Media Updates - Week of February 8

 NCTIES

If you've never had the opportunity to go attend NCTIES, this is the year for you! There are numerous sessions on wide-ranging and relevant topics related to technology in education, as well as education innovation. With a $15 NCTIES membership, you will gain access to live sessions, edcamps, and recorded sessions. Registration 

For more information, go to https://www.ncties.org/ and follow @ncties and #ncties21 on Twitter. Let Andrea know if you plan on attending. 

PebbleGo

Have you had a chance to peek at PebbleGo (k-2) or PebbleGoNext (3-5)? If not, here's a quick tour - PebbleGo Tour. We also have a subscription to PebbleGo Spanish, which translates articles into Spanish. 

#ReadAcrossUnderwood

March 2 is Read Across America Day (formerly Dr. Suess Day). Be on the lookout for fun (and simple) ways to celebrate #ReadAcrossUnderwood. 

NEA has excellent resources for celebrating Read Across America year-round. Check out their website for resources to CREATE and CELEBRATE a nation of DIVERSE READERS -  https://www.nea.org/professional-excellence/student-engagement/read-across-america

Media/Tech Updates for week of September 7

Google Guardian

Allows guardians to receive Classroom email summaries.  More info here

Google Guardian Summaries for Teachers

Google Guardian Summaries for Parents

Security Best Practices for Google Meet and Google Classroom

https://bit.ly/32WtPIv

Great information about keeping your virtual space SAFE and functionally smoothly. 

Tumblebooks, PebbleGo, and Screencastify

New and renewed digital resources

Monitors 

For those who requested monitors, they are at school. We are waiting an order with cables to connect them to your laptop. You will receive an email when your monitor is ready to be picked up. 

For instructions on how to attach your monitor - 3 Ways to View your Students in Google Meet

New and Renewed Resources for Underwood

 PebbleGo (K-2) and PebbleGo  Next (3-5) w/ Spanish add-on

https://site.pebblego.com/login

* Students can access through Rapid Identity > Follett (Destiny) > Learning Links > See All

Username: underwood
Password: school

 Features:

Authentic read-aloud audio
Guided keyword search
Extended Learning including source citation, range maps, multimedia, activities and the ability to print the articles straight from the site

General Resources: https://www.pebblego.com/resources
Remote Learning Resources: https://www.pebblego.com/pebblego-remote-learning-days

Tumblebooks 

https://bit.ly/32SwhiW

* Students can access through Rapid Identity > Follett (Destiny) > Learning Links > See All

Username: ugtm

Password: books

Extensive collection of read alouds, to include Story Books (most popular), Read Alongs, Non-fiction,  Videos, Language Learning,  and Puzzles & Games. Kids LOVE Tumblebooks!

Screencastify 

If you do not already have the Screencastify extension, download the extension. Be sure you are logged into Screencastify with your work email. 

Resources from Screencastify

• A Beginner's Guide to Screencastify/Getting Started 
• Classroom Resources
• Screencast Certification

Media/Tech Weekly Update (week of August 31)

Tools for all Learners

Collection created by WCPSS DLCs for WCPSS teachers. 

September 28 Workday - Staff will have the opportunity to participate in a virtual EdCamp style professional development. Sessions will be scheduled based on your input. Please fill out this interest survey - https://bit.ly/3jtOzOk by Tuesday, Sept 8.

Do you have students getting dropped from Meets?

Suggestions from staff members and WCPSS tech services:

• Reset your Meet link between classes. Tutorial
• If you remove a student from class (versus him leaving on his own), he possibly can not join back on that link for a certain amount of time. 

Security Best Practices for Google Meet and Google Classroom

https://bit.ly/32WtPIv

Excellent resource for keeping your virtual space SAFE and functionally smoothly. 

Showing videos during your Meets

When possible, please consider NOT showing videos during your Meets. It may work on your end, but often causes issues on the students' side depending on their device and connectivity.

From WCPSS....

It is best practice to share a video via a link and not try to stream it through Meet. Trying to watch it live through a Meet causes technical issues (as many of you have experienced), and it eats up a ton of bandwidth and can cause connectivity issues. A suggestions is to send the link and have them watch it independently. 

Subscriptions Coming Soon....

• Screencastify
• PebbleGo (K - 2 and Spanish)
• Happy Numbers (ECS)
• Tumblebooks (K - 5)

*Login information will be posted this week.

We are still looking into BrainPop, free sources for printable/sharable leveled texts, and another nonfiction text resource for 3-5