Canvas Updates and Computer Science Education Week

This week's edition features 4 quick pieces of information regarding Canvas and an all-in-1 resource on how you can celebrate Computer Science Education week in your classroom, regardless of your subject area.

 Updated/Reminders of Canvas Features  

1. 🆕Student To-Do List- Students will now see that they only have a To-Do List on their dashboards. The Coming Up list has been eliminated. Students must remove announcements, non- collected assignment due dates, and events from their dashboards themselves. In the image to the right, the Lab 2 and Day 4 skills review will not automatically clear from the To-Do list since they are events/non-collected work.



2. 🛎️Calendar- Just a reminder, the calendar should be used to list assignment due dates, homework reminders, and key course events. Putting a daily agenda on the calendar creates clutter and confusion. This is especially true considering the  changes to the To-Do list described above. One great alternative to using a calendar event or assignment for daily lesson information is to use a whole class or section specific announcement. Here are directions (make sure to see the area where you select which sections).


3. 🔜Course Cards- Beginning 12/8, teachers and students will have the ability to rearrange their course cards to an order of their liking. Users can simply pick up a course card and drag it into a position of their choice. See it in action here.

4. ℹ️ Canvas, There is an App for That!- Remember, if any Canvas iOS or Android app is being used, the user must search for Pennridge in the app via our url: pennridge.instructure.com

(Note: A Special Student Dashboard Announcement will be made soon informing students of these updates.)

Celebrate Computer Science Education Week Dec 3-9, 2018

5. 💻Computer Science For All: Hour of Code is a fantastic resource to introduce yourself and your students to coding. They have a wide-variety of hour long tutorials related to coding that have meaningful, interdisciplinary connections. For example, students in a social studies class can create a Map Tour App. In a science class, students can code to create a Public Service Announcement regarding plastic waste. Keep the website in mind for the week before winter break. You are likely to find a worthwhile, curriculum-based activity that will help you fight the inevitable pre-break distraction!

If you need help implementing any of these ideas, do not hesitate to reach out!
Cara
cgurysh@pennridge.org

End of Marking Period- Canvas/PowerSchool Reminders

Since many of you are wrapping up marking period grades, I thought it would be a good idea to offer some reminders about passing grades from Canvas to PowerSchool. Here are 5 quick tips.

Canvas grade book. Terms

Note: Your Canvas grade book is aligned to our course terms. Assignments dated after November 7 will appear in your Q2 section of your grade book. The image to the right shows a completed course. Quarters will appear in the drop-down menu as we reach them. The drop-down menu allows you to toggle between quarters. Teachers can continue to grade a completed quarter's work in Canvas until three weeks past the quarter end.


1.📏Length of Assignment/Quiz Names📏

Remember names cannot be more than 30 characters and cannot duplicate an assignment name that already exists in PowerSchool.

2. 📅Due Date📅

Assignments must have a due date in order to sync properly

3. 🔁Sync/Resync🔁

You can sync and resync an assignment as many times as you like, however, keep in mind that if you change a grade in PowerSchool grade book and don't change the grade in Canvas, the Canvas grade will override the PowerSchool grade. To avoid this, be mindful of your workflow. Either turn of the sync for an assignment when done, or always change the grade in both places.

4. 😕 Which Assignments Are Set to Sync?😕

If you are unsure of which assignments/quizzes you have set to sync, go to the Assignments tab in your course. Any assignment/quiz that has the gear icon  (shown below) set to Green (rather than black) is set to pass back to PowerSchool the next time you hit the sync button in Canvas.

Click on Image to See Larger- Assignment listing, 5 assignments not set to sync, last assignment is set to sync

5. ✔️Always Double-Check✔️


Make sure to check PowerSchool to see that your grades came over as expected. Typically, grades pass back in a matter of minutes, but it can take up to an hour. Often the grade column comes over first and then the grades. If you ever have an issue, the best thing to do is to just try again. If you still have a problem, do not hesitate to reach out to me.

For everything you need to know about Grade Pass Back, explore this Folder of Resources.

"Twitter-Style" Chat in Canvas and How to Make Modules More 😊

In our last edition, we saw how Discussions can be used to help students develop as Knowledge Constructors. This week highlights how one teacher is helping her students develop as Creative Communicators and Digital Citizens through Canvas Discussions.

