High School – Page 16 – P-CCSK12 Tech

P-CEP High School Grading Periods

As of November 19th, now that Quarter 1 grades have been turned in at the secondary level, Grading Periods will be in place in Canvas to reflect the closing of Q1 grades in MiStar. Students will have view-only access to first quarter course content and will be unable to submit work for assignments associated with the first quarter (Q1) since it is not the current grading period. While teachers can edit their previous term’s course content, they cannot make further adjustments in the feedback or grading of any non-current grading period submissions.

When grading periods are enabled, the due date of an assignment will determine the grading period within which the assignment will appear in the Gradebook. If no due date is set, the assignment defaults to the last (current) grading period available for the course. Therefore, if there is a quiz or assignment that a student must still complete from a past quarter, you might make a copy of that quiz/assignment, give it a due date in the current grading period, and assign it just to the few students that need it. In that case, grade passback to MiStar should be avoided and, should you want it reflected in MISTAR manually enter the grade for those students in the Q1 quiz or assignment instead (note, even if this is done, the student’s viewable-as-of November 12th report card, won’t reflect any change).

Importantly, while students will still find their definitive grades in MISTAR, this grade period demarcation will also result in a more accurate current grade average, as far as what Canvas reflects, since only the current marking period will be presented.

Please find quick overview directions and screenshots in this document.

*Please note elementary teachers — it is very conceivable that we will similarly update Canvas for courses that span grading periods too, in the coming weeks, to allow for term filtering.

Submit a ticket for more support.

Canvas

Middle School Teachers: Transition from Quarter 1 to Quarter 2 in Canvas reflected by grading periods

As of November 10th, now that Quarter 1 grades have been turned in at the secondary level, Grading Periods will be in place in Canvas to reflect the closing of Q1 grades in MiStar. Students will have view-only access to first quarter course content and will be unable to submit work for assignments associated with the first quarter (Q1) since it is not the current grading period. While teachers can edit their previous term’s course content, they cannot make further adjustments in the feedback or grading of any non-current grading period submissions.

When grading periods are enabled, the due date of an assignment will determine the grading period within which the assignment will appear in the Gradebook. If no due date is set, the assignment defaults to the last (current) grading period available for the course. Therefore, if there is a quiz or assignment that a student must still complete from a past quarter, you might make a copy of that quiz/assignment, give it a due date in the current grading period, and assign it just to the few students that need it. In that case, grade passback to MiStar should be avoided and, should you want it reflected in MISTAR manually enter the grade for those students in the Q1 quiz or assignment instead (note, even if this is done, the student’s viewable-as-of November 12th report card, won’t reflect any change).

Importantly, while students will still find their definitive grades in MISTAR, this grade period demarcation will also result in a more accurate current grade average, as far as what Canvas reflects, since only the current marking period will be presented.

Please find quick overview directions and screenshots in this document.

Please also revisit this blog post from last November on how to extend access for students to a Canvas course past the term end date based on an interest in allowing students an additional time period to access course content or to interact with and submit coursework.

*Please note elementary and high school teachers — it is very conceivable that we will similarly update Canvas for courses that span grading periods too, in the coming weeks, to allow for term filtering.

Submit a ticket for more support.

Canvas

Canvas Pro-Tip: Estimated Time Pill Box

When you enter into a task, it is helpful to know approximately how long something might take. Don Lourcey, on the Iredell-Statesville School District has gathered some code so that an estimated time to complete can be added to the top of your Canvas pages and assignments (see image sample above). This small step might be very useful for students and families working on your course at home and help the students in front of you to manage their attention level.

You can use this ReadTime website to help you estimate how long it might take for students to read the text on your page.

See the code below that can be copied and pasted into the HTML editor of your Canvas page. Change the “30 mins” as needed to reflect the estimated time (eg. “15 mins”, “20 minutes” or “1 hour”). A video tutorial is included at the bottom of this page.

Estimated Reading Time code

<ul class=”pill”>
<li>Estimated Reading Time</li>
<li>30 mins</li>
</ul>
<ul class=”pill”></ul>

Estimated Time to Complete code

<ul class=”pill”>
<li>Estimated Time to Complete</li>
<li>30 mins</li>
</ul>
<ul class=”pill”></ul>

Estimated Reading and Viewing Time code

<ul class=”pill”>
<li>Estimated Reading & Viewing Time</li>
<li>30 mins</li>
</ul>
<ul class=”pill”></ul>

Canvas

P-CCS Canvas Best Practices Playlist

In August, we published the P-CCS Canvas Best Practices. We now have a YouTube Playlist that covers each practice. Each video has timestamps in the description to help you find the information you need. Additionally, each video has a link to resources that includes examples and tutorial links. We hope this will be a helpful resource for you.

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUkRcu_FW1d_rMIzP3riN3cVIm_Swl_BM

Canvas

Flipgrid Live Event: 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.

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

Canvas

BrainPOP Information Privacy 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:

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmEWuu-YxoY

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.

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

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.

Canvas

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.

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.

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.

Canvas

Category: High School