Watch six PPS teachers talk about classroom innovations for equity

This past summer and fall, 40 PPS teachers participated in action research projects that focused on culturally responsive and innovative pedagogy and practice. The project, called C4 (Culturally-Responsive Curriculum Creation & Curation), was supported by funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Starting with a 2-day professional development camp in July, teacher teams experimented with new tools and practices aimed at enriching the rigor, relevance, relationships, and realness of learning among students of color, while also sharing ideas with colleagues both within and outside their schools.

Stay tuned in the coming months for more information about the next iteration of C4 in 2015! Questions? Ideas? Use the comment box!

Connect and Learn at edcampPDX, November 15 at Liberty High School in Hillsboro

Calling all teachers, instructional technologists, IT staff, principals, admins and teacher librarians in the area -- the next edcamp will be held Saturday, November 15 from 8:00 am to 3:30 pm at Liberty High School in Hillsboro.

What is edcampPDX?
An edcamp is an informal unconference-style day of professional development organized and given by the local participants with sessions determined at the time of the event. Connect with other educators to share innovative instructional strategies and technologies that transform education for all students. Arrive with an idea for a session that you would like to lead or a discussion you would like to have and be ready to learn.

What are the goals of EdcampPDX?
✪ Networking: Connect with educators in the Greater Portland/Oregon Area.
✪ Instructional Practices: Learn new ideas, best practices, and/or tech integration ideas from other educators.
✪ Personalization: Customize your own PD by suggesting, facilitating and attending sessions about topics that interest you!

What do I need to bring?
Bring a friend and your favorite device: laptop, tablet, smartphone with the appropriate power cables. Lunch is provided!

Google Apps for Education Training

Google Apps for Education training is available for teachers on the PPS Learning Campus. Professional learning opportunities have been posted for October and new workshops will be added monthly. These sessions all take place at the BESC in the Wallowa Lab on floor L1 from 4:30-6:30 p.m. Participation is voluntary.

There are also informal Google Apps Hangout Help Sessions that are conducted virtually through Google Hangouts. They all begin at 3:30 p.m. Follow the links to watch the livestream and/or recording. There is one today, Thursday, Oct. 16 with additional hangouts scheduled for Oct. 23 and Oct. 30.

You can also do on-demand Google Apps training by visiting the PPS Google Apps Training Modules or checking out any of the links listed under Learn More on the PPS Google Apps website.

If your building is interested in doing an all-staff Google Apps training on site, please contact Melissa Lim, mlim@pps.net.

IT Updates

IT Update: Google Apps for Education – Student Accounts

PPS students in grades 1-12 (kindergarten will be addressed later), in addition to all PPS employees, now have a Google Apps for Education account! Each students will need to activate their Google Apps account at https://activatestudentgafe.pps.net/ by entering their PPS username and password. For additional instructions click here to visit our Google Apps Blog here.

IT Update: Chromebooks and Tech Bundles

The tech bundle project continues on schedule and is moving into Phase 1 schools. Updates on the Chromebook and Tech Bundle projects including information on printing and projection are now available on the Tech Bundle Project site. Due to the importance and rapid pace of these projects, IT will be keeping this information up to date as frequently as possible via the links referenced above.

From Guilt to Google: Experimenting with Tech Tools to Improve Writing Feedback

by Kim Hoffman Kanof, Madison HS Social Studies teacher, on edsurge.com

I have graded essays for years. I have tried all the tricks to get through my stacks of essays with speed and precision--setting a timer with a reward, coffee grading, yoga grading, dog park grading, almost tossing papers out of the window grading. But nothing worked to improve my ability to turn around papers quicker. In fact, after receiving my “Walking Dead TV reward” for getting through my allotted stack of essays on a Saturday morning, I suddenly realized: I was a “Grading Zombie,” and my students were “Grade Zombies.”

I needed to change the tedious and difficult writing process in my classroom. So, I turned to Google tools.

Read on at edsurge.com.

Save the Date: Oregon Google Summit, Oct 10, 2014

PPS is hosting this year's Oregon Google Summit on Friday, Oct. 10, 2014 at Jackson Middle School. Registration for the event is open now, and more information is being added to the event website.

The call for presenters is here: http://www.googlesummit.org/call-for-presenters

As the host for the event, PPS teachers are highly encouraged to submit workshop proposals. Lots of PPS teachers are doing great things with Google Apps, so please come  share and connect with other educators across the state!

Introduction to Chromebooks & Google Apps for Education

The IT department has been working all summer to get PPS teachers set up with Chromebooks and Google Apps for Education. Here are some useful introductory tools to help you get acquainted:

• PPS Google Apps for Ed Site
• PPS Google Apps for Ed Training Modules
• Google for Education Learning Center
• Google Guides & Cheat Sheets by Kasey Bell
• Google Apps Challenges
• Chromebook Basics | Chromebook Basics Thinglink poster
• Instructional Strategies Database
• Intro to Google Forms by Alice Keeler
• Scripting and Add-ons Revealed by Christy Fennewald
• Using Google Add-ons

Google Apps for Education is Live!

Google Apps for Education is a suite of tools including Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Sites, and Google+. Google Apps gives everyone the ability to quickly, and easily, create and share documents on any computer or mobile device. For more information on the benefits of Google Apps click here.

To access your Google Apps account please go to the https://activategafe.pps.net/ and enter your PPS username and password. After you have activated your account, to begin using Google Apps for Education, visit the District domain at http://www.apps4pps.net. Your username will not be your normal PPS email. It will be your PPS username followed by @apps4pps.net. For example, if your email is rsmitch@pps.net you would use rsmitch@apps4pps.net. Your password will be the same as what you entered on the activate page.

If you have any questions regarding Google Apps for Education or have trouble activating your Google Apps account, please contact the IT Service Desk at 503.916.3375 or emailitservicedesk@pps.net for support.