The Teachers’ Lounge is now the BrainPOP Bulletin! Welcome to our brand new newsletter and your place for fresh instructional ideas. Every month, we’re sending a video tip to your inbox that you can use in the classroom tomorrow. In September’s Bulletin, learn about this movie-viewing strategy that will make students’ minds light up. It’s one way to make movies a more active part of your class, while providing an opportunity to practice essential literacy skills. Access more information HERE.
In today’s rapidly evolving educational landscape, harnessing the power of technology has become paramount to engage students effectively. Three standout platforms Edpuzzle (6-12 accounts connected through Canvas), BrainPOP (As a reminder, all district students, K-12 can access our paid subscription to BrainPop/BrainPop Jr via Clever at https://clever.com/in/pccs), and Teachflix have emerged as game-changers in the world of educational video content. These platforms offer a dynamic combination of video resources and interactive features, transforming traditional passive viewing into an engaging learning experience.
While you probably already ask students to view educational videos in your class, you may be looking for ways to keep students engaged with the video. Matt Miller (of Ditch that Textbook fame) has developed Teachflix and an activity pack to boost engagement with video. For example, in the Word Splash activity students write down 12 words from the video that stand out to them, then swap their page with a partner to watch the video again, crossing off their partners words as they hear them. This Teaching with TEACHFLIX resource is full of ready-to-use activities for students.
Middle and high School teachers, please ensure that your MiStar Gradebook setup is complete. If just one of a child’s teachers has not completed this step, students and families will not be able to view assignments in MiStar.
Go to the grade book and locate the Configurations area. Make sure you don’t see red Xs or yield signs in the first three columns. If you do, go to the specific area to see what is missing in set up.
For more information about using MiStar, see this training guide.
Here are a few September Canvas updates in New Quizzes to be excited about:
In New Quizzes, instructors can allow students to build on their last attempt of a quiz by reattempting incorrectly answered questions.
In New Quiz Settings, select Allow multiple attempts [1], and then select the Enable build on last attempt checkbox [2].
Note: When the build on last attempt feature is enabled, students can only view questions marked with incorrect answers, all other questions are hidden. If you have short answer questions you want them to reattempt, you’ll want to add a waiting period to give you time to grade those items.
Additional Details
Students can reattempt incorrectly answered questions until the answer is marked correct in SpeedGrader or they run out of attempts. Students who get all questions correct will not have the option to reattempt.
❗ Bonus Tip: Did you know that you can grade one quiz question at a time in SpeedGrader? How do I grade one quiz question at a time in Spee… – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
In New Quizzes, instructor access to Item Analysis reports is faster and the user interface is updated. While the item analysis used to take 24-28 hours, it will now take about 1 hour (depends on the size of the quiz and other factors).
If you like these features but have Classic Quizzes in your course, reach out for information about migrating those quizzes to New Quizzes. There have also been hesitations about partial credit on new quizzes, check out this resource (3 slides) that breaks down how this works in New Quizzes.
Not sure how to interpret the item analysis? New Quizzes Quiz and Item Analysis – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
If you have tried to share a New Quiz with a colleague you may have been frustrated if images or audio did not come with the quiz. To solve this, you can export the quiz file (QTI ZIP file) with these directions: How do I export a New Quiz from a course? – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com).
After exporting the file, you should be able to email the file to a colleague and they will be able to import it into their quiz. How do I import a quiz from a QTI package in New Q… – Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
This isn’t the typical, seamless process of sharing content in Canvas, but we are hopeful can an update will come down the road.
In the ever-evolving landscape of educational technology, adaptability is key. Remind, a popular communication platform for educators, is making changes to its business structure that will affect the way our district’s users send and receive messages. Many of you received an email from Remind about these changes. We encourage you to embrace Canvas as the primary platform for communicating with students and families.
Remind has been a helpful tool for educators to connect with students and parents, providing a streamlined way to share important updates. However, Remind will be limiting the number of messages our district’s users can send starting September 13, 2023. This change may impact how you communicate with your students and their families. While we understand the convenience of Remind, we want to offer Canvas as an alternative solution that ensures effective communication without restrictions.
Canvas, our district’s learning management system, can serve as the ideal platform for seamless communication between educators, students, and parents. Canvas offers a mobile app that allows students and families to receive instant notifications. This ensures that important messages and updates are never missed, even on the go. By consolidating communications within Canvas, everything related to your course can be found in one place. No more switching between multiple apps or platforms. For example, if a parent checks a grade or due date in the Canvas app, they can message you directly from that screen instead of opening Remind.
Due to the change in communication methods, you might encourage students to update their Notifications settings in the mobile app. Observers can also set up alerts for certain situations like a missing assignment or Announcements posted. See the chart below for helpful links and a quick video guide.
