New Apps in OUHSD My Apps Portal

There are a few new apps listed in the My Apps portal on the district website.  Google Apps, Google Classroom, and Discovery Education can all now be found under the Apps page.  They are all shortcuts that can help with making signing in easier. 

1. To access simply visit the OUHSD homepage at www.oxnardunion.org.  Hover over Faculty & Staff and click My Apps under the Tools heading.

2. Here you'll find the three new apps among many others.  Click on the app that you want to access.  When you click on either Google Apps or Google Classroom, you will be prompted to sign in to your @oxnardunion.org account.  This is a one-time-only thing.  Once logged in, you will be taken directly to a Google Apps page (pictured below) or Google Classroom.

One-time log in screen

Google Apps page from My Apps Portal

For Discovery Education, it will either take you to your Google sign on page and click Allow.  If already logged in to Google it will take you directly into Discovery Education.

Google Input Tools for World Language

I recently had some World Language teachers reach out about easy ways to use accent marks with the keyboard.  I then came along a new tools.  There is a Google Extension that you can find in the Chrome Web Store called Google Input Tools.  It makes the typing of various languages' accent marks pretty easy.  It also has a lot of flexibility.  Here is a short screencast to show you:

I was just in a French classroom helping the students get started with the Google Input Tools extension.  The only issue was that they had to sign in an extra time once they had the extension added to Chrome and went in to add the languages. 

Adding Parents as Guardians in Google Classroom

Google Classroom has a feature to keep your parents informed on what's going on in the classroom.  It's called Guardians and it's simple to use.  The teacher has to add the parents email first.  Then the parents will receive an email inviting them to join.  They don't actually get access to the Google Classroom.  They just receive daily or weekly emails on what's happening in the classroom (assignments, announcements, etc.)  That's it.  It's a little extra work on the front end, but then the teacher is done and the parent stays informed throughout the year.

Here's how it works:

Resetting Student Passwords in OUHSD

This BEET is specific to the Oxnard Union High School District.  Teachers are constantly emailing the HelpDesk and me asking for students' passwords to be reset...especially for Google.  You can now do this yourself.  Resetting the password will sync both their @ouhsd.us account and their @oxnardunion.org Google account with the same password.  Here's how...

1. Go to www.oxnardunion.org 
2. Hover over Faculty & Staff and then click on Student Password Reset under Services
3. Log in using your @ouhsd username and password.  
4. Enter in the 6 digit Student ID # and click Submit
5. Enter in the new password that the student will keep.  This will be for both their @ouhsd.us and @oxnardunion.org accounts (Microsoft and Google).  
6. Confirm and it should take effect almost immediately.  

Step-by-step tutorial of how to reset student passwords

Also, here is the iorad interactive tutorial on how to reset student passwords:

https://www.iorad.com/player/112298/Student-Password-Reset-in-OUHSD

Force 'Make a copy' in Google Docs

   

Google Docs allows you to share a document (or any other Googley thing) so that it requires users to do a forced 'Make a copy'.  You can do this simply by changing the end of the URL when you go to share it.

1. Click Share and Copy link.

2. Paste the link in the omnibox (don't hit enter). 

3. Change the end of the URL (everthing after the last forwardslash (/) to 'copy.

4. Copy the new link with 'copy' at the end.  

5. Paste that link in the omnibox.  You will now get a forced copy