Brian Bennett

In this post, we want to take a look at how a student’s “assessment profile” can inform your discussions and decision making as a group. What is an assessment profile? In short, the assessment profile is the layers of assessment data available for your students and the information carried in each layer. Our assessments give insight into student learning at different levels. It is necessary to use each tool appropriately when making decisions about extensions or remediations for your student groups. The assessment data collected is a part of the data your team can use to make instructional decisions. Remember...

Assessment strategies are critical components in any classroom. Assessments are tools for learning that are commonly used to drive instruction. However, despite their commonality, creating assessments which both measure evidence of learning (summative) as well as evidence for learning (formative) is one of the more challenging tasks as a teacher. In this post, we’ll look at Common Formative Assessments (CFAs) as a tool for gathering standards-aligned data you can use in your PLC meetings. Why use CFAs at all? In the PLC process, CFAs are the tool used by teams to measure learning on essential standards across classrooms. These regular...

I’m a huge fan of cutting down on clicks in my work. If I can keep my hands on the keyboard, I can work more quickly and efficiently. Granted, this may all be just in my head, but here are some quick tips on using Chrome to boost your efficiency in day to day tasks. Set your startup pages In Chrome, you can specify what you want to happen when you open it for the first time. For example, I always want my calendar and Canvas to open up. They’re the first places I go and having them open by...

Grades should represent what students know and can do. If you agree, then you’re ready to start.

Canvas makes it easy to allow students to submit multiple times to the same assignment. This helps you move away from completion and compliance for student work toward a feedback and revision cycle, focusing on improvement and tracking growth. There are several ways to do this in Canvas and we’ll highlight some of the easier methods here along with why you might want to do this in your class. Quizzes & Tests An obvious first stop, do you allow quiz or test retakes? If the answer is “no,” let’s consider why for a few minutes. Deadlines and accountability are important....

Jamboard is a collaborative whiteboard tool within your Google account. All students in the district have access at this point and in this post, we’re going to share three ways to work with Jamboards with your students. It’s important to note before we dive in that the toolset in Jamboard on the iPad is different than what’s available on your laptop. Take some time to use Jamboard on your iPad so you can take advantage of some of the options students have access to. Before you Start, Plan! Jamboards are great on-the-fly whiteboards, but it takes some planning to really...

A blank white canvas is nice sometimes, but if you’re asking for student responses in video form, it can be helpful to have some kind of template for their response. This would be easy using AirDrop (if we were in school), so how do you create and send templates while we’re all working from home? If you’re wondering if there is a video, you bet there is. Start with Google Slides Explain Edu allows you to import files to use as slides in your projects. In this post, I’ll show how to import some Google Slides you already have prepared...

This is an extension on our last post about Canvas features you’re (probably) not using yet. It’s so good that it needed it’s own post this time around. Did you know that you can save comments you use frequently on student work? It’s easy to do and puts one of the tools you learned about last time into practice: Rubrics. Rubric Setup If you don’t remember how to add a rubric to your Assignments, go take a look at the steps. By making one small tweak, you can broaden the scope of your rubrics and save comments you’re using frequently...

It’s okay though. That’s why we’re here. Canvas is so full of functionality, it’s easy to miss some of the more helpful options and tools. In this post, we have five quick tips for using Canvas more effectively day to day. 1. Magic “Undelete” If you’ve ever accidentally deleted something from Canvas, you may have resigned yourself to more work and just recreated the item. Next time that happens, use the “undelete” trick to recover that item instead. In your course, add “/undelete” (no quotes) to the address bar and you’ll get a list of recently deleted items you can...

The Canvas SpeedGrader works well in general, but it can take a lot of clicks to get a score into the books. We’ve added some customizations to the SpeedGrader that will make scoring assignments on your computer faster. Essay Scoring If you give a quiz in Canvas, you need to manually score File Upload and Essay questions. Plus, you had to score each individual question. We’ve added a tool that automatically scores blank questions with a zero (no credit) by default. Essays with something typed in will remain unscored and require you to manually update the points either by clicking...

Making a video doesn’t necessarily require the camera app. We want to dive into the world of “whiteboard videos,” where students (or teachers) make short demonstrations of concepts or techniques using a simple screen recorder on the iPad. Whiteboard as a Teacher From a teacher’s perspective, these videos are a great way to create a library or archive of how-to videos. Instead of recording a lecture, break it down into ideas – single topics students refer to frequently that a video could answer. Technical processes (solving an equation, diagramming a sentence), examples (analyzing a short piece of text, breaking down...

Mastery Paths is a tool in Canvas which automatically assigns tasks to students based on previous work. This allows for quick differentiation and helps meet and close student gaps by ensuring work is scaled and scaffolded based on results. If you’ve never used Mastery Paths, here’s a good primer. For example, imaging two students take a quiz. Student A scores 10/10 and student B scores 3/10. There is obviously a gap to close with student B. Mastery Paths allows you, the teacher, to define what remediation is assigned immediately after the quiz so both students are challenged appropriately. Our Particular...

Speaking helps us reinforce our thoughts. If we can communicate what we’re thinking, we open up possibilities to challenge our schema and solidify ideas.