Canvas Twitter-Style Chat

1. Melissa Osmun, reading teacher at Central Middle School, and her students have been participating in a "Twitter-Style" Chat using Canvas Discussions. (If you are unfamiliar with Twitter Chats, check out this comprehensive guide to Twitter created by a personal Twitter Favorite of mine- @cybraryman1)

Click on Image to see Larger- See Tweet here

2. Melissa's method: Melissa creates a Discussion for her class and then creates three replies to the Discussion. Each reply is a question. Students are then instructed to reply to two questions, giving students choice.

3. Benefits for the Students: While there are many benefits, adding online discussions to your tool kit provides an opportunity for  students to have time to process their ideas, makes their thinking visible to other students, and requires all students to be involved in the discussion. The online discussion feature is always a great way to give a voice to a student who may be more reserved in the whole class setting.

4. Benefits for the Teacher: Melissa can make sure that all students are involved in the Discussion and can provide specific feedback within the Discussion or through Speedgrader. Students responses are grouped together in Speedgrader which makes reviewing a snap for teachers.

And Now...just because it is fun and because I got the idea from Twitter,

5. Add Emoticons to your Module Titles to provide an element for visual discrimination and  🎉 fun 🎉. You can copy emojis from a ton of places including emojipedia.org and then place the graphic into your Module title. Destiny Beck, high school English teacher, added graphics to modules in her 9th grade English class.

Click On Image to See Larger

Canvas As A Medium for Art

Knowledge Constructors in Advanced Art

Art and canvas makes sense, but what about art and Canvas? One of the  ISTE Standards for Students is for students to be Knowledge Constructors. Very simply put, this means students utilize various digital tools to develop their own understanding about ideas, events, or issues. They can use this knowledge to inform others, make connections, and draw conclusions. 

This week's Friday Five features Sarah Moos' use of Canvas to help her students become Knowledge Constructors. 

CG: Could you briefly describe the assignment?

SM: Students were examining the work of Edouard Manet. They were asked to critique two of his paintings and discuss how his style is considered impressionistic.  

CG: What was your learning goal for your students?

SM: My goal was to have students become more familiar with the work of Edouard Manet and look at his work in terms of how he influenced and help develop the impressionism style.  My goal was to have students look closely at the subject, style, color palette, brush strokes and mood of his work in order to create an evaluation.

CG: How did utilizing Canvas help your students reach that goal and how did it help you evaluate their learning?

Click on Image to Enlarge

SM: Students were able to quickly access the National Gallery of Art, where they were able to read background information about Manet and the particular painting they were studying. They also had the  ability to zoom into the painting. From there they were able to use Canvas to record their thoughts in an organized manner, including the painting they were critiquing. With ease, I was able to see the painting they were referring to and evaluate their critique. The assignment also allowed students to gather thoughts prior to a class discussion.


CG: Do you plan on doing this kind of assignment in the future? Would you change anything?

SM: I used the Assignment feature in Canvas for this assignment. I would like to begin to have students do similar assignments using the Discussion feature. This will allow students to see each other's work which will broaden the learning experience for all. 

Image Source: Manet, Woman with Cat

Canvas Organizational Tips and Dealing with Small Fonts in Windows 10

Welcome to Fall! 

September is quickly coming to an end and we are all beginning to settle into the new school year. As we work to develop routines with our students (and for ourselves), I want to share four important Canvas organizational tips and re-share a tip that will help those who have been struggling with small fonts and icons on their laptop screens.

Beginning next week, the Friday Five will move away from beginning of the year procedural and update information about Canvas and will include teacher features. Each teacher feature will reflect how Canvas and other tools are being used to support the ISTE Standards for Students. 

1. A New Canvas Calendar Feature: You may have noticed that when you are adding an item to a Course Calendar that you now have the option of adding a To-Do task. This new feature gives users the ability to add their own items to a calendar and is most useful for STUDENTS who want to add their own reminders for a class. For example, as the teacher, you might place an Event or Assignment on your course calendar that says "Chapter 1 Test" for the date the class will be taking the test. The STUDENTS can add "Study for Chapter 1 Test" to their personal TO-DO List for your course. Here are handy directions for students.


2. Inbox in Canvas: I am sure you have experienced a time when a student emailed you at your pennridge.us account and not your pennridge.org account. While it is possible to have pennridge.us emails forwarded to your pennridge.org account (Click Here for directions), instructing students to message you through the Canvas Inbox may be better. When a student sends you a message through Canvas, it will automatically go to your pennridge.org email. You can then respond directly from your email. This features avoids missed emails and creates a more convenient workflow for you.

