BrainPop’s January 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 some of what’s in their latest newsletter.
The Webby Awards annually note websites with interesting design and elements to explore. Here are some sites you might want to check out, in no particular order:
Future of Tech hosts a free & growing library of resources to get you up to speed on what’s new & next.
Poly is an online library where people can browse, share, and remix thousands of 3D models or scenes.
People Not Property: Stories of Slavery in the Colonial North
Canvas is a Chrome/Google supported drawing app.
Applied Digital Skills reviews digital skills needed for the jobs of today and tomorrow with Google’s free video lessons.
Ted-Ed lessons
AFT’s Share My Lesson
See REMC’s latest newsletter HERE
John Sowash offers five Jamboard templates work for all ages and subject areas! Check them out HERE.
Three of these Jamboard activities work well as whole-class assignments. Two more work best as individual or small-group activities.
These Jamboard lessons work with Chromebooks, tablets, phones, and laptops.
Every so often we share news of EdTech websites to check out. Today we’re alerting you to three, each of which is chockablock with tips and musings to explore within the interface of pedagogy and tech.
In case you want to check out others’ recommendations for EdTech blogs, see BrainScape’s, Explain Everything’s or Kathy Schrock’s lists.
Earlier this week the district updated Canvas with the dates of the three grading periods for all of our elementary school year-long courses. Consequently, elementary school teachers are now able to filter their grade books, assignments’ list, and students’ grades pages by trimester instead of having to view all graded content from the school year. Since implementation, STUDENTS only have VIEW-ONLY ACCESS to first trimester course content and are no longer able to submit work for assignments associated with the first trimester since it is not the current grading period AND TEACHERS similarly CAN NO LONGER ADJUST GRADES/FEEDBACK for first trimester submissions.
Please find quick overview directions and screenshots in this document for term filtering.
* High School Teachers – likely we will be setting grading periods for your semester-long and year -long courses too, so that you may filter by term as well.
Interested in noting apps and services Google has or will shutter? Check out a site that curates this bit of Google history — https://killedbygoogle.com/
One way students can show their knowledge of a topic is by creating an infographic. Infographics, by nature, require students to summarize their learning and choose important information to present visually and textually.
Google Drawings is a great tool to create infographics and it’s likely familiar to navigate. Google Drawings offers options for uploading images, drawing shapes, and adding color. Below is a short video tutorial for students on how to use Google Drawings.
For those who are familiar with Google Drawings and want some super neat tricks you may not know about, check out this video from Matt Miller.
For even more information on student-created infographics, check out this blog post by Matt Miller!
This post is actually a reposting of Dearborn Schools’ Tech Integrationist Amy Gwizdz (thanks Amy!) December post https://techcoaches.dearbornschools.org/2020/12/10/student-created-infographics-using-google-drawings/
Post Updated: December 14, 2020
Click Video below to learn about the new Rich Content Editor and notable feature changes
Canvas will be pushing out their updated Rich Content Editor (RCE) on January 16th, 2021 and henceforth it will no longer be optional to use their older editor. To make the transition easier for our staff we will be setting up as default the new Rich Content Editor over the winter break. Below are some links to help staff better understand and navigate the new RCE.
If you would like to start using the new RCE now, you can. Simply click on ‘Settings’ in your course. On top of the screen click ‘Feature Options’, then click check mark next to RCE Enhancements
Students and staff can now designate their personal pronouns in Canvas if they would like to do so. Personal pronouns display after a user’s name in various areas in Canvas, including: