March is Reading Month

Image of Read Across America activity board

March is Reading Month. To celebrate, use this “activity board” for students to explore books and create their own literary works. Be sure to preview the links yourself and File/Make a Copy if you want to make modifications. You’ll need to review the “Create a Reading Fort” link to insert your own place where students can share what they create, perhaps they could post a picture to the Canvas discussion board. You can also share this particular resource with the short link: bit.ly/readacross21 Happy Reading Month!

Image of Read Across America activity board

Some links to check out and upcoming Google updates

summary of Google Drive updates

John Sowash’s monthly EDU newsletter always lists ten or more links he briefly describes and commends for educators to check out. Some recent ones he’s called out are:

  • ​Virtual games from Arts & Culture – “Play with Arts & Culture” – a collection of interactive games that make art, culture and history accessible in a fun and educational way. In one, challenge your students to complete a virtual jigsaw puzzle. It’s fun and the whole class can participate!
  • ​Panopto screen recording – this free screencasting tool offers some unique features like the ability to record from multiple cameras and replace your background.
  • ​Dino QR codes – The Chrome browser now has a built-in QR code creator with a cute dino included! No need for a Chrome extension, just click the URL bar and look for the QR code symbol! Jeremy Badiner created a great guide as well.
  • Get to know the student behind the mask – this is a really nice blog post by 5th grade math teacher Becky Thal expressing the importance of connecting with students on a personal level.
  • Mindset Moment with Andrew J. Canlé – these quick videos communicate positive ideas in a short, entertaining format that are perfect for discussion questions or brain breaks.
  • Link Lock – password protect any link with this free, simple web utility.

On February 17th Google announced several updates for Google Workspace for Education. John’s newsletter has organized some of them into infographics shown below.

FOR CHROMEBOOKS….

The screen recording updates are very exciting, encouraging students to press record for formative and summative assessments which can be very powerful and now more easily done on a Chromebook! Stay tuned to see if this will also allow students to record their screen via Canvas Studio.

summary of Chromebook updates

 

FOR GOOGLE DRIVE….

There are also several updates apparently coming soon to Google Drive. The two that will most likely impact students and teachers are Form draft responses and revision history in Jamboard. In Google Forms, students will be able to stop and return to a form at a later date and time. Please note this is set to launch, “later in 2021” so do not plan to utilize this functionality just yet. One of the biggest frustrations with Jamboard has been the fact that frames can be easily removed and those changes are very difficult to track. Soon, it will be much easier to track changes and revert to previous versions in Jamboard.

summary of Google Drive updates

Tips for the Secondary, Hybrid Schedule

Now that P-CCS  is bringing middle school and high school students back on-campus, teachers may wish to further adjust their instruction for optimized learning with the new schedule. The hybrid schedule feels very unique to the times we are living in. Fortunately, schools across the country have been using it and teachers have insights to share. For this post, I have borrowed mostly from the work of Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy) and Catlin Tucker, an experienced, blended learning coach. Consider reading the original posts for more information.

Four Models:

  1. Station Rotation: Think of your week or class period in 3 kinds of “stations” for students to rotate through: teacher-led, online activity, and an offline activity. Here’s a great template from Stephanie DeMichele. Here’s a link to some specific ideas for core content areas.
  2. Flipped Learning: Move the act of direct instruction to asynchronous video so it can be more accessible for all (pause, re-watch, captions). Think of your week or class period in terms of a pre-video activity, during-the-video activity, and a post-video activity. If you desire, save time, by recording snippets of intended instruction during your live class to post in Canvas, directions here.
  3. Playlist/Hyperdoc Model: Playlists allow students to move through a sequence of learning activities. The playlist can build in choice as far as what modality and what combination of activities students choose. This model is also very similar to a hyperdoc which guides students through a complete lesson flow. In this model, teachers design the lesson in-advance and then spend time in class connecting with individuals and small groups to answer questions, clear misconceptions, and provide feedback.
  4. Pre/In/Post Class: This model simply helps you think about planning in terms of synchronous and asynchronous. Utilize Sections in Canvas to divide your class into cohorts so that each one sees their work at the appropriate time. See the graphic below from Catlin Tucker’s blog.
Ideas for pre, in, and post class work.
Graphic created by Catlin Tucker. Click the image to view the post.

Tips from Teachers (curated from Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy)

  • Make the face-to-face time special–Try not to use this time to give all your tests or “cram” in all the content you plan to deliver. Use it build relationships and interact with each other.
    • Putting direct instruction on video prevents you from having to repeat yourself over and over and allows students to watch at their own pace
  • Chunk the time–As we move to the block schedule on top of the hybrid set-up it is helpful think of your time in various segments. You can select one of the models above to guide you. If you desire to have the at-home cohort log-on to your synchronous class time you might consider some of these models. They were shared by Beth Alexander, the Director of Teaching and Learning at a school in Toronto.
  • Build community–This is always important and still is as teachers and students face this new classroom set-up.

Teachers can continue to use Canvas and other tech tools to manage and organize their courses. Reach out to a Tech Integration Specialist if you want a thought partner in this process. Submit a tech ticket and select the “Tech Integration” option.

If you are looking for more ideas, check out this collection of resources: https://wke.lt/w/s/N62hdh

 

Black History Month Resources

Image of Applied Digital Skills black history page

February is Black History Month. Wayne RESA has put together several resources that teachers can use this month and throughout the school year to help infuse Black History in the curriculum.

Additionally, Flipgrid has curated several topics for students to engage with on their platform.

Image of Black History collection in Flipgrid

Wide Open School by Common Sense has linked several Black History and Culture lessons organized by grade, Preschool-12th grade. Google for Education has also released several new lessons in their Applied Digital Skills curriculum.