3. Observers in Your Canvas Courses: Parents can create observer accounts to view their students' courses. Directions on how a parent creates an observer account can be found here. To see who is "Observing" in your courses, go to People in your course navigation. Next, select Observer from the drop-down menu to see a list of individuals. 


4. Canvas? There is an app for that: Increasingly, students and teachers have been asking how to utilize either the Canvas Student App, Teacher App, or Parent App on their smartphones or tablets. When utilizing any of the Canvas Apps the user needs to locate our instance of Canvas. To do this they must search for pennridge.instructure.com. 


5. Enlarging Size of Windows 10 Text: If you are struggling with the size of the font and icons on your laptop please follow the directions found in this link. The attached directions show you how to customize your display settings. 

Canvas: Sections and Dashboards; General Tips: Outlook Signature and Projector Remote

This Friday Five features three pieces of information on Canvas and two start of the year tech tips courtesy of the Thursday Three.

Three on Canvas.....

1. Sections!  When you teach multiple periods of the same course, in the same building, Canvas will create one course shell for that course and list each period as a section. However, these sections are listed not by friendly period numbers, but by the PowerSchool codes. You can, and likely will want to, change your section names. Here are directions on how to change section names and here is a folder full of information on how to deal with Sections in Canvas. Note: Some Middle School Special Subjects may see the same course divided between two shells. Email Cara if you would like those shells merged. Traveling teachers who teach the same course in different buildings may also email Cara to have the courses merged into a single shell.

2. More on Sections: A newer feature to Canvas is that you can now make announcements to certain sections. Previously, announcements could only be made course-wide. Here are directions on how to send section-specific announcements.

3. Dashboard View Update: Canvas users can now change the view of their dashboard. By clicking on the three stacked dots to the left of the “To-Do” list, users can select “List View”.

This list view (see image below) provides a daily list of what is happening in each course. While I prefer, the traditional view, some users may find the new view more helpful. It is important to know how to toggle between the views because if a user selects “Show More” in the “To-Do” list they will be brought to “List View”. To return to “Card View” Click on the three dots and select “Card View”.

Two General Tips...

4. Changing your Signature in Microsoft Outlook: If you need to update your signature with a new teaching assignment, new phone number, new website, etc, please follow these steps:

• Open Outlook (make sure you are using the App Version, which is found in your start window and titled "Outlook 2016")
• Choose File in the top Left and Scroll to Options.
• Select Mail and Signatures (See image)
• Remember your signature should include your building, your position, your phone number and extension, and any other information you feel would be helpful.

5. Projector Remote: Using the main teaching features on the projector remote:

• A/V Mute button- This will allow you to put your remote to "sleep" without turning it completely off.  This will save time as you go to use it again.
• Freeze button- This function allows you to freeze what is on the screen, so that you can go to other sites or prepare other features on your computer before sharing with the students.
• Zoom In/Out.  Use this feature to zoom in/out of your screen.  This is especially helpful to make certain parts of your presentation enlarged during discussion.  Remember to zoom out when done. 

*Not all remotes are the same as the one pictured below, but all remotes will have these buttons!

Happy 2018-2019!

To start of the year, I want to share five reminders about Canvas. 

1. Student Usernames and Passwords: Please remember that Canvas credentials (and Office 365) follow a different naming structure. A reminder on this structure can be found here. (For security, you must be logged into your pennridge.us account to see this!)

2. Publishing Courses: You must Publish your course by clicking on the Green Publish button on

your course's homepage. If you do not Publish your course, students will not be able to see your class in Canvas.

3. Adding Co-Teachers: Please make sure to add any co-teachers to your course. You can do this by going to People in your course navigation and selecting +PEOPLE. Next, enter your co-teacher's email address and select Teacher from the drop-down menu and then press ADD. 

4. Course Navigation: In order to keep your courses clean and to limit student access, make sure to update your course navigation and hide items that you do not use. 

5. Directions for the Start of the Year: The Start of the Year Checklist is a great tool to find directions on how to do everything above and so much more (like how to push grades to PowerSchool). The High School Start of the Year Checklist is here and the Middle School Start of the Year Checklist is here.

I look forward to working with all of you this year. Please email me to set-up an appointment to work on Canvas or other tech integration issues I can help you with.

-Cara

Year 2 of Canvas is Coming to an End!

