Adoption Consultant Update
As we approach the end of this school year, my attention turns back to the bigger picture of Canvas adoption. I’m grateful to be involved in a number of projects aimed at increasing Canvas usage throughout Wyoming. Along with creating the Clever Pandas course with the Wyoming Department of Education (WDE), I have started consulting with the University of Wyoming and its Trustees Education Initiative to create Canvas-focused professional development courses. These courses will be specifically focused on using Canvas in a virtual/online classroom.
I am excited to get back to consulting with school districts around the plans for continued and deeper Canvas adoption. Plans are coming together for a busy summer (especially August), as workshops are being requested by districts around the state. All workshops are being planned as virtual, but this may change if I am able to travel and deliver these workshops onsite.
On our recent Canvas Adoption Consulting call, I asked how individual schools and districts were planning around onboarding their newest teachers. While the answers varied from formalized programs, to informal mentorship, to PLCs, I was impressed by the depth of knowledge each district is demonstrating in planning for their new hires to be Canvas ready. It is one of my great joys to know that Wyoming’s students and teachers are experiencing the power of Canvas in their classrooms. Canvas is an investment that pays off for our students as they graduate and move toward postsecondary education opportunities, and for teachers as a labor saving tool in the second year and beyond. I’m humbled the WDE and your districts have allowed me to be a part of this ride.
Canvas Best Practices
Preparing for the Summer and for Next School Year
One of the best places to start as you complete this year’s courses and prepare for next year, is this post from the Canvas Community. This post contains a checklist outlining what content is essential for a teacher to have, and what are best practices. From this document there are two best practices highlighted below, the need to copy your gradebook from this year’s course and copying your course to begin your preparations for next fall.
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First, always export your gradebook once you complete your course. Do this from your main Gradebook page choosing the Actions link, and then Export. This gives you a .CSV file that you will want to rename to more easily find in the future. If you’ve not worked with a CSV file before, it is best opened in a Spreadsheet program (Excel, Google sheets, Numbers, etc.).
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The next step is defining how you plan to prepare your course for next fall, and more specifically when you will do that work. If you are comfortable waiting until your course shell is available from your school in the fall, then you can import content from your previous course, using the “Copy a Canvas Course” option. Otherwise, you will use the “Copy This Course” link from your Course Setting page to create a space where you can update your content over the summer, before your course shell is ready. Whichever you choose, you will be able to use your work this year as a starting point for next year.
The internet contains so many wonderful resources related to Canvas - from live broadcasts to podcasts, and on nearly every social media platform. You don’t have to look very hard to find content related to Canvas, and how various leaders, teachers, and students use Canvas in their everyday lives.
First, you can find CanvasLMS on YouTube, with a variety of videos available on a number of timely topics, including archives of sessions that were previously delivered live. Once you navigate away from Instructure controlled assets, there are many other amazing resources available you can find. One of the most entertaining pieces is from two self-proclaimed, middle-aged men from Indiana in a podcast called The CanvasCasters. The CanvasCasters look at Canvas, how it changes instruction, and even brings in active social media users to chat! These conversations often center around how Canvas has changed instruction, and the podcast often shares tips and tricks on how to make Canvas courses better.
On social media, you will find a number of resources available across many platforms. There is a great community for elementary teachers: Canvas for Elementary (Teachers) User Group on Facebook. There, discussions often focus on teacher questions, as well as sharing newly built content using recently released features. Twitter features an active group of Canvas users, including some Instructure employees like @mskeefe, @KCTesterman, and @canvasbestie, as well as education leaders, teachers and influencers such as @cbgardner16, @mrsnortonkinder, and @edtechyoder. While Instagram and TikTok cater to a different audience, their influence is still strong; you can even find @YourCanvasBestie at TikTok.
Canvas Commons Consortium
Wyoming K12 Districts
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For those teaching in a K-12 district in Wyoming, there is now a new option to share content with other Wyoming educators. When you choose to share content to Commons, you are presented with options on who can use the resource. In order to access Wyoming K-12 Districts Consortium you will first need to select the box next to “Select Consortium(s),” and then you can choose the Consortium. This is a great way to share Wyoming-specific content with other Wyoming educators.
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Statewide Adoption Consulting Meeting
These meetings are to discuss the successes, concerns, and needs of Canvas districts around Wyoming and to demonstrate new Canvas features. Consulting meetings will start at 10 a.m. on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Our next meeting will be at 10 a.m. on May 25, 2021. The May meeting will focus first on a discussion of Canvas successes throughout the state, with a few guiding questions, and then transition into a demonstration of the newest Canvas features. In May we will be demonstrating the long-awaited feature allowing students to annotate PDFs directly inside of Canvas. To attend this meeting, contact David via email to be added to the calendar invite.
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