Flipgrid Live Event: Amanda Gorman

Flipgrid with Amanda Gorman

On November 4 from 1:00-1:30 PM EST, Flipgrid Live will be hosting Amanda Gorman and Loren Long. Amanda Gorman will read from her new picture book Change Sings and discuss the ideas in it. The illustrator will also talk about his creation process. You can go here to sign up to watch with your class live or on-demand.

Check out the Flipgrid’s Discovery Library to find a number of topics to help your students prepare for the event. You can also see other upcoming events or access past events here: https://blog.flipgrid.com/upcomingflipgridliveevents. Many of the presenters help provide “windows and mirrors” for the students in our classrooms.

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About Flipgrid Live Events – Take your learners on an adventure with Flipgrid Live Events without ever leaving the comfort of your classroom, home, or wherever you learn! These free virtual field trips feature authors, scientists, humanitarians, and creators sharing their passions from all over the world, even from the bottom of the sea!

October Canvas Updates

Over the weekend, you may have noticed a few updates to Canvas:

  • Sticky Navigation Menus: Now when you scroll down a Canvas page, the Course Navigation Menu remains visible.
  • SpeedGrader Submission Status: You can now change the submission status of an assignment (late, missing, excused) directly in SpeedGrader (previously, you could only do that in the Gradebook).
  • Gradebook Assignment Search: Now you can search the gradebook by student name and assignment name. More Gradebook search updates are coming later this month!
  • Accessibility Checker Notification: Have you ever noticed the little Accessibility icon at the bottom of the Rich Content Editor? It allows you to check how accessible your content is, and now, it will have a notification alert if it finds issues. Be sure to click on it and check its suggestions before publishing.
  • Microsoft Immersive Reader: This is a great tool embedded on many pages that allows people to have text read aloud to them (at faster or slower speeds), translate text, have access to a picture dictionary, and much more. Previously it was only on Canvas pages, but now it is also available in Assignments and the Syllabus. If you haven’t tried it out before, check it out, it is next to the Student View button in the upper, right corner.
  • Course Notification Settings: You can adjust your notifications by course.

notification settings image

To keep up-to-date on upcoming Canvas updates or to view more information about these updates, visit this website: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Releases/tkb-p/canvas-release

 

BrainPOP Information Privacy Lesson

image of brain pop lesson

October is Cybersecurity month. How can you facilitate student learning about this topic? BrainPOP has videos and accompanying lessons for grades 3-12. Teachers of younger learners can check out BrainPOP Jr for more appropriate videos and lessons. P-CCS has a K-12 subscription to BrainPOP products and they are accessible via Clever. Check out this lesson on information privacy.

 

Meet OrbitNote (formerly the Texthelp PDF Reader tool)

The TextHelp PDF Reader has officially been reborn as OrbitNote!

Earlier this summer, the Texthelp PDF Reader was updated and became OrbitNote. This update included a new look & easier onboarding. P-CCS students & staff have access to all the PREMIUM features of OrbitNote detailed below.

If you’re not familiar with it yet, OrbitNote allows staff & students to transform and interact with PDFs and digital documents in a completely different way. It helps to create an accessible, dynamic and collaborative space that works for everyone.

You & your students can use OrbitNote to:

      • -Collaborate in real-time within digital documents
      • -Read text, including math & science equations, aloud with easy-to-follow dual color highlighting
      • -Type text on top of your PDFs with the Text feature
      • -Highlight and extract information with colored highlighters
      • -Add text and voice comments or use pushpins for helpful hints or instructions
      • -Use freehand or shape drawing to scribble and draw on your digital documents
    And more!

There is NO ACTION required for students or staff who were already using the PDF Reader; the new OrbitNote extension auto-updated. Students and staff may have to update permissions with the first use of the new tool.

Staff who have not used the Texthelp PDF Reader in the past will need to install the extension here.

For more information about using OrbitNote, including Canvas LMS integration, go to the RW4G@PCCS website: https://bit.ly/PCCS-OrbitNote

The new OrbitNote Quick Reference Guide is available here.

