All Your Tech End-of-Year Posts in One Spot

We hope you have an extremely restful summer. We have posted a few items over the last several weeks and wanted to link highlights here in case you missed any of them.

Canvas

Rest assured, you really don’t need to do anything to your Canvas page. It will roll over to Past Enrollments and you will be able to copy the content into your new course shell. You can check out the slidedeck below (used for an in-person session) to get a little more information about what that looks like and what you could do to create an extra back-up or a version of your course you can work on updating over the summer.

You can also access our blog post on the topic here.

Classroom Technology

Our recommendations for your classroom technology (projectors, doc cams, microphones, etc.) can be found here.

You can also review our suggested laptop maintenance to keep it performing at its best.

Clever Syncing Paused

We’ve already paused Clever syncing so that students can continue to access their current teachers’ Clever pages and digital subscriptions (e.g IXL, BrainPop, Seesaw) via Clever through mid August.

Sharing Digital Content

Whether you are separating from service, working on curriculum, or you are teaching different classes next year there are several options for sharing digital content with colleagues.

Summer Learning

When you are ready to digging into some topics that you may not have had time to explore we have a few ideas.

Summer Vision Board

GoogleEDU Created These Summer Vision Boards 
Here’s some great templates that can be used for vision planning, regardless of season. Just change as needed. Students could also use some of these slides for their own learning during the school year. Helpful stickers included, too.  Google EDU Templates

Have a great summer! If you want to chat with a Technology Integration Specialist over the summer, we are available! Submit a tech ticket if you would like to set up a meeting.

All the resources linked about have also been curated in this Wakelet Collection. https://wke.lt/w/s/iv8Y5-

Summer Workshop: Creating Screencasts for your Classroom

information flyer

REMC and Michigan Virtual are partnering to offer a FREE workshop on exploring the #GoOpen Michigan Resources and how to create screencasts for your classroom. Participants will earn 11 SCECHs and a $200 stipend.

Open Education Resources (OER) for Quality Teaching and Learning
Schools are continuing to use blended learning classrooms and look for affordable resources to quickly adapt. #GoOpen Michigan provides many quality free resources, many of which are both designed by and for use by Michigan educators.

During this multi-day hybrid workshop experience cosponsored by Michigan Virtual, explore, mine and contribute to the rich resources that are available for quality instruction on #GoOpen site. Participate in rich learning experiences, gain resources, and leave as champions of using OER in your school and with your students.

Commitment: Each session requires attendance at one (1) face-to-face day and one (1) virtual day, along with some pre-workshop activities, and completion of a learning object (eg. lesson plan, classroom activity).  In total, it will require a minimum of 11 hours of time to complete all required activities.

SCECHs: 11 hours of SCECH Credit are available at no cost

Earn: participants will receive a $200 stipend for fulling participating in the workshop and completing all activities including:

  • Attendance at the face-to-face and virtual days
  • Uploading their custom screencast to Mi Streamnet
  • Uploading their learning object to #GoOpen Michigan

information flyer

View the flyer above here.

Before Summer Break Technology Checklist

As you make plans to close up your classroom for the summer (and a well deserved break), please take care of the following items:

  1. Please comply with the directions of your principal and main office to turn in or secure all classroom technology equipment such as document cameras, microphones, interactive pens, and remotes. 
  2. Please also secure or take home all District-assigned devices (laptop, Chromebook, iPad, etc.), as well as all personally-owned devices..
    • If you are leaving the District, complete this form.
  3. Power off projectors/IFPs, sound amps, and desktop computers.
    • You may leave printer and copiers plugged in and powered on
  4. Follow the care suggestions for classroom audio
  5. Consider what you may want to save from Canvas, but no action is necessary

Thanks for your cooperation!

Be Aware: Google Dictionary Extension

image showing what the use of the extension looks like on a page

A few teachers have noticed that students have access to install the Google Dictionary Chrome Extension. This is an approved and useful educational extension. However, teachers have noticed it being used in online Canvas Quizzes or Google Forms. The extension allows a students to double click on a word and get the definition.

image showing what the use of the extension looks like on a page

If a student clicks “More,” a new tab is opened up with more definitions, synonyms, and usage examples.

If you are going to give an online tests or quizzes, it is important to set expectations with students about what behaviors are permitted and monitor students actively. Here’s what the extension looks like, but keep in mind that extensions can be installed and not pinned. You would need to have a student go here: chrome://extensions/ to determine if it is installed.

