Tech This Out

Hey there. It’s a smaller update this week, but we have a Canvas/PowerSchool clarifier, help on setting up your final, and a reminder about where to find the control center in iOS 12. PowerSchool & Canvas Clarification This morning, you should have received a separate email with clarifications on using PowerSchool and Canvas in conjunction with one another. In short, PowerSchool is the official gradebook.. Make sure it is accurate.Please read the email carefully as it clarifies the expectations for Canvas and PowerSchool and provides options on how to use the Canvas gradebook. We’ve also posted the email here for quick reference. Setting...

Hello! There are some big updates this week: iOS 12 is available, building Tech Ambassadors announced, and some ideas of discussions in class. iOS 12 is Here This week, Tech Services opened up all district iPads for the iOS 12 update. Students were prompted thorough Self Service to update when they had time. Teachers, you can also perform this update when you’re ready. In one week, Tech Services will force anyone who hasn’t updated to the newest version. With any update, there are some changes you need to know about. We wrote up a blog post with details about changes...

The TWIT, clickbait edition We’re back. This week, we learn that spam isn’t just for your keto diet, one trick that will revolutionize your teaching, and two mistakes you’re making when you’re using Safari. Spam is Best Served Hot This week, there were several spam incidents in the district. They happen from time to time and it’s just good to keep an eye out. Generally, if it seems suspicious, it probably is. If you’re not sure, be sure to: Once you pass something to Tech Services, just delete the email and go on with your day. This One Trick Will...

We have a tiny update this week, so that’s exciting. Read on for a resurrected project, and an online PD reminder. Back from the Dead: the Instructional Tech Blog Once upon a time, we had a blog. And that blog was (kind of) updated. And then we stopped. Brace yourself. The blog is back. We’re still making some upates, but the biggest help on the blog is finding old copies of The Twit. They’re all organized by week in an archive and available for reminiscing and remembering how good these updates are. Digital Instructor Course Remember, one of the new...

We’re back from fall break with several updates (again…will we ever run out? Probably not…) for you about requesting iBooks for students, analytics in Canvas and a great activity to get students thinking in class. iBook Requests If you’ve ever gone through the iBooks store, you know there’s a ton of good stuff in there. Our new management system (Jamf) allows us to assign books to your students just like we assign apps. If you want to request a book from the iBooks store, you can fill out the App Request Form and Tech Services will assign the book to...

It hasn’t been quite a week, but we have some updates to send before fall break, so this is The Last Three Days in Instructional Tech for your reading pleasure. In today’s issue, we have some Canvas Outcomes updates, some new online PD options and an iPad multitasking tip from Wes. World Language Outcomes in Canvas Canvas allows us to upload and maintain standards (called Outcomes in the course) so you can align quiz questions or assignments to specific state standards. Most core content had their available by default, but several others are missing. World Language outcomes are now available...

“Instructional Tech Weekly Update” wasn’t too catchy, so for this week, we’ve rebranded do The TWIT (This Week in Instructional Tech) Newsletter. We’ll see if it sticks. Read on for information about grading periods in Canvas (woot!), a matrix on where to find account information for students, finding that pesky control center in iOS 12, and the PD website gets a major facelift. Canvas Grading Periods Tech Services did some work this week to restructure Canvas courses to now push grades to the proper grading periods! The update is in your Gradebook view. You can now toggle between the grading...

Hello! The exciting news this week is that all secondary students in Elkhart are now 1:1! We finished distributing iPads at West Side and North Side on Thursday, which in reality, means we made a lot more work for ourselves… This week, we have a tip on the Canvas gradebook, how to handle apps not installing from Self Service, and a quick video on moving your cursor around on an iPad like a champ. Message Students Who… The Canvas grade book has a really handy tool that allows you to message students who meet specific criteria. A simple example would...

Elementary Updates PowerSchool Skills PowerTeacher Pro has skills uploaded for you. You can add these to assignments or score them directly in PowerTeacher Pro. To help, Wes put together a short (~3 minute) video on how to find and assess skills. Kindergarten teachers, your alphanumeric skills are in a different spot, and Kat has made a 1 minute video showing how to score those items. PowerTeacher Pro opens with a helpful video if you’d like to get started from the beginning. Progress Report Tips We are aware that progress reports from PowerTeacher pro are really, really long. We’re working on...

Hello everyone! There are three important updates this week: Canvas grade sync, PowerSchool term calculations, and how to find the last place a student’s iPad was seen on campus (it’s awesome). Canvas Grade Sync You can have Canvas sync grades automatically, every night, to PowerSchool. That means you don’t have to remember to sync your grades from the gradebook. To turn it on: Go into a Canvas course. Click on “Grade Sync” in the left-hand menu. Click on the “Sync” tab at the top of the page. Select the “Scheduled Daily Sync” option and then click “Save”. If you’d rather...

Hello! Each week, we’ll send an update with major projects, changes made, and general tips you may have missed when they were sent out the first time. You can count on this message coming to your inbox every Friday afternoon. Hangouts Disabled In response to teachers’ concerns, we’ve disabled Google Hangouts on student iPads. Most of the responses we got saw the benefit of having it enabled, but we didn’t do enough preparation to make sure it was used well by students. We’ll revisit enabling Hangouts again in the future. iPad App Requests Tech Services is in the process of...