome Web Store for P-CCS on the last Friday of each month!

Link to iPad App Request Form: https://forms.gle/uvHNbkVQ4cAgD88u9
Link to Chrome App/Extension/Browser Theme Request: https://forms.gle/6hsvLeZMj5v7ZrCo7

 

Rejoice, LanSchool is Ready to Go! (Grades 3-8)

LanSchool, the program the district offers teachers for student device management and monitoring, can now be used with dynamically updated student rosters. For those teachers who have students using Chromebooks, especially teachers of 3rd through 8th graders, you can now install and use LanSchool by following directions we are providing.  Please note, the following linked directions will NOT apply to new teachers or those new to Lanschool.  If you are a new-to-the-district teacher this year, OR if you did not install Lanschool last year, please submit a service request so that a technician can install LanSchool for you: Service ticket

Additionally, if after following the directions linked below, you cannot get LanSchool to load your student rosters, you will also need to submit a service request:  Service ticket

First, we’d like to apologize for the Lanschool delay. There were some unforeseen backend issues that had to be addressed related to rostering, Clever*, and Wayne RESA.  Our department spent many hours over several weeks working with staff from Clever, LanSchool and WayneRESA to address these issues and we’re not quite done, but for many of you, the install and load should now be doable without our further assistance. Please follow these directions ONLY if you were using LanSchool last year: Click Here

While the directions have a lot of “clicks”, it should actually only take a couple of minutes to load and install.

*A quick note about our Clever / LanSchool integration. Since Clever (Single Sign-on), syncs nightly with MISTAR, and then LanSchool syncs with Clever, unlike last year, class rosters in Lanschool can now be kept up to date and all classes a teacher has in MISTAR (including previously unavailable homeroom classes) can now be loaded in LanSchool.

Reminder: Please Secure and Protect Teacher and Student Devices

As the school year moves forward, we understand that everyone gets busy and sometimes details get lost in the mix.  In particular, the Tech Department would like to remind everyone that it’s important to secure both your teacher devices and student cart-based devices when not in use, and especially over night.

Please secure your district-provided device in a locking closet, cabinet, or desk, and make sure the student device carts have all of their devices in them and are locked each night. We all want to protect these valuable investments!

Additionally, with the colder weather coming, it’s important to remember that district devices should not be left in cars in that cold weather. When a computer/ipad is brought from consistent cold temperatures into a warm building, its ambient temperature change causes condensation internally; condensate (water moisture) in turn can cause damage to the system board and other electronics. Everyone knows how important our computers are to us on a daily basis and we don’t want anything to happen to them so please help keep our devices from experiencing “temperature swings”! Thanks.

 

21Things4Students is Project-Based Curriculum for Grades 5-9, supports MiTECS competencies

October 2019

21Things4Students is Project-Based Curriculum for Grades 5-9, supports MiTECS competencies

The REMC Association’s 21Things4Students (21T4S) project just keeps getting better!  Over the summer, the project-based website was updated and moved to its new URL https://remc.org/21things4students.

21-Things-4-Students is Project-Based Curriculum for Grades 5-9

21T4S provides free activities to integrate technology into middle school (grades 5-9) classroom curriculum. It’s a valuable tool to help students build knowledge and acquire 21st century technology skills. Students also learn to be safe and secure while online.

“This learning with technology resource provides teachers with project-based activities to help students build technology knowledge and skills for the 21st century,” according to Carolyn McCarthy, Project Manager and Educational Technology Consultant, Shiawassee RESD.

Each of the 21 Things is broken down into smaller learning units called Quests. There are over 145 Quests and each includes an Introduction, Key Vocabulary, I Can Statements, Steps with Tutorials, Student Checklist, and Quiz. Teacher resources include lesson guides for each Thing, digital badges and awards to use, accommodations suggestions, bank of assessment questions, and an Index to content and activities.

21Things4Students has been awarded the Seal of Alignment by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). The site is managed by a dedicated team of Michigan educators and advisors who provide annual updates.  REMC Association Project Managers Melissa White or Carolyn McCarthy provide day-to-day content management. Feel free to email Melissa or Carolyn if you have questions or need additional assistance with 21Things4Students.

Grasshopper Coding lessons now available via browser

Grasshopper

On October 8th Google announced that their app Grasshopper, created for students to use to learn to code, now can run in a web browser. The app/site has several courses designed to intuitively help someone build coding skills. Each lesson starts with an introduction to some vocabulary before moving into the coding lessons. Each lesson has a tutorial, a practice activity, and a quiz. You have to successfully complete each lesson before progressing to the next one. Grasshopper will save your work in progress.

For more information visit https://grasshopper.app/ and to start coding today on a Chromebook, Mac or Windows PC, browse to https://learn.grasshopper.app/

Snapshot of Grasshopper coding windows

REMC October info to check out

REMC Connect

The Regional Educational Media Center Association (REMC) of Michigan promotes the transformative use of technology and provides Michigan schools with access to educational resources to help teachers increase student success. They’ve just released their October Connect newsletter with info on the 21Things4Students project-based curriculum (https://remc.org/21things4students), fall learning opportunities, upcoming free virtual courses, and more.

Here’s a link to their October Connect newsletter.

Here’s a link to an archived list of their most recent Connect newsletters.

And finally, a link should you want to subscribe to either (or both) of their once monthly electronic mailings of the Connect Newsletter AND/OR on upcoming and available free virtual courses!

Tool of the Week: Read&Write for GoogleWEB Toolbar

The Read&Write for Google WEB Toolbar can be used to access web pages in the Chrome browser. Students and staff can use supports like text to speech, word prediction, talking and picture dictionaries, study skills highlighters and more.

RW4G@PCCS website: WEB Toolbar https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/rw4g-pccs/toolbars/web-toolbar?authuser=0 RW4G

@PCCS website: Tools Demo https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/rw4g-pccs/toolbars/tools-demo

Read&Write for Google WEB Tip Sheet https://docs.google.com/document/d/1wEOXhwyAh45PgjfsOUZhXEo6hXmPHbj6JmRtxh-KuIk/view

YouTube Brand Account suspension

YouTube Brand Account suspension

Last May (2019), all Google EDU account holders around the world that had YouTube Brand accounts were notified by Google that their YouTube Brand accounts would be deleted a couple of months later, in July 2019. While worldwide millions received that notice, in our district it was ~60 staffers and ~2400 students. Google later decided to instead suspend EDU Brand accounts in July and only outright delete them this coming November (2019). For the ~60 P-CCS staff, the Technology department submitted online forms necessary to obtain a temporary one year extension (until July 15, 2020) from suspension / deletion of their Brand accounts. Student brand accounts were not eligible for any extension and were suspended this past July.

One major result of the account suspensions that were not foreseen by Administrators or Google, is that if a user had configured their Brand account to be the default account to use when signing into YouTube, they could not view YouTube videos at all until they changed the default channel by selecting the box under “Settings > Advanced Settings” within YouTube.

If you encounter any students unable to view YouTube, please let them know the following:

Affected student users need to sign-out of Google (or delete their cookies) then navigate to youtube.com/channel_switcher and sign in again, remembering to change the default channel once they sign-in. Once this has been done on one device, it will fix the issue on any of their other devices.

Some students might find it easier/possible, to simply delete their Brand account by browsing to  https://myaccount.google.com/brandaccounts and deleting the Brand account. Once deleted, they should be able to again log into YouTube.

For those interested, especially those staffers with Brand accounts and a one year extension, guidance on content retention as well as more background on the situation can be found here.