Good laugh

Want a good laugh? Take a look at the anonymous usernames in the Canvas for CHS Teachers leaderboard. Ha!
1- Canvas for CHS Teachers
2- Badges (on left)
3- Leaderboard (top right)
4- See usernames. It'll start on the page where you're located.

Canvas Housekeeping

As we near the end if the first marking period, please take a few minutes to tidy up your Canvas course. The more time spent cleaning it up now, the less time needed to clean it up later.

Blueprint
Make sure there are NO DATES in anything in your Blueprint. If dates were assigned in your Shell Course, removing dates in the Blueprint and syncing won't change the dates in the Shell Course. 

Blueprint & Shell Course 

• Check your Blueprint first. Sync. Then check the Shell course for any discrepancies. 

• Unpublish any items that students no longer need access to. If a Module is unpublished but the contents within the module remain published and students have access to the item from another way (like linked within a page or on the calendar), they will still be able to access the item.

• You cannot unpublish assignments in the Shell course that contain any student submissions.

• Check your list of Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, & Discussions (navigation on left) to see if there are any items that should be deleted. They may have previously been removed from the Modules list but they still exist here until they’re completely deleted out of Canvas. Deleting something from the Pages, Assignments, Quizzes, or Discussions lists will also remove it from the Modules list. The Modules list is pointing to these items. Don’t delete them if you plan on using them again next semester or next year.

• In the Blueprint, take a few minutes to organize your Files (navigation on left).

• Move all graphics into one folder labeled "graphics" or something similar. If you know which unit they go with, you can move them into a folder for that unit instead. Don’t delete them unless you know for a fact that they’re not being used in a Page, Assignment, Quiz, or Discussion. If you delete it from the files list, it will also disappear from the item in which it’s being used.

• If you have a lot of files, create folders by unit or theme or however your Modules list is organized. Drag and drop the files into the folder to organize them. 

If you have any questions about organizing or using your Blueprint or Shell course, please let Penney Matos know!

DocsTeach from National Archives

The National Archives has revamped it's look and made access to teaching with primary documents much easier. Check out their site! 

Richard Byrne of Free Tech for Teachers recently created a tutorial video that demonstrates how you can use DocsTeach to find primary source lesson activities and or create your own primary source lesson activities. All activities can be completed online.

Get Creative with Google Slides Creator Studio

TCEA recently shared this post about creating videos, animated gifs, and more from Google Slides with Creator Studio. Check it out!
Read more.

Canvas's Google Cloud Assignment vs Google's Course Kit Assignment

Google files can be shared to view and also be assigned for students to edit their own copy then submit back through Canvas.

Viewing Files

If you only want students to view the file, like a copy of notes or a review answer key, you have a couple of options:

• Add to Modules List as "External Tool"

• Google Drive file
• Accesses only My Drive
• You have to manually change the file's share settings to "Anyone can View" or "Frisco ISD can View"
• Google Drive Course Kit file
• Accesses both My Drive and Share Drives
• Looks like you're adding an Assignment but you're really not
• It changes the share settings for you

• Add within a Page, Assignment, Discussion, Announcement, etc.

• Google Apps file
• Accesses only My Drive
• Manually change the file's share settings so "Anyone can View" or "Frisco ISD can View"
• You select to Embed or Link (hyperlink) the file
• Google Drive Course Kit file
• Accesses both My Drive and Share Drives
• Looks like you're adding an Assignment but you're really not
• It changes the share settings for you
• The file Embeds within the page

Assignments

If you want to use a Google file for students to edit and return as an assignment, there are 2 options:

1. Google Cloud Assignments
• Only accesses files in My Drive (not Shared Drives)
• When students open the file, it makes a copy in their own Google Drive that they then edit.
• When students submit, Canvas takes a PDF snapshot of the file for the submission. This means:
• no Version history
• no access to Draftback
• no Google's Originality Checker
• students still have the original doc and can edit
• If students make changes to the doc after it's submitted, you won't see the changes unless they resubmit an new PDF snapshot.
• Google Cloud Assignments can be added in a Blueprint and synced out to the Shell courses
• Can use Canvas Rubrics
• Grade through Canvas with the SpeedGrader
2. Google Course Kit Assignments
• Only accesses files in My Drive (not Shared Drives)
• More similar to Google Classroom
• When students open the file, it makes a copy in their own Google Drive that they then edit.
• When students submit, they are turning in the live document which means:
• you can view the Version history
• you can run Draftback on the file
• it includes Google's Originality Checker
• students lose editing rights upon submission
• Students can add multiple files to a single submission.
• If you return the file to students, they can then make changes and you can see the changes as they work.
• If students submit the same file again, it makes a copy of the original file for this submission. They have both copies in their Drive.
• Must be added to the assignment from the Shell course, not in Blueprint.
• Does NOT access Canvas rubrics; uses Google's rubrics
• Grade through Course Kit using Google's grading features 

For more, see this comparison chart.

Canvas Navigation Change

This weekend, our Canvas environment received the most recent update which included a change in the way navigation appears for teachers in a course. No, you're not crazy! It did change.

Canvas's New Training Portal

Canvas's new training portal is now live in our Canvas environment! This includes access to on-demand trainings as well as scheduled live webinars. This is super helpful to users wanting to learn more about Canvas's features and functionality. To access it, just click on Help and then select Training Services Portal.

Resources:

• Canvas's Release Announcement
• Training Resources Handout

Canvas Blueprints should NOT have dates

As you build in your Canvas Blueprint and sync it out to the Shell courses, please make sure your Blueprint does NOT include dates. If these dates remain, when we switch from S1 to S2, all of the items with dates (calendar events, assignments, to-do items, etc.) will repopulate on the Syllabus page for all of your students! Ack! 

So, if something in the Blueprint has a date associated with it, make sure all teachers assign the correct due dates/times for each of their classes then go back to the Blueprint and remove the dates or calendar event. Since it was edited for the Shell courses, it no longer syncs that item and will keep the specific dates entered for each section. 

If this doesn't make sense to you or if you have any question, please see Penney Matos!

Viewing Eduphoria Reservation Calendars

If you have reserved a chromebook/laptop cart through Eduphoria, you can easily see who reserved it before or after you! This can help with locating a cart that's not in its "home".

1. Open Eduphoria's Facilities & Events.
2. Click on your reservation on the left. 
3. Close the pop-up window with your reservation details (this is where you DELETE reservations that you no longer need). 
4. Then you can navigate through the calendar for that item. 
• Click the magnifying glass and make sure Requestor and Item are both selected.
• Select between Day, Week, and Month view
5. Use the phone list or master schedule (both in Google Drive) to find room numbers for the teachers before and after your reservation.

Canvas "No Submission" Assignment VS Calendar Event

If students are not turning in their work through Canvas, it is recommended to use a Calendar Event instead of an Assignment with "No Submission". See the table below for details.

Read more. 

Originality Checker and Course Kit in Canvas

As I learn more about Course Kit in Canvas I'll share it with you.
Google recently released Originality Checker for Google Classroom and for their new Course Kit LTI in Canvas. If you're interested in using it, check out this video: 

video link