Videos: https://text.help/orbitvids
Technical Support: https://support.texthelp.com

You might also want to check out this video of OrbitNotes used in Canvas and/or a comprehensive overview of many of TextHelp’s features:

 

 

OrbitDoc (now OrbitNotes) used in Canvas

 

Print Canvas New Quizzes

If you would like to have a paper copy of a Canvas quiz for certain students, you can easily do that in New Quizzes. Just click the 3 dots (or TimBits) in the upper, right corner to reveal more options.

option to print new quiz

After selecting the print option, you will be able to choose the preferred text size.

menu to select print size

One other enhancement with New Quizzes is that you can bypass the assignment details screen and get right into building question when you are designing a unit in modules. See below.

option to build a new quiz directly from modules

If you like these enhancements but mostly have Classic Quizzes in your course, you can begin the process of migrating them to New Quizzes with these directions.

New Nightly MiStar/Canvas Grade Auto-Syncing

Steps for setting up grade sync each night

If you would like your Canvas grades to automatically sync with your MiStar gradebook each night, that is now possible with just a few clicks.

  1. Make sure Grade Sync is enabled under Settings/Navigation
Showing grade sync enabled
Students do not have access to this page.

2. Once enabled and saved, you can navigate to the Grade Sync from the Course Navigation menu and toggle the option on.

Steps for setting up grade sync each night

If you need more information about the necessary set up for your Canvas Grades to sync with MiStar, take a look at the resources on the P-CCS Tech website.

 

 

Monday Tech Coffee Chat: Supporting Absent Students

This Monday, September 27, we will be holding another TIS Coffee Chat on the topic of Supporting Absent Students. We will talk about how to add an Absent button and set up your information page for Absent students. Sessions are only about 20 minutes long and take place over Zoom.

Start Times (feel free to attend at a time that works best for you):

Feel free to browse the Session Resources which includes a helpful, technical document for broadcasting your class via Zoom: https://wke.lt/w/s/jd6oHX

Check out the recordings of previous sessions.

Canvas Camp 2021 and Tech Coffee Chat #1 Recordings

Thanks to all who were able to join us during Canvas Camp 2021! We are happy to continue to support you with our Monday Morning Coffee Chats. Below you will find links to recordings from our August sessions.

Studio Q & A-This session covered a lot of the basics of Studio and looked at some more advanced features. The trainer also provided great ideas for how to use Studio as the teacher and how students can use it.

Canvas Q & A– In this session we talked a lot about copying course content. Toward the end, Cory gave a really great introduction to Groups.

Canvas Course Design Considerations– Here’s the session agenda. This training is great for all grade levels and also had a few good nuggets for elementary teachers.

TIS Face Off: Canvas Tips- Matt and Kaelyn face off about their favorite Canvas tips. Recording coming soon.

Last week we had our first Tech Coffee Chat centered around the Canvas Best Practice, Simplifying the Course Navigation Menu. Check out the recording and join us Monday, September 20 for tips on creating an informative, welcoming home page.

 

New Assignment Enhancements in Canvas

Canvas has made several adjustments and improvements to the student assignment experience. Take a look below.

image of assignment enhancements

If you choose “Text Entry” for the student turn-in option, student work will auto-save and they can submit directly on the page.

image of text entry

Scroll through the gallery below to see other assignment options.

Media recording option
File upload option
Student Annotation (on a PDF)
Ability for students to start new attempt
Students can cancel new attempt

If you feel these enhancements will not serve your students, you can toggle them off under Settings/Feature Previews.

 

 

 

2020-2021 Course Clean Up

Please make sure your 2020-2021 courses are closed. We have heard from a few students and parents that are still seeing their 2020-2021 courses. You’ll want to ensure your courses are closed or unpublished.

Navigate to https://pccsk12.instructure.com/courses or click on the “Courses” icon on the Course Navigation Menu and click “All Courses” You’ll see a list of your courses that are still published.

  • If you notice any from the 2020-2021 school year in your current enrollments you will need to take action.
  • If you see 20-21 published courses under Past Enrollments, that is as it should be and no action is required.

Image of published course list.You may be able to open the course and click “Unpublish.” If you are unable to do that, please submit a tech ticket.

Also keep in mind that any manually-created courses like a counseling group, club, or media center course should be closed out if they are no longer needed. Or students that have moved up to a new building level should be removed from the course.

These closed courses will still be accessible in a view-only format to students in “Past Enrollments.”