Back It Up Before You Go-Go!

 

Back it up before you go, go! Don’t be sorry in the fall like a Yo-Yo. Don’t plan on going solo! We’ve got you covered! 

Are you winding down your school year? Grading those last assignments, cleaning out your classrooms from the piles of papers that have accumulated all year and making summer plans.

You have just one more thing you need to do before you can wipe your hands clean of this year: prepare Canvas! You do NOT want to lose all of the blood, sweat, and tears you have poured into developing the best Canvas course ever!! 

Many districts have Canvas courses set to conclude at the end of the school year. If you are in Keller, they are still there, so you can breathe a sigh of relief knowing your course is still there in the fall to copy. It will just be under Courses -- Past Enrollments.  However, some people still like to make sure their content is safe, so they export their course or copy it to a Sandbox course.

A Sandbox course is a manually created course you house in your dashboard without students. It is a great place to try new things and save all of the content you love to store when you’re not ready to push it to your courses. If you have never created a Sandbox course, on the right side of your dashboard, there is the option to “Start a New Course”.  Name it “Sandbox:” followed by the content area if you teach multiple courses. For example “Sandbox: English 4”, “Sandbox: English 3”, etc. 

Now you have a Sandbox course to copy your content into for safe keeping. To copy your content you will need to go to the course you would like to copy. Click on “Settings” and on the right side “Copy this Course”. 

It will ask you which course you would like to copy from and to. Then make sure to click “All Content”, Adjust events and due dates” and adjust dates to fit your needs. Then finally, “Create Course”. 

Now when you are bored this summer and your brain is rested and ready to start spinning ideas for the next school year, you can work in your Sandbox. When your classes are populated for the new year with students, simply copy over your Sandbox course to the populated course with students! 

Viola! You are ahead of the rest with a completely ready course! Well maybe with a few tweaks, but mostly done! Take another sigh of relief, sit back, and let Canvas do the hard work for you! 

Pump Up the Jamboard in your Classroom!

Jamboard, it's old news right? Kind of.... we've blogged about it before here. It became a fast favorite during our remote learning days, but it might be time to take another look.

Teachers are so creative and since Jamboard's earlier days, you would not believe what educational Jamboard resources have been created BY teachers FOR teachers to keep students learning. And best of all, what I am going to show you today is 🆓!!

Texas Computer Education Association (TCEA) has spent time curating more than 1,200 Jamboard templates for all grade levels and subject areas and provided a link for teachers to use. Note: the link will ask you to make a copy of the document to protect the integrity of the file.

Here are a few samples of what you will find:

1️⃣. A curation of 17 Exit Tickets to use with your class!

Exit Tickets - PJ

2️⃣. A magnetic letter board - no more letters falling on the floor!

Magnetic Letter Board

3️⃣. A collection of imaginative drawing and writing boards

Drawing Upon Imagination Part II 

4️⃣. Games, games & more games!!

5️⃣. Science Diagrams

Label the Cell Structure

6️⃣.  Math functions and so, so much more!

Functions Template - Trigonometric

🤩 You get the idea - these are amazing. I could go on and on with examples. Find all of the Jamboard templates curated by topic on this document here: http://ly.tcea.org/JamboardFreebies. 

➡️ Thank you to this TCEA blog post which introduced me to this 🆓 Jamboard collection. By the way, the TCEA Blog is a great educational technology resource. Sign up to receive email notifications about new posts on any page of the blog.

Adventure Awaits: Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants

 

Experience the world from your classroom. Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants is a not for profit organization that brings the mysteries of the world to classrooms using explorers and scientists who are boots on the ground. These virtual field trips via the streaming platform StreamYard bring adventure and experts virtually to classrooms from around the world! 

Spend a day with polar bears or explore a cave with bats! Break free from classroom walls and experience the excitement while you explore the world and beyond. Each month, Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants hosts many virtual field trips and speakers as they explore over 95 countries. Many of their events span over time and cover themes such as “conservation, biodiversity, women in science, space exploration, ocean plastics, engineering, climate change, ecosystems, technology and much more.” (April, 2022) Watch live or tune into their YouTube Channel at www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQkEzcH9f_9OylEdmALiWg  when they can make the most impact  with your lessons! 

photo from Explore by the Seat of Your Pants (2022)

Field trips and events are about 45 minutes long. They include a lesson from the specialist plus fun Q&A as well as an interactive Kahoot! Plan ahead with their weekly and monthly schedule. You can also sign up for your class to be live with the explorer or scientist!! Engage students and get them excited about science, technology and STEM careers! Open their eyes to limitless possibilities and futures!

photo from Explore by the Seat of Your Pants Instagram (2022)

Sign up for newsletters, follow them on social media, and get the latest updates on upcoming events!

 

Website

www.exploringbytheseat.com

YouTube Channel

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvQkEzcH9f_9OylEdmALiWg

Instagram & Twitter & Facebook @ebtsoyp

Where in the world will you go next? Adventure awaits! 

Let's Go LIVE with Edpuzzle

If Edpuzzle is in your teacher edtech wheelhouse, this post is for you. There is a feature called Edpuzzle Live Mode that was new to me. However, come to find out it's been around a few years... (throw a worldwide pandemic in those years, somehow I missed it!). 

Edpuzzle is a video integration tool that is amazing - see this blog post for our original article on using Edpuzzle in the classroom. However, before you read further, it's important to note that this live feature is also available in Nearpod (Front of Class Mode), and our district has a premium subscription. So.... if you use Edpuzzle and have content that you love created there, you may find Edpuzzle Live Mode as a beneficial edtech tool! If you use Nearpod, stick with that!

🤷‍♀️ So, what in the world is LIVE MODE?

Edpuzzle Live Mode allows you to use an already created Edpuzzle VIDEO as a WHOLE CLASS ACTIVITY & allows for the QUESTION STOPS to be completed INDIVIDUALLY on students' devices. 

Here is how it works:
🧩 Teacher starts Edpuzzle assignment in LIVE MODE. 

🧩 Students JOIN & VIEW the video on the classroom presentation screen.

Teacher begins lesson. 

Student's screen directs them to the projector. 

🧩 At QUESTION STOPS, students respond to the built in formative assessment checks.

Students see questions individually at stops.

🧩 Teacher has immediate DATA about student progress and can review or reteach for just in time learning.

🧩 Note that Live Mode integrates into your LMS!

🧩 One other neat feature: Teachers can stop Live Mode in class and students can continue independently or as a homework assignment.

⭐️ Edpuzzle Live Mode

⭐️ Ways to Use Edpuzzle Live Mode

🆓 We recommend the free version of Edpuzzle, which allows for 20 video lessons and unlimited access to contributed content. 

🐼 Note that in our original post, we did not highlight the Edpuzzle / Canvas integration which is absolutely amazing. Reach out to us at edtech@kellerisd.net if you need assistance with this.