1. You will have editing access to your current (Year Long; Semester 2) courses until June 30th.

2. After June 30th, your PowerSchool courses will turn to “read only”. This means all of the content stays, but you won't be able to edit anything in the course. You are able to move content into a new course and regain full editing capabilities!

3. If you would like to work on your courses prior to the 18-19 PowerSchool roll-over (late July), you may move any of your course content into a course shell (click here for directions on creating a course shell and here for directions on how to copy content from a Canvas Course into that shell!). I suggest you select "Remove all Dates" when copying. Once the PowerSchool roll-over occurs, you will have your official courses for the year and can import content into those courses from either a shell course or your 17-18 courses.

4. Please see me if you have any questions regarding Canvas year end! Thank you all for your hard work with Canvas this year. 

5. Year 3 goals.....TBA....looking to make it personal!

REMINDER: Please remember to register for our end of the year PD days and Trade Day in OTS!

Canvas- Teacher Appreciation Week!

Happy Friday and Happy Teacher Appreciation Week!

Our friends at Canvas have shared a special homepage template to say thank you to all Canvas Teachers! 

This will be a great resource to tuck away and use when you begin to plan your courses for next year!

To access the free homepage template, follow the directions found here. 

This template provides:

1. A Homepage with editable course title, course banner and "welcome" text placeholder
2. Three customizable buttons: About Your Teacher | Class Resources | Learning Modules
3. Directions on how to modify template buttons and banner
4. "Welcome to Class" student module with content page templates: "About Your Teacher" and "Class Resources"
5. Finally, the first PHS teacher reader of this post who emails Cara Gurysh will receive a special Canvas gift!

FYI: Banner on top of this post was created with Canva....I LOVE Canva

Collaboration: Great for Students and for Teachers!

May is a challenging month. Keystone testing, AP testing, field trips, dress code issues, prom drama...the list is endless.

This time of year requires team work.

Collaboration (among students and teachers) will bring success!

1. What to do?: Angela Schoettle recently developed a project for her new course, A People's History. Her unit of study was "Women's History".  Angela asked me if I could suggest any tech tools for a new project. Instead of focusing on the tech tools, we ended up collaborating on the goals of her project.

2. Keep Students Engaged: Angela's goal was to create a more student-centered unit. The image above  is a powerful visual of the type of project-based, collaborative experience she wanted to provide her students.Once we had the goals established, we selected to have students use "The New Google Sites".

3. Project Launch: To get her students set and interested in the topic, they first collaborated on an analysis of old history textbooks. After collecting books from the "book dungeon," colleagues, the library, and her personal library, Angela had students review how women were represented in textbooks from different eras. A meaningful project launch helps generate student interest in the learning goals.

4. Project: Students were, as a class, tasked with collaborating to create an improved resource regarding women's history. As a large group, they had to decide on what types of information they wanted to include (videos, primary sources, timelines) and agreed on a format for presenting the information via a New Google Website. Once they defined the overall parameters of the project, smaller groups of students collaborated on different eras of Women's History.

5. Finished project and more collaborating:  Here is a look at what the students developed. Read, Write, Think was used to create the timelines. Check out really strong examples on the 1970s, 1940s, and 1920s pages. The 1990s page is an example of the template the students created for each page.  As a collaborative teacher, Angela has shared her idea with her colleagues. At least two other teachers are going to use this basic project idea as a fresh and collaborative way to help their students (and themselves) have a meaningful end of year experience. If you have questions, about Angela's project, reach out to either one of us! We would both be happy to share (collaborate!).

21st Century Learning Night

Top 3 Reasons to Come to 21st Century Learning Night

 and 

2 Sneak Peeks!

This Friday Five is brought to you by the Thursday Three (Thank You Erin Reichert and Chris Brockman). To keep with the Five format I have added two sneak peeks! Make sure to read about Act 48 and How to register to present! Questions, see/email me (Cara), Erin, or Chris!

1.  Last year we had over 40 faculty presenters, over 800 attendees, and it is one of the top events the Curriculum Office organizes each year!  

In addition, we have raffles and door prizes for all presenters and guests!

2.  Many teachers invite students who "run" the table and to help showcase the topic.  Those students feel honored to be asked to come and share their work, as well as gaining a feeling of community.   Typically their parents feel very honored and happy to bring them on the night of the event.

In addition, have your considered signing up with another teacher?  By doing so, this allows you to take turns at the table, which allows you time to explore the other exhibits!

3.  As a spectator, you're able to get ideas to engage your students and may see something that you have "never thought of before".   