Image showing where extension are located in Google chromeAdditionally, it important to work with grade level and department teams to develop “non-Googleable” questions. Not only will this help curb cheating, but more importantly, it will also help teaching and learning progress to greater depths of knowledge.

To find out more about non-Googleable questions, check out these resources:

 

Fun Summer PD Bingo

Bingo

We hope you are looking forward to a well-deserved summer break! When you feel ready to start making plans for next year, we’d like to offer this fun PD Bingo Board. Feel free to challenge your grade level team or PLC to see who can earn a BINGO first. All the offerings are free. Submit a tech ticket if you need any help.

Year-End Canvas Info

Canvas end-of-year tips

The good news is, there isn’t much to worry about with Canvas at the end of the year. It will automatically convert your course to read-only for students and roll your course into Past Enrollments. When next year’s course shell appears you will be able to import last year’s course content with a few clicks.

There are a few things you can do if you’d like to make adjustments to your course over the summer or if you like to have a just-in-case copy. Peruse the items below for more information, save it at this link, or get a PDF copy here.

Canvas New Quizzes Update: Fill in the Blank RCE

Summary

In New Quizzes, this feature allows Instructors to add content as part of the question stem and make portions of the content fillable in the student response.

Change Benefit

This change allows instructors to create fill-in-the-blank questions with rich content such as scientific or mathematical formulas or a table. Additionally, instructors can format fill-in-the-blank questions to appear on separate, distinct lines.

Feature Workflow

new quizzes question editor
New Quizzes question editor

When adding a fill-in-the-blank question, type a statement in the rich content editor and surround a word with backticks to indicate where a student fills in the answer.

fill in the blank answer options
Fill in the Blank Answer Options

In the Answer Type drop-down menu, select the Dropdown option [1], enter the correct answers and distractor answers, if needed. Possible Answer Types include a dropdown, open entry, or word bank [2].

Check out the overview video below.

Sharing Digital Resources with Colleagues

If you are retiring from teaching, changing roles, or changing grades, you might be wondering how you can best share some of your teaching materials with colleagues from your department or team.  This post will offer some suggestions. If you are retiring or leaving the district, a separate email will be sent to you regarding how to return district technology at the end of the school year. Please be on the look out for that email if it applies to you.

Share Google Content with Colleagues

You will want to make sure that a colleague you want to share files with is made the owner of a document or folder. You can change this if you are the current owner.

image showing where to update the owner
This option is best if you are leaving the district. Change this setting after you have used Google Transfer or Download.

If you are not leaving the district and want your files shared, but not altered, you might download a folder and then re-upload it to your Drive naming it “3rd Grade Originals.” This will allow you to maintain a copy of your versions of the documents.

Please be mindful about checking folders before you share them to ensure confidential, student information is not shared.

Share Canvas Course Content

You are able to export your Canvas course as an IMSCC ZIP file that can be uploaded into many Learning Management Systems (if you are leaving the district) or shared via a thumb drive.

image showing course copy optionIf you want to share your course with another teacher, you can make a copy of your course (found in Settings). When you make the copy you can select the specific content you are willing to share, give it a name (i.e. Bullock Shared US History) and then add your colleague(s) as a teacher in the course.  Finally, to make your course more widely available to others at P-CCS you can export your course to Canvas Commons, when you export you can choose to make it viewable to the public or only to P-CCS teachers. 

Share Video Content

While it is best practice for instructional videos to be made by the existing teacher, it might be helpful for others to reference your video lessons. If you would like to share your video lessons, we recommend this workflow:

Please submit a tech ticket if you have additional questions about sharing content.

Easy Digital Business Cards with HiHello

free digital cards

image of digital business card from hihello

We are excited to share the tool, HiHello. Spend about 5 minutes getting signed up and entering in your information and you get a professional looking email signature and Zoom background. The Zoom backgrounds (pictured below) are especially helpful because they can display your name, position, and pronouns which is helpful if you are in a lot of meetings with families and community members. You can also upload the P-CCS logo or your school logo. Get the mobile app and have access to a digital business cards that can easily be shared. Check it out!

image with hihello zoom background

Use Canva for Year-End Slideshow or Video

As the year comes to a close, you may be looking for a way to put together a slideshow of photo memories from the school year. You can use Canva to help create and share these. You can set up a slideshow with images on each slide and add background music. Canva also has the complete video editor so you can customize it to your liking. See the tutorials for each of those options below.