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.