 In addition, your students (past and present) will love seeing you roaming the exhibits!   As a spectator, consider bringing your own family with you! 

4. First Sneak Peek- Jeremy Friedman and The Daily Ramble Crew

The team will be giving special tours of their new studio! See first hand how the Ramble students put together the daily show and special segments. Perhaps you will be featured on an upcoming episode! .

5. Second Sneak Peek- Ignite Talks- Brooke Burgy and the Humanities Team (Angeli, Brown, Flanagan, Russell)

Teachers and students will be showcasing students' individual research through Ignite Presentations. Brooke's 11th grade English classes prepared talks as n entry activity to their study of Anthem . Some of her students presented live and other used Screencastify to record their talks.  Humanities students are preparing to share Ignite-style presentations of their DaVinci Day Projects.

*And if all that is not enough- teachers get Act 48 hours, as well as 4 hours of pay for signing up as a presenter!  (More information in regards to these 2 items will come out in May after final teacher registrations are complete!)

If you are able to present, please fill in the form by May 1st. 

Click here for the 21st Century Learning Night website to see pictures and videos from the past, and to see some of what's in store for this year's event! Follow us on Twitter @psd_21cenlearn

Canvas Updates: Announcements

Announcements are a great way to communicate with your students in Canvas. Up until this week they have had one major drawback, not being able to differentiate announcements by section. 

Well now you can!!
Read about this and other updates to Announcements in Canvas

(Click on the images below to see them better!)

1. One Section, Two Sections or All Sections!

When creating an announcement, teachers can now designate which section they would like to view the announcement. Students will only be able to see the announcement that is sent to the section* in which they are enrolled.

* Remember you can rename your sections from the PowerSchool Coding to our period numbers. Here are the directions.

2. No Comments is the New Default.

The default setting for announcements is now set so students cannot make comments in response to an announcement. If you would like this functionality, you must activate when creating an announcement. 

3. Change your mind about comments? No Problem!

Comments can be allowed or disallowed from your announcement area of your course.

4. Profile pictures will display next to Announcement.

When you make an announcement your profile picture will post next to it. This is really nice if you co-teach a class. Students can easily see which teacher shared information. Below is a picture from Cyber PE. Roberta Simmons is the teacher, but I occasionally post announcements. You can see our two different pictures in the image below. If you haven't uploaded a profile picture give it a try. Here are directions. 

5. Announcements next year?

Just a reminder, when you copy your course from this year to next year, you won't want to copy announcements. If you do, all of your previous announcements will load at once. Instead, copy and paste announcements from a previous course shell into the new course shell if and when you need them. 

A Monday Friday Five: PowerSchool News and Canvas Users Day

Happy Monday Everyone! 

With the craziness of Friday, this post was delayed! In light of the "so wrong" forecast we just experienced, I thought the clip below might help you rebuild your trust in local meteorologists.

So Here We Go With Our Delayed Five!

1. PowerSchool GradeBook- Email Feature!

The PowerSchool GradeBook Parent email feature has been fixed. The feature will now send you a copy of the email to your pennridge.org email. This peice of this feature had been "broken." Huge thanks go to the IT team and Charlie Lainhart for helping to troubleshoot and solve this ongoing issue.  Linked here are directions on how to send emails through your PowerTeacher Gradebook.

2, 3 and 4. Bucks County IU Canvas Users Day

Staci Klemmer, Jessica Saylor and I presented about using Canvas to improve teacher workflow at the IU last Thursday. Below is our presentation. Staci and Jess did an awesome job sharing to about 100 other teachers from our area.  Check out our presentation below. Make sure to play Jess's video found on SLIDE 13. 

  


5. Volunteers!


I am looking for 3-4 volunteers to help me with a special project for an upcoming edition of the Friday Five. Email me at cgurysh@pennridge.org if you are interested!

Valentine's Friday Five- Calm: Free Mindfulness App

Calm - Free for Teachers

My original thought was to focus this Friday Five on things to love. Ideas I had included collaboration tips to "love your colleagues," device tips to "love your computer,"  and, of course, lms tips to "love Canvas."  However, writing this in the aftermath of the most recent school shooting, made it clear that an entire post about a free tool that can help us all relieve stress, build resiliency, and increase patience was far more timely. Calm is an iOS, Android, and Web App that provides individuals with guided meditation and mindfulness exercises. 

The Calm School Initiative is working to provide this powerful tool free to every teacher in the world. 

