Beth Quick

Homepage You should be meeting the following requirements to ensure your homepage is accessible. Translated Text Fonts that are readable (avoid cursive or anything that looks cursive) Visual icons Below are two customizable homepages you can use and edit for your own class. There is a horizontal calendar option and a vertical calendar option. Click on the links for the canvas course to copy it in your course. Canvas Horizontal Calendar Homepage Canvas Vertical Calendar Homepage Common Icons I recommend starting the year with an intro and a key of common icons you use in your classroom, see example above....

Do you recognize this binder? If you have never seen this be sure to reach out to Tara White and she can help get you the resource. Turn to the first page and follow the directions to access your digital playbook resources. When you use your access code you will be able to get to a website to access Digital Anchor Charts Roadmaps (Editable or Filled in) Signs / Printable Cards Worksheets Videos FAQ page Lesson Ideas Watch the video below for a quick walkthrough of the digital playbook. Digital Anchor Charts If you watched the walkthrough, you saw the...

Canvas studio is a video creation and engagement tool that makes creating, editing, and using videos easier for both teachers and students. Now everyone can create and collaborate through video media right in Canvas.  There are a lot of useful purposes for Studio but some of my favorites include  Instructors can record or upload a simple video and use the editing tools to make it interactive, engaging, and add captions with a click of a button.  Students can upload large video sizes easily (Student iPads don’t have access to all of studio) Add quizzes on top of created or uploaded videos...

Below are the changes and updates for Canvas starting April 16th.  Change Default Due Time  You can change the default due time for your courses. Go to Account Settings or Course Settings and change the time that fits your course’s needs. *The new default due time will not update existing assignments with due dates already set.  Apply Score to Ungraded Assignments A new option in the gradebook allows you to apply scores to ungraded submissions all at once. The options menu from an assignment group or the Total column in the Gradebook allows instructors to select to Apply Score to Ungraded....

Finding small and easy ways to connect with our students doesn’t just help engage them in content, it also creates small opportunities in building relationship. Making videos can become an easy tool that you keep in your Batman Utility Belt. Check out some new ideas and strategies below on how to use videos in your classroom. Building background / academic language Instead of starting a unit with a video you found on youtube, make your own! Talk about how it connects to your prior unit so it activates prior knowledge or sparks engagement with a fun video of you going...

PLC productivity and organization is crucial to help save time, energy, and simply make things easier. Below are 5 google apps that can help improve your PLC process. Google Keep Keeping files and thoughts organized and digital is essential for PLC. Google keep doesn’t just store notes. You can add reminders, collaborators, and store links all in one place. For PLC, google keep is helpful with Keeping track of notes about your PLC goals Copying and pasting links to your documents Linking emails to google keeps to stay organized (Read more below)  Adding labels to your google keep so you...

February is Black History Month! Below are easy to print posters that make an interactive bulletin board quick and easy! Each poster has a QR code that is linked to a google slide that has a video and information about the person. The posters also come with their own coloring sheet so your students can help decorate the bulletin board. Along with the bulletin board, there are some other activities you can do with your kids to celebrate this month, as well. You can find articles on influential African Americans on Newsela and do a writing prompt, have them make...

Choice boards are amazing but they can be a lot of prep work, confuse students with too much content, or be too repetitive. Let’s spice up some student choice boards and rethink how we use them in the classroom.  Progressive Choice Boards  Choice is great for students but sometimes too much choice is overwhelming. You would have students ask you “just tell me which one to do” and you instantly regret putting together a huge choice board when they want to be told what to do anyways. Slowly adding choices makes it easier to choose from a lot of different...

What is PBL? Project Based Learning (PBL) actively engages students in authentic and meaningful tasks throughout the learning process. Instead of the famous poster board project at the end of the project, PBL takes students through a journey that they care about. The goal is motivating students to take ownership of their learning. Below are 5 powerful websites and tools that can help your PBL adventure. Jay McTighe one of the authors of the book, The Understanding by Design, has compiled a list of websites that has ideas and resources. Note, this document was last updated in 2018 so some...

Why Should I add Audio? We need to continue to make material that is easily accessible to all of our students. Whether you are presenting a lesson, engaging students in a self paced activity, or sharing an agenda it is easy to add audio to google slides. Right now there are three different ways you can add audio to your google slides.  Using the Pear Deck Add on Since we have the paid version of pear deck we can add audio to a slide. This audio only works when you are sharing the pear deck with your students. Follow the...

I was able to work with some awesome 7th and 8th graders from North Side to build this Jammin’ SEL resource that is easy to edit and simple to use. This isn’t limited to just middle schoolers though! Anyone can use Jamboards to connect to SEL! Why SEL We are learning the importance of social and emotional learning and the impact it has on students’ learning. Creating opportunities where students can thoughtfully reflect on their own emotions can help them process through some of the more difficult ones. A student was helping me build this jamboard and she said, “doing...

We need to ensure that everything provided to our students are accessible. It wasn’t until I started using the accessibility checker that I noticed easy adjustments to ensure equal access to all. The accessibility checker is a quick tool on Canvas to make sure you are providing material that is accessible to all your students. Most of the accessibility issues I have come across has been the following Images don’t have text which makes it difficult for students who are visually impaired. Certain text doesn’t meet contrast ratio of 4.5:1 based on color Header and paragraph sizes are not correct ...

All secondary teachers and students have free access to Explain Basics on their self service app store on the iPad. If you haven’t used this iPad app it can be a little challenging, but below are 3 easy ways to start utilizing all of the amazing features this app has to offer. A lot of teachers use this to record lessons so they can post it and the voice, movement, and whatever you are doing on the whiteboard will be recorded. This makes it easy for students to go back and review past lessons or catch up on lessons they...