Seesaw’s Monthly Feature Update Report AND Seesaw Connect

Seesaw is now maintaining an up-to-date online set of slides reviewing their monthly updates and showcasing what’s new as well as lessons they’ve introduced and webinars they’re offering.  Teachers who use Seesaw are encouraged to bookmark the site for periodic reference as the service continues to evolve.

Seesaw updates

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Seesaw Connect 2022

Seesaw Connect is a FREE virtual conference for any educator. Explore short on-demand courses that interest you, no matter where you are in your Seesaw journey. Get inspired by passionate educators that share simple ways to engage students. VISIT HERE TO LEARN MORE AND ENROLL

Seesaw Connect

REMC May Professional Learning

REMC May courses
Here is the latest issue of the REMC Connect newsletter featuring their free courses with 10 free SCECHs.  The courses begin May 2.  The registration deadline is April 29.

Are you looking for a new classroom tech trick? Need to earn some SCECHs? Look no further than a REMC Course!

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 from the convenience of your home. 

Check out May 2022 courses here:

Register by Friday, April 29th. You will receive a welcome email with the course login and other information prior to the course starting on May 2nd. If you have questions or need further assistance with your course registration, please contact Erin Rommeck, REMC Event Coordinator.

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.

 

New Features Coming to Canvas 4/16/22

Highlighted below are a number of new features that will be available in Canvas after this Saturday’s (4/16) update.

  1. Default Assignment Due Time
  • An oft-requested feature that will be welcome by many. Currently, when creating an assignment, the default time for that assignment is set for 11:59 p.m. This feature will allow assignment makers to change the default due time to a different time.
    • To change the default due time, go into your course settings, locate a box called “Default Due Time”, click into the box and change to your preferred time.

2. Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments

  • The Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments feature allows scores to be applied to multiple ungraded submissions at once. This change allows instructors to apply scores to ungraded submissions en masse from an assignment group and total column menus in the Gradebook.
    • To use, locate the options menu from an assignment group or the Total column in the Gradebook and select Apply Score to Ungraded.

3. Rich Content Editor(RCE) Icon Maker

  • Another requested feature is the ability to create icons from right within Canvas. This feature change provides instructors the ability to incorporate simple icons for their courses without using an external tool. The Icon Maker allows simple customized iconography to be created directly within the Rich Content Editor.
    • To use, when in Rich Content Editor(RCE) locate an icon with various shapes. Click on this icon, and follow the instructions to build the icon.

Some of the other new features are New Quiz abilities and Emojis in Submissions.

To find out more information about all of these new features, please visit: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Releases/Canvas-Release-Notes-2022-04-16/ta-p/515876

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