Newsletter Archive – Page 19

Another random handful of websites that might be helpful

In no particular order, here is another smattering of websites that instructional staff might find have a use case…

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.
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!
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.
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).
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

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)

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

3:00-3:45 ET: Register here
4:00-4:45 ET: Register here
5:00-5:45 ET: Register here

Edpuzzle

Google Login in for MiStar Coming Soon!

Beginning on November 8, 2022 staff will have the option to log into their MiStar accounts by clicking and signing in with their district Google accounts. Since we now have two-factor authentication for Google account access, using this log in option will not trigger an emailed log in code that needs to be retrieved and entered.

Feel free to give this login option a try on November 8th when you are not in front of students to see how it operates. See the screenshot below for what it will look like. Clicking the Local Login link will render the familiar login option we have been using.

Please note, if and when you are going to be logging into MISTAR on a mobile device, you will either want to use the Local Login option to enter your familiar User Id/Name and password (what you had entered prior to November 8th) and retrieve/enter the emailed code OR choose to open MISTAR on the desktop site view so you can select the Sign in with Google option.

mistar

REMC November free PD opportunities

REMC courses offer educators new ways to engage students and enhance classroom learning from the convenience of their home. Their professional learning offers something for everyone – from those interested in a new skill to those looking to strengthen student achievement and engagement through the use of technology integration.

Registration deadline is Thursday, November 3rd, each course begins on Monday, November 7th. Through the support of REMC SAVE’s vendor partners, all courses are FREE and there are no SCECH fees. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to learn, connect, collaborate and grow with REMC courses.

Check out November 2022 courses here:

Register by Thursday, November 3rd. You will receive a welcome email with the course login and other information prior to the course start date. If you have questions or need further assistance with your course registration, please click here.

Declutter Your Canvas Dashboard

As we transition from out October Professional Development day to our November PD window, you might want to declutter your Canvas dashboard. To do that, go to https://pccsk12.instructure.com/courses and click on the star next to the courses you want to be visible on the dashboard. Leave any courses you don’t want to see unfilled. When you return to the dashboard, only the course with filled stars will be visible.

🌟🌟🌟BONUS Tip: You can drag and drop the course tiles on your dashboard to rearrange them in any order you would like.

Canvas

BrainPop’s Blog

BrainPop’s blog offers classroom teaching strategies, stories from fellow educators, and product updates. [Note, there is a subscribe box if you want to have posts emailed to your inbox.]

Below are some recently highlighted posts – click on any to read the full post:

Read&Write for Google Resources

Did you know that all P-CCS students have access to Read&Write for Google? The toolbar is added in Chrome as an extension. Students likely notice the puzzle-shaped toolbar pop up on certain sites. If you would like to learn more about what tools are available, explore this interactive image.

Additionally, if you have students with Dyslexia, you can look at this resource to see how it can help their overall performance. Elementary teachers, in particular, may find it useful for building listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills in their students.

You might use one of these activities to help students learn how to use the tool or to explore it for yourself:

Find even more information on our Read&Write for Google’s websites for students and staff.

2022 Fall Canvas Updates

This fall, Canvas has rolled out a few great updates. Check them out below!

Custom Images in the Icon Maker

Earlier this year, Canvas launched an icon maker. It allows you to create custom images and buttons for your course. The icons are saved in the course file and can be updated easily in one place. At first, the images to add to the icon were very limited, but Canvas now allows you to upload and edit an image. Here’s a video demonstrating the process.

Studio Video Editing

Basic cut and trim video editing options are available for Studio media. This update allows media owners to easily edit media within Studio itself, rather than having to edit media in a third-party editing software. Take a closer look here.

Schedule Page Publishing (coming 10/15)

You will have the option to schedule a date and time that page is published. Find more information here.

Canvas

Digital Citizenship Week

Every year, the third week of October is coined Digital Citizenship Week. It’s a great time to focus on Digital Citizenship with our students.

To help guide instruction on Digital Citizenship, consider the 5 competencies:

The five competencies of digital citizenship

Inclusive: I am open to hearing and respectfully recognizing multiple viewpoints, and I engage with others online with respect and empathy.
Informed: I evaluate the accuracy, perspective, and validity of digital media and social posts.
Engaged: I use technology and digital channels for civic engagement, to solve problems and be a force for good in both physical and virtual communities.
Balanced: I make informed decisions about how to prioritize my time and activities online and off.
Alert: I am aware of my online actions, and know how to be safe and create safe spaces for others online.

A Change in Mindset: Focus on the Do’s not the Don’s

Watch this video to learn how to shift from telling students all the things they shouldn’t do online, to helping them see all the things they should do while working online.

Interested in exploring Digital Citizenship with your students? Explore these resources:

Brain Pop is a district K-12 subscription that has many videos and activities surrounding digital citizenship.
Nearpod also has free lessons available for Digital Citizenship week. Click HERE to access Nearpod’s free lessons.
Common Sense Media also has free (just sign up for an educator account) resources and lessons for Digital Citizenship. (If you’re an elementary teacher, your Media specialists incorporate these lessons into their curriculum with all K-5 students).
A Digital Citizenship Framework and Lessons is a TechNotes blog post by Lori Gracey providing several resources for digital citizenship lessons.
Digizen is a website that has tons of resources on digital citizenship, social networking, digital values, and more.
Google provides a Digital Citizenship and Safety Course for teachers and students. The course has five units, each with an introduction, lesson, and review, lasting a total of 23 minutes each. Topics covered include privacy, phishing and scams, online safety, searching, and online reputation.
DigCitCommit has a list of great resources. Not only that, but if you have created your own resources, you can submit them to share with others.
Google has some resources on their Be Internet Awesome site. They also list a few partners that are worth checking out. For example, PearDeck has created Be Internet Awesome interactive presentations to coordinate with Google’s lessons.
SeeSaw is a PCCS K-2 subscription and has more than 1,500 activities under the Digital Citizenship category in its Activity Library.