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

For the remainder of this school year, Michigan Virtual is offering the content of over 70 of their high-quality online courses FREE to educators and parents as a resource to supplement student learning.

Courses are available for students in Grades 6-12, and each course’s content includes all digital lessons; however, it does not include assessments and is non-credit bearing. It is intended to provide educators and parents with enrichment materials they can use to keep students engaged and learning during school closures.

To learn more and to register, visit Michigan Virtual at https://lc.michiganvirtual.org/

—–

The Michigan Cares Portal offers Michigan families and educators FREE digital lessons designed to help students in grades K-12 develop the skills required for social, emotional, and mental well-being. Includes lessons, videos, websites, articles, and interactive multimedia that can be used on any device. All content is aligned to CASEL outcomes.

To learn more and to register for a free staff, student, or parent/guardian account, visit the Michigan Cares website at https://michiganvirtual.org/sel/michigan-cares/

Teq Online Professional Development service for instructional staff is designed to boost classroom technology skills for heightened student engagement and improved instruction. Teq’s Online Technology and Instructional Sessions (OTIS) for educators™ offers dynamic, relevant, and convenient professional development around educational technology, STEM, social-emotional learning, literacy, ENL/ELL, and more.

How Do I Access OTIS?

1. Navigate to Clever: links.pccsk12.com/cl

2.  Log in with your district Google account

3. Scroll to the bottom of the Clever Portal and click on the Opd icon

4. 
5. You will then auto-log into OTIS

6. Navigate to the “Playlists” for P-CCS suggested lessons, or check out the “Course Library” to find your own lessons of interest. Happy learning!

What is “Ask OTIS?”

You will notice this icon when logged into OTIS. Just “ASK OTIS”  is there to connect with a Teq PD Specialist for one-on-one guidance on integrating your tech into instruction or simply on how to use OTIS’s online PD features. If you want help with technology that is P-CCS specific, you can also make an appointment with a Tech Integration Specialist by clicking on the 1:1 Support Calendar icon.

For more learning, visit the P-CCS Home Teaching Hub: https://sites.google.com/pccsk12.com/hth/

If you have a district laptop, at some point before the school year ends, you may see a blue alert window declaring Your Windows license will expire soon; You need to activate Windows in settings. There is no need to panic.

To reset your license for another 180 days of use, when convenient within two weeks of first seeing that warning, head to any district building with your laptop. You don’t need to actually enter the building, you just need to be close enough to have the laptop connect to the district Wi-Fi. It’s even possible at some of our locations to remain in your car and still be close enough to get a signal. While remaining connected to the district Wi-Fi (either PCCSK12- Secure or PCCSK12-Staff), completely restart the laptop, then log into it and make sure it completes the log in process. Surf somewhere to confirm that you remained connected. Doing this should suffice to reset the license counter for months and you’re good to leave, mission accomplished.

If you still cannot get the alert to go away after doing the above, please submit a service ticket and our department can assist you with other steps to take.

Nearpod is an award winning interactive lesson delivery platform that allows seamless delivery of online, student paced, and teacher-led instruction. Consider it for one of the tools in your online instruction.  Starting this week, Nearpod is also offering expanded live webinars almost on an hourly basis via this link: https://nearpod.com/blog/resources/

All P-CCS instructional staff can sign in to Nearpod with the Google Single Sign On button on the Nearpod site. Through June 2020 district instructional staff have access to their platform and premium features.

What exactly IS Nearpod? Watch the introductory video to get a sense of what teachers can do with it.

You will also find other resources on the Nearpod YouTube channel to help you with it. Keep in mind that you can also contact your Tech Integration Specialists to help get you up and running by signing up for our office hours: https://calendly.com/tis-pccs/15min

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkA8nxy7SZc&list=PL09U3vv6UoGTzzuc-DXm5tLtpY5flISZG

The Discovery Experience platform is packed with over 190,000 assignable, editable activities and resources for K-12, based on core curriculum concepts and popular topics in math, science, social studies, ELA, and health. Whether you’re looking for fun videos, interactive activities, or complete, ready-to-use lesson plans, Discovery Education Experience has everything teachers want and students need to enhance virtual learning.

P-CCS instructional staff now have full access to the entire platform of resources for home learning through June 30, 2020. Teachers can also create student accounts and add them to classes using the Classroom Manager.

Instructional staff: to login, visit the sign in page, and enter your district Google credentials. https://google.discoveryeducation.com

After logging in, check out the Professional Learning Center’s step-by-step guides: https://teachers.discoveryeducation.com/learn-lead/step-by-step-guides/streaming/

You might also want to check out Discovery Education’s resources that support virtual learning on their recently-launched Discovery Education Virtual Learning site. https://www.discoveryeducation.com/virtual-learning/