Image of Applied Digital Skills black history page

Tips for the Secondary Hybrid Schedule

Now that P-CCS  is bringing middle school and high school students back on-campus, teachers may wish to further adjust their instruction for optimized learning with the new schedule. The hybrid schedule feels very unique to the times we are living in. Fortunately, schools across the country have been using it and teachers have insights to share. For this post, I have borrowed mostly from the work of Jennifer Gonzalez (Cult of Pedagogy) and Catlin Tucker, an experienced, blended learning coach. Consider reading the original posts for more information.

Four Models:

  1. Station Rotation: Think of your week or class period in 3 kinds of “stations” for students to rotate through: teacher-led, online activity, and an offline activity. Here’s a great template from Stephanie DeMichele. Here’s a link to some specific ideas for core content areas.
  2. Flipped Learning: Move the act of talking at students to asynchronous video so it can be more accessible for all (pause, re-watch, captions). Think of your week or class period in terms of a pre-video activity, during-the-video activity, and a post-video activity. If you desire, save time, by recording snippets of intended instruction during your live class to post in Canvas, directions here.
  3. Playlist Model: Playlists allow students to move through a sequence of learning activities. The playlist can build in choice as far as what modality and what combination of activities students choose. This model is also very similar to a hyperdoc which guides students through a complete lesson flow. In this model, teachers design the lesson in-advance and then spend time in class connecting with individuals and small groups to answer questions, clear misconceptions, and provide feedback.
  4. Pre/In/Post Class: This model simply helps you think about planning in terms of synchronous and asynchronous. Utilize Sections in Canvas to divide your class into cohorts so that each one sees their work at the appropriate time. See the graphic below from Catlin Tucker’s blog.
Ideas for pre, in, and post class work.
Graphic created by Catlin Tucker. Click the image to view the post.

Tips from Teachers (curated from Jennifer Gonzalez of Cult of Pedagogy)

  • Make the face-to-face time special–Try not to use this time to give all your tests or “cram” in all the content you plan to deliver. Use it build relationships and interact with each other.
    • Putting direct instruction on video prevents you from having to repeat yourself over and over and allows students to watch at their own pace
  • Chunk the time–As we move to the block schedule on top of the hybrid set-up it is helpful think of your time in various segments. You can select one of the models above to guide you. If you desire to have the at-home cohort log-on to your synchronous class time you might consider some of these models. They were shared by Beth Alexander, the Director of Teaching and Learning at a school in Toronto.
  • Build community–This is always important and still is as teachers and students face this new classroom set-up.

Teachers can continue to use Canvas and other tech tools to manage and organize their courses. Reach out to a Tech Integration Specialist if you want a thought partner in this process. Submit a tech ticket and select the “Tech Integration” option.

If you are looking for more ideas, check out this collection of resources: https://wke.lt/w/s/N62hdh

 

 

Managing Your Modules

Anyone with a year-long course (or 100+ modules), might be noticing that is takes quite a long time for all your modules to load. Students and families may also be experiencing this lag when they click the link for their daily work module. To help save time and frustration we recommend that you free up some space in one of two ways:

  1. Unpublish modules from early in the school year. Image of "unpublish" icon
  2. If you or your students are still experiencing a slow down, you can copy the module to your Sandbox course and then delete it from your main course.

Image of steps to copy and delete modules

Updating the Zoom App

Keep calm and update zoom

In order to get the most out of our Zoom experience, it is important to update the app. An out-of-date Zoom app may lead to sound or other technical issues. Additionally, Zoom has recently pushed out live captioning and the ability to allow co-hosts to set up breakout rooms. These features don’t appear unless you are running the latest version of the Zoom app. Chromebook users or any device that used the mobile app should be getting these updates automatically. If you are using the desktop client/software on a school-issued HP Probook, a Windows, or Mac device you will need to update manually.

Next Wednesday afternoon, February 10 17th (rescheduled to avoid any possible, but unlikely conflict due to it being Count Day), the district will activate a prompt so that when you open the Zoom app, if it can be updated to a newer version, you will be required to update it. Before any meeting you might have, please give yourself a few extra minutes to take care of that update by launching the app earlier than you might otherwise. And be advised that students may run a little late if they launch the app and find they are being prompted to update. To avoid any issues you can always check for updates at a time that is most convenient for you.

Helpful Tip: Zoom automatically signs you out of your account fairly often. If you notice your thumbnail picture is not showing or your virtual background is missing, you may want to relaunch the Zoom app and make sure that you are signed into the app and not just the Zoom website.

Use Sections to Manage Green/Blue Cohorts

Image of finished sections

Sections allow you to subdivide students within a course. It allows you to set different due dates for assignments, quizzes, and discussions. This is ideal for managing the Blue and Green Cohorts in the hybrid schedule.

Set up Groups

First go to Settings from the Course Navigation menu and you’ll find a tab entitled “Sections.” You can add and name your sections however you wish.

Here’s what you might have for your classes, the sections will be ordered alphabetically:

Image of finished sections

Add Students to Sections

Click on “People” in the Course Navigation menu to add students to the proper section.

Visual of steps to add people to sections

A pop-up will appear and you can start typing the name of the cohort and it will appear for you to select or you can click “browse” and the options will appear.

Image of editing section enrollments

Do this for each user. When finished you’ll be able to see which cohort/section each user is in.

Image of cohorts denoted in roster

You can remove the section following the same grading process.

Assignments for Sections

For the purpose of syncing with MiStar, it is very important you ensure one of the “Assign to” groups is listed as “Everyone”
or “Everyone Else.” Do not assign to Blue Cohort and Green Cohort, grading sync will not work.

Image indicating use of everyone or everyone else