The Atlantic published this article that describes many of the benefits of mindfulness in schools. Included in the piece is a discussion of the growing body of scientific reasearch on the postive effects of mindfulness including improved attention, reduction of stress, and a growth in "capacity of compassion and empathy."

For more information on how to get your free access to this powerful tool, click here.

We will continue to keep the entire Parkland community in our thoughts. 




* I made the Valentine's graphic with Canva. Canva is an awesome and (mostly) free graphic design web tool.

Semester 2- Attention Semester Course Teachers

You may remember this image and topic from last year, but this information is worth repeating as we close out Semester One of the 2017-18 School Year! To further assist you as you begin the final semester, here is the link to the start of the year checklist which has great reminders and tips for setting up your courses.

1. Grades in your First Semester Course-  You will be able to continue to grade work and push those grades to Powerschool (if you are utilizing the grade push) until January 31. This corresponds with the grading timeline that Alice sent out. After January 31 you will have read-only access to your course material. This means you can see all of your assignments, files, discussions, student work, etc. but you can’t edit within the course. To edit the content you would need to copy it into a new course (see #2)!

2. Copy Course content to New Semester Course- If you teach the same course second semester you can easily copy all of your Semester 1 content to your new course. Here are directions on how to do this. Once again, here is the start of the year checklist which may be helpful as you set up your new semester courses.

3. Semester Course Content Next Year-  You will also be able to copy any course content from a semester course (or Year Long Courses, too) into the PowerSchool created courses you will teach next year. Don’t worry- Your work first semester will not disappear!

4. Don’t forget to Publish Your Semester Two Courses-  You must publish your second semester courses just like you did semester one. Here are directions.

5. Semester 2 Try Something New!-  Please stop in and see me in room 307 if you would like to review how you have used Canvas in semester 1 and discuss ways to expand upon your use in Semester 2.  Things to consider: collecting assignments through Canvas, Cloud-based assignments through 365 or Google, Discussions, Group Assignments, or Utilizing External Tools (Turnitin, CK12, Newsela).

Things to Consider in the New Year!

As we enter the new year, this Friday Five is 5 observations made regarding our Canvas use and a consideration for each...

1. Quizzes left open...

Each time you make a quiz you can set the Available From and To time and you can set a time limit. If you do not set these items, students may gain some unfair "advantages." For example, they could begin a quiz before you want them to and they can leave the quiz open as long as they want in order to take it "at their leisure".  For security purposes, it is a best practice to set a time limit and to take advantage of the time restrictions. (UPDATE: Please also note that you can set a password (access code) for a quiz. The password can be changed between classes. For more info, scroll down to "Set Quiz Restrictions" in the link above.) Also, refer to the October 6, 2017 Friday Five for a post on using Quiz Logs. Using and sharing this feature with students is a great deterrent.

2. Assignments that have no due dates and then...

somewhere else in Canvas (either in the daily agenda or an Event on the Calendar) there are directions telling the student to complete the assignment by a certain date. This practice creates more work for both the teacher and the student. If an Assignment has a listed due date, the course calendar automatically will have the due date and assignment details added. The assignment will show up on the student's To Do List. Also, remember that you can differentiate due dates on assignments in the Assignment settings. This will put the correct due date for each period (section) on each student's calendar based on the period s/he is in!  Want to reference the assignment on a Page, in a Module, or in an Announcement? No problem, just link the assignment to any of these features. 

3. Reluctance to collect work in Canvas...

Speegrader, speedgrader, speedgrader! If you haven't collected work in Canvas, do yourself a favor and make a New Year's resolution to try! With Speedgrader you can quickly zip through work and leave quick, specific feedback. Then by sync your assignment score to PowerSchool, you will truly improve your workflow. 

4. Missing Modules...

The Year 2 goal for Canvas use is organizing materials in Modules. Refer to the Year 2 Goals Module in the professional learning course for more details, tips, and examples. The beauty of Modules is that they allow for all the different components of Canvas and your course to be neatly organized by unit.  This not only benefits your students but also creates a great course template for you to use in the next school year.

5. Unused items left in Course Navigation...

Canvas can help you provide your students with easy access to course materials, information, and resources. Why not create a cleaner interface by hiding unused features found in Course Navigation? If you aren't using an item such as Collaborations, Chat, and Attendance (to name a few), hide them by following these directions. Also, remember my previous posts about the value of hiding Pages and Files!