FTT - Most Frequently Asked Questions 2021 Verion

"2021's Most Frequently Asked Questions

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS 

In an effort to take full advantage of economies of scale, here is an expanded list of the most frequently asked questions of 2021, or at least what I can think of at the moment:

District Licenses

Here is the current list of district licenses. You can access the majority of them by going to our Staff Resources page and logging in via Google SSO (Okta). Your miles may vary between school licensing. Click on each product for some resources to get started, or click here for a general description of all of them.

EdPuzzle

Gold Star Mastery Manager

Hapara

Panorama

Respondus (Lockdown)

Schoology

TurnItIn

PearDeck

Screencastify

Texthelp Equatio/Read&Write

 

Dropped/Xfered Student Grades

Did a student just transfer out of your class into someone else's gradebook, and is the receiving teacher requesting their current point totals or cumulative score? 

• Click on the "Members" tab on the left side of Schoology and then venture over to "Inactive."
• Then click on the bar graph next to their name and save the page as a PDF ready for delivery!
  
  
  

Adding Section-Level Roles in Schoology

If you need to add senior teachers or a colleague to your Schoology course, here's the process:

• Click on "members" on the left side of Schoology, and then add members. 
• Click on the icon to the right of their name and make them an admin. You need to make them admin so that the nightly IC Sync doesn't remove them.
• Then click on the icon again and click, "Set Section-level Role"
• Choose "no grades, view materials" if it's a student.
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
  

Cross-Link Requests

Because of the way Infinite Campus categorizes and organizes classes, sometimes you'll be given multiple Schoology course sections for a singular period. To get past this, you can request a Cross-Linking at the start of each semester. To do this, you should take a look at your schedule first on IC:

• Switch over to "Campus Tools" and click on the following: Scheduling -> Reports -> Teacher Schedule Batch. Find your name and click "Generate Report."
  
  
  
  
  
• Once you find your sections, you'll have to designate a "Target Course" and your "Linked Courses." In the example below, "850022-47 LEARNING STRATEGIES" would be the "Target Course" that absorbs the remaining sections as "Linked Courses."
• Submit your requests by filling out this Google Form.

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FTT - 5 Tips/Tools for Maximum Engagement

Winter's A Grind

5 Tips/Tools For Maximum Engagement 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

I will admit. I love the snow! I think it's beautiful and peaceful and I love winter outdoor activities like skiing and snowshoeing. So much of it has to do with owning the right gear. I have a great ski jacket, mittens, hat, neck gator, etc. In general, having the right equipment makes the experience so much better.   Third quarter, or what used to be third quarter, is always a bit of a grind. The holidays are over and it's cold and this is typically the time of year when we see students struggle the most.  For many of us, the snowy cold winter makes us want to hunker down and move as little as possible. It's our Chicagoland version of hibernating and I totally understand that too. 

Here are 5 tips/tools to remind you that with the right gear, your students can be engaged, enjoy learning, and make progress even though it's January. While these are not new, it can be good to be reminded that we have them and can use them in an in-person learning world. In addition, there are always new ways to use these and we have not come close to exhausting the possibilities. 

Goosechase:  

What is it?  A scavenger hunt app.

How do I use it? Go to Goosechase.com and log in. You create your "missions" or tasks here. Students download the free app onto their phones and submit pictures or text to complete the missions. As the teacher, you will see all of the submissions and the leaderboard.

Why should I use it? This is a FUN game that can be played in school in teams so only one person per team needs the app. Or, you can create a game that lasts all semester long! There are many applications for Goosechase.

   

Kahoot:

What is it? Ummmm, it's fun!

Kahoot is an interactive game-based platform for learning. If you haven't looked at kahoot in a while, it's a good time to take another look as they are constantly updating features and their interface. 

How do I use it? Go to kahoot.com and set yourself up with a free account. You create games by adding questions and you can adjust question types and also the way students interact with the game. This can be done live in class or assigned as homework. When you are ready you will have your students go to kahoot.it and enter the game pin you give them. 

Why should I use it? Kahoot has been around a while which in tech years means a lot. It's fun, engaging, interactive, and can be set up in many ways so it doesn't get too stale. It's great for kids who don't typically speak up in class. You'll probably be surprised by who is on your leaderboard. 

PearDeck:

What is it? Pear Deck is a way to embed interactive elements into Google slides. It's ALSO a great vocabulary/review game called Flashcard Factory. We are lucky to have two certified Pear Deck coaches in our district. Reach out if you want to know who they are!

How do I use it? Start by getting the Google chrome extension. You can also go to peardeck.com  and click Getting Started to learn how to use it and to connect to your Google slides that you already have created. There is now a feedback/reflection feature where you can give feedback to students. We have a premium license to Pear Deck in our district which means we have ALL the features. If you haven't used Flashcard Factory, it's also found at peardeck.com and click on Pear Deck vocabulary. Here is an overview of Flashcard Factory. 

Why should I use it? Sometimes we walk out of a class that seemed to go so well and then we realize that we really only heard from 5 or 6 students in the class. Pear Deck helps make sure everyone is participating. You can also set it to student-paced to differentiate the amount of time so you can meet the needs of more students. 

Quizlet Live:

What is it? A game within Quizlet that requires students to work in teams as opposed to individually with their own flashcard set. 

How do I use it?  Create your flashcards or question set in Quizlet. Then, you will click where it says In Class Live. You will get a game pin to send to your students and the program will put your students into teams. They need to physically be together to make this work since their answer choices will all be different.

