The Technology Department appreciates elementary instructional staff’s patience as we work to prepare to release into their care classroom iPad and Chromebook carts.

Our department will start to unlock carts and sign out keys starting on Thursday, September 12th and plan to complete the task by Friday, September 20th.

A Special Note: In certain instances, there will be some carts that will not have enough devices for every student in your class. The department is aware of this, and we are working hard to balance the devices in the carts and ensure that each student will have a device as soon as they are available. IF your classroom does not have enough devices for each of your students, please DO NOT submit a service ticket. We are working hard to compare counts to MISTAR rosters and will be in communication with teachers on when to expect any missing devices.

by Rick Coughlin

Look, I know this teaching gig is hard. You know that on a daily basis, you make more decisions that an air traffic controller, and that’s a documented fact. Many of the decisions you make are HARD. I know that TOO. After all, you are working with the most precious cargo anyone could ever work with…someone else’s children. I don’t have to get into the nitty gritty of why that’s so important, because you’re a great teacher and the gravity of that is not lost on you. You GET IT.

That said, I’m hoping you’ll consider making decisions around how you use technology in the classroom this year a bit differently. This way of making decisions around technology can have a big impact on your students and will free you from the mindset of thinking that you have to use technology, because sometimes the answer really is…wait for it…. No technology. Or instead of every student having a device in front of them, maybe the BEST answer is that students are in small groups and only ONE student has a device to use with the group, or that there are students in pairs where only ONE student has a device.

I highly recommend you spend a touch of time, as you get to know your students in the coming weeks, also getting to know the Triple E Framework. I promise, it’s not complicated or time consuming, it is simply a way of THINKING as you prepare your lessons, projects, and plans for the year. The Triple E Framework, is “for educators to measure how well technology tools integrated into lessons are helping students engage in, enhance and extend learning goals.”

Ultimately, the Framework asks a series of questions around the technology that you are considering using, and presents you with a score on how well the technology really performs in the context of the learning goals. Read all about it here, as well as access the handy online rubric that automatically generates the score: https://www.tripleeframework.com/about.html

Once you integrate these questions into your way of thinking about technology use in your classroom, you might not even need the rubric every time! Trust me, you’ll feel better and more confident in your use of technology, and better be able to justify it’s use when having conversations with families, students, and your evaluating administrator. 😉

Welcome back team! I know it’s going to be a great year at P-CCS!

The Find-Me printing choice continues to be our best and most popular option for timely releasing and roaming print jobs. Please review the following diagram to understand how to set up “Find Me Printing” after which, when you select it, you may then walk up to one of our new multi-function printers and upon logging in, be presented with the choice of which jobs to print. This guidance and other helpful tips for staff laptops can be found at https://tech.pccsk12.com/devices-hardware/hp-probook-g5-handbook/

Here’s a reminder that this school year ALL P-CCS students will have access to a powerful Universal Design for Learning (UDL) tool that can improve their educational outcomes. Read & Write for Google offers a range of powerful support tools to help students with reading, writing, studying and research.

Some of those tools include:

• CHECK IT tool, an innovative spelling & grammar check
• Translation tool (single word; over 150 languages!)
• Text-to-speech to hear words, passages, or whole documents read aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting
• Dictionary definitions and pictures to identify the meaning of words
• With speech-to-text, dictate words to assist with writing, proofreading & studying
• Word prediction offers suggestions for the current or next word as you type
• Collect highlights from text in documents, from a web page or PDF for summarizing and research
• Create and listen to voice notes directly inside of Google Docs
• Simplify text on web pages to remove ads and other items that can be distracting
• “Talk to the Text” digital annotation (in PDF files)
• Tools to make digital text accessible (in EPIC!, MeL, MI Open Books, etc…)
• Seamless integration with many of the district’s online curriculum resources

For more information, go to the R4WG@PCCS website: bit.ly/RW4GinPCCS

As we begin the school year, we recognize that many instructional staff, perhaps especially those new to the district, will continue to have questions and/or welcome support to better use their HP ProBooks. With this in mind, here’s a reminder we’ve made a help page for the ProBook and will add to it as the year unfolds.

If you still have questions after visiting the link or if you have some wonders related to implementing educational technology in your classroom or have a software issue in your office, please submit a service request and ask for assistance from a Tech Integration Specialist (Matt Smoot or Rick Coughlin)

Service Request

HP ProBook Help

Please consider visiting https://tech.pccsk12.com/blog/ to skim postings of updates we’ve shared over the last couple of months!

Over this past weekend, the MISTAR Consortium implemented version 3.7.0.1 of MISTAR-Q. This version includes free NEW MOBILE apps for both PARENTS and STUDENTS allowing them to access their portals from Android and iOS devices as well as various improvements and bug fixes.  To read an overview click here.

Mobile App Installation Instructions

To connect to our school district, there is now a FREE mobile application for smart phones or tablets.

It is quick and easy to get started!

On the device, connect to the Android Play store or the iOS App Store.

Look for the Q Parent Connection app, or Q Student Connection icon, like the icons below:

Links:

Android Q ParentConnection

Apple Q Parent Connection

Android Q StudentConnection

Apple Q Student Connection

Install / Open the app.

Select the “Connect to school district” option. Use the filter to select the state, county and school district.

Click the “Enter Parent Connection” button OR “Enter Student Connection” button.

On the top right corner of the app, click the “Log in” button.

Enter the Parent Portal PIN and password. These are the same PIN and passwords used on a desktop computer. For Student Connection, use the same credentials as on a desktop too.

The Google Fonts team has teamed up with Thomas Jockin to create a series of fonts that are aimed at improving reading speed. To learn more about the research behind this initiative, see here for more details.

These fonts take into account typographical factors, such as size and spacing, that the font developers hope will improve reading speed. This can be particularly helpful for educators who want to leverage new tools that can improve reading among their students, especially those who are sensitive to visual crowding.

Google now offers eight different Lexend font families that have varied widths and spacing, so users can choose the font style that’s best for their reading speed.
To access these fonts in Google Docs, Sheets, or Slides:

• From the Font menu in the toolbar, select “More fonts”.
• Then, search for Lexend and select the fonts to add them to your saved fonts. These will now appear in the “My fonts” list and in the Font menu in the toolbar. 

Source: GSuite Release Announcement August 13th

A PBS sponsored EdCamp Teacher Summit is taking place SATURDAY, August 17 from 9:30 am-3 pm on the Oakland Schools Main Campus. This event is FREE to educators working with children ages 2-8 years. Click here to learn more and register.

Watch highlights from their last EdCamp.