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!