Plan to send out a communication to students and families about the settings you recommend for your course. If you use Announcements often, ask they adjust their settings to get push notifications for Announcements. If you plan to utilize the Canvas Inbox more frequently, prompt them to check that often.
Change can be daunting, but it can also lead to improved efficiency and effectiveness. By embracing Canvas as our primary platform for communication, we can provide students and families with a more reliable and comprehensive solution.
Please note that each teacher must manually publish the course(s) they want to be visible to students.
Publishing your course only takes one click! From the Course Card on your Dashboard, click “Publish” (see screenshot below).
Alternatively, you can open the course home page and click the “Publish” button on the right side of the screen (see screenshot below).
Rest assured, students will not be able to access the course until the term start date. You can verify this under the course Settings (and adjust if desired).
As a reminder, your courses in MISTAR have been auto-populated in Canvas and auto-rostered with students. These are the course(s) you should publish and actively use with students. Any manually created courses should either be copied or cross-listed with your auto-populated courses. You can also cross-list multiple sections of the same course following the instructions provided in one of our previous posts.
Canvas is an important learning tool in our district. We hope that you continue to find it a valuable teaching and communication tool. If you are new to the district or have questions come up about it, we want you to be aware of several resources that are available to you.
First, click the “Help” icon on the Global Navigation Menu. For general and common questions try searching the Canvas guides. If your problem or question is unique and specific to your situation you can chat online or call the Canvas Support hotline. You can be connected with a support agent that can help you almost immediately.
If you would like to slowly browse resources, please check out our resources at the P-CCS Tech website, https://tech.pccsk12.com/canvas-lms/
Have a lot of questions? You can set up a 45-minute meeting with a Panda Pro. This experience is available through the beginning of September. Find more about this service on their website.
If you are instructional staff working on meeting your PD expectations, please note we have a number of courses including the following listed below (all of them are 3 hours) that can help increase your understanding of how to use Canvas effectively available for you in the Catalog. https://catalog.pccsk12.com/
As always, please submit a tech ticket if you have any questions. https://links.pccsk12.com/helpdesk
As we approach the new school year, those of you who are teaching multiple sections of the same course might consider cross-listing in Canvas. Cross-listing allows you to move section enrollments from individual courses and combine them into one course. This feature is helpful for instructors who teach several sections of the same course and only want to manage course data in one location. So if you are a teacher that has multiple sections of one course or an elementary specialist that has many different sections, cross listing may be a great option for you and a big time saver. However, this action should only be done before a semester starts. Canvas recommends it be done before a course is published. If it is done after a course is published and notably student work has been submitted, that student work will be lost. Review the slideshow below carefully to help you decide if you want to do it.
Please review this slideshow carefully to review the pros and cons. The slideshow also walks you through the steps to cross-list your courses. Please note that teachers have the ability to cross-list courses but do not have the option to de-crosslist. To de-crosslist sections or for further assistance with cross-listing, submit a tech ticket.
Whether you are new to crosslisting or have done it for awhile, review this list to help run it as efficiently as possible. Crosslisting should only be done at the beginning of a term (prior to any student submissions so to avoid their loss).
Canvas Crosslisting Tips by kaelyn.bullock
In case you missed it, here’s a round up of some of the best Canvas updates to be aware of:
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 in the fall. If you’d like options and considerations that you may wish to think about for next year, view this blog post.
After June 14, 2023 students will no longer be able to submit or edit any work. Teachers will have until Friday June 16, 2023 to finalize any grades.
Staff and Students will have access to all clever resources throughout the summer. Clever syncing will be on pause starting on Monday June 12, 2023 giving student’s access to their 22-23 teacher’s pages and links until around mid-August when syncing will resume for the 23-24 school year. If you’re interested in learning how to make the most of Clever in your classroom, consider looking at training and ideas here.
PCCS’s digital subscription for K-5 elementary students will continue throughout the summer. Students will have access to their NWEA skill plans (which were just updated with any spring scores) all summer. Students will have access to any current teacher starred skills through around mid-August. Students in 5th grade currently will lose access around mid-August when syncing begins for the 23-24 school year as they will then be recognized as 6th graders.
For the most part if it is a district provided subscription the district will handle any archiving and rostering needs for you. For example, WeVideo, Newsela, BrainPOP/BrainPOPjr, Seesaw for Schools, – there is no action required on your part. If you have manually created classes for things like Epic, Seesaw (grades 3-12 who do not have the Seesaw for Schools subscription), SplashLearn, etc. You may want to archive/delete old classes.
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.
Your TIS team is available all summer to support you – simply put in a tech request at helpdesk.pccsk12.com for technology integration!