Why should I use it?  In this world of awkward interactions, it's nice to have something prescribed and potentially less awkward.  Students are forced to work together and they really need to talk to make this work. 

Schoology Discussion Question OR Poll

What is it? Interactive questions that are already in the place where your students go for everything else! You may be trying to have discussions in your classes but students have forgotten how to do that. These give you the ability to add some interactive elements that you can use as a springboard for in-person discussions. 

How do I use it? From your materials page, click add materials and then choose Add Discussion. You can have students respond with text or with images, or even with audio or video responses. For a poll, go to the updates page and choose the poll icon at the bottom of the box then enter the poll items. Responses will be anonymous. These could also be a great on ramp to discussions in class.

What are your go-to tools when things feel cold and gray?

Let us know in the comments below!

FTT - Aesthetics Matter! Design with Canva

 

Getting Creative with Canva

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Aesthetics Matter

If our walls could talk, what would they say? That was a question posed by the Huntley High School Principal, Marcus Belin, during a professional development on Equity and Student SEL. In that presentation, he stressed the importance of utilizing every opportunity for communication and outreach. If your school community champions a particular set of ideals or core values, how can we leverage our building and grounds to promote them? It goes without saying that you must walk the walk after you talk the talk. Additionally, Principal Belin also wanted to utilize every available square inch of wall with messages of acceptance, excitement, and excellence to name a few.

If your classroom walls could talk, what would they say? We all know that merely providing accurate information or clear directions may not be enough. We are visual creatures and can be easily inspired by beauty in art and graphics. Here's where Canva can be a simple starting point in improving the aesthetics of your instruction. If the prospect of learning graphic design is daunting, Canva is a simple yet powerful web tool that allows you to create aesthetically pleasing graphics for various purposes. Here's what you can create:

Graphic Designs

Canva has myriad design templates you can alter to fit your instructional needs. Students and teachers alike can open free accounts to create posters, presentations, flyers, infographics, resumes, stickers, and more. The best part is that you don't have to start from scratch. Canva has amassed a number of templates that you can start with and adjust to your tastes and preferences. While there are plenty of uses for staff to design and create as the instructor, you'll be surprised to see how many students have used Canva before and can successfully create for their own uses. 

Presentations

If you've seen a Powerpoint/Slides presentation that looks especially professional and well done lately, there is a good chance that it was created in Canva. Canva has hundreds of gorgeous "Presentation Packages" that give you a number of presentation slides that you can plug and chug your information into, or make easy adjustments. They even have simple data graphs you can connect to Google Slides for easy access. 

I know we've all seen Ben Stein butcher a typically riveting economics lecture by being flat and disconnected. Perhaps Canva can be a simple way of infusing some fun into your lesson plan. If you'd like a crash course on Canva to create a poster or presentation, please let us know!

FTT - Get The Most Out of Google Slides

Get The Most Out Of Google Slides! 

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

Google Slides are a wonderful tool for presentations. But I am seeing so many creative ways that Google Slides are being used in classrooms. For example, I have seen Google Slides used for drag and drop activities. Did you know you can use Google Slides for stop motion animation? You can also create choose your own adventure books or create e-books from Google Slides. I have seen students who prefer to use slides when note taking because the linear structure of slides helps them stay organized. 

One issue that often arises with using Google Slides in an unconventional/amazing way is that you tend to need more real estate on the screen, Often these activities can't be done in presentation mode because you need the students to interact with the slides in some way and in order for them to do that they need to stay in edit mode. But when using a chromebook, computer, tablet, or a phone there is not a ton of room in edit mode. Here are some ways to increase the space you have to work with.

1. Hide The Menus

There is a little arrow in the upper corner of the screen. If you hover, it will say "hide menus". If you click it, the menus will roll up, giving you more space across the top.  Just click the arrow again to get your menus back. You can also use the shortcut Control+Shift+F to do this.

2. Get rid of the speaker notes.

Since you are not presenting, there is no need for the notes to be there.

Click View in the menu bar and uncheck where it says Show Speaker Notes.

3. Get rid of the filmstrip.

This one is new!

Click View in the menu bar and uncheck where it says Show Filmstrip. 

The small views of all of the slides on the side will disappear. Yes, you can get them back by re-checking Show Filmstrip. 

4. Enable Full Screen

This is different from presentation mode but can give the same result if you also disable the filmstrip and the speaker notes. 

Click View in the menu bar and click where it says Full Screen.

You will click Esc to return to the standard screen.

5. Resize Your Slides

Did you know that you can actually resize your slides?

Click File and go to Page Setup

Here, you can adjust to the inches, pixels, centimeters. You can also choose a preset widescreen view. 

Course Dashboard Organization Reminder

 

Reminder: Course Dashboard Organization

@LisaBerghoff/@MrKimDHS

1. Teach yourself and your students how to identify your S1 and S2 tiles and how to reorder their courses.

After you have renamed your sections and set your tile images, you will need to know how to navigate and reorder so the tiles you need are at the ready. Most of the staff know how to do this since our S1 and S2 tiles are visible for all of S1. This will be new and different for our students.

• Navigate to Courses in the blue menu bar at the top of the screen

• Click where it says My Courses on the right side of the screen under the blue bar

• Look at the right side of the screen where it says Manage Courses and click Reorder Courses

• Scroll down and you will notice there is a line. the top 12 courses will be visible as tiles and anything under that line will not be visible. 

• Choose the course tiles that you want to be visible in the courses dropdown and click and drag them up above that line. When you are done, just click the X. There is no save button on this screen.

If you are teaching a year-long course and plan to start using your S2 tile right away, instruct your students to move that tile above the line.