CSD Weekly Bites of PD 2022-2023

 

Welcome to CSD's Weekly Bites of PD 2022-2023!

Each week, CSD's Instructional Supports Department will be posting professional development (PD) resources via our social media accounts. These PD resources are designed to be short and to the point, and provide links that share more detailed information and directions for educators who would like to learn more. In addition to being shared through social media, each weekly bite of PD will be added to this page.  

If you have Instagram, Twitter, and/or Facebook accounts you can receive these updated directly through your social media feeds by following the Instructional Supports Department using the information below:

• Twitter: @CSDISD
•   Instagram: @csdinstructionalsupports
• Facebook: CSD Instructional Supports

August | September | October | November | December | January | February | March | April | May | June |

CSD Weekly Bites of PD 2021-2022

🍎 August

August 31- Equitable Grading Practices: Using Rubrics when Grading

Rubrics are a great way to support equitable grading practices. They enhance teacher clarity by providing explicit criteria and expectations for students. Once a student has submitted an assignment, rubrics provide teachers an equitable way to grade based on the specific learning outcomes of their students.

To create rubrics in Canvas, create an assignment, click +rubric, then build your rubric based of the learning intentions and success criteria on the lesson.

For more information on creating rubrics in Canvas, visit the Instructure Community Links to an external site..

August 24 - Equitable Grading Practices: Hiding Names in Canvas

Hiding student names in Canvas Speedgrader can help support equitable grading practices. Hiding names allows teachers to focus on the quality of the submission and avoid unconscious bias when grading.

To hide names in Speedgrader, go to Settings>Options>Click the Hide student names in the Speedgrader button>Save Settings.

For more information on hiding names in Speedgrader, visit the Instructure Community Links to an external site..

 🚌 September

September 7- PLNs

A personal learning network (PLN) consists of the people you connect with to help you learn and grow on topics that interest you. When building and cultivated your PLN, you don't have to limit yourself to in-person interactions, and can be expanded using online social media platforms to connect you with colleagues across the state, nation, and around the globe.

Example: Each Wednesday at 9 pm educators can be part of a state-wide Twitter chat on different educational topics each week using the hashtag #utedchat. You can visit UCET's #utedchat page for more information and the schedule for upcoming Twitter chats.

 

September 21- Customizing your Chrome Tab Home Screen

Did you know you can customize your Chrome tab home screen? Once you've opened a new tab, you can you personalize the visual appeal with backgrounds, increase your efficiency by adding shortcuts, and more. Watch the screencast Links to an external site. to learn more!

 

September 28- Add a Video Clip in Google Slides

Often times, we want to show a video to our class, but only need a small clip from a longer video. Google Slides allows you to embed a video, and then add a start AND end time. Watch this screencast Links to an external site. to learn more!

 

🎃 October

October 5- Restorative Practices

Restorative Practices provide approaches to building student relationships, improving student discipline structures, and strengthening school community. It was adopted in Canyons School District in 2019. Restorative practices provide strategies to building your classroom culture at the beginning of the school year, as well as and maintaining it throughout the year . Check out this one page resource Links to an external site. for a good overview of Restorative Practices.

 

October 12- Screenshot on your iPhone using Double Tap

It can be hard to remember what buttons to use to take a screenshot on your iPhone. Instead of continuously guessing, take 2 minutes to set up the double tap feature in accessibility! Simply go to Settings>Accessibility>Touch>Back Tap>Double Tap. Then, choose screenshot. Now, when you double tap on the back of your iPhone, it will automatically take a screenshot. You can also set up Double Tap to access your flashlight, camera, and more. Tap-Tap-Done! Check out this video to learn more:  Links to an external site.https://youtu.be/IMbd0dTvr0I Links to an external site.

 

October 26- Canvas: Sort by Submission Status

By default, Canvas Speedgrader lists all students in alphebetical order. This means that you often have to scroll through the names of all of your students in order to find the orange dot next to the ones that require grading. Simplify this process by sorting the student list in Speedgrader by submission status. Simply open Speedgrader in your Canvas course, click the gear in the top left corner, and select options. In the pop up window, choose sort by submission status from the dropdown menu. Now you can enjoy speedier grading in Speedgrader! Check out this video to see the steps: https://youtu.be/SKMC1PGwehM Links to an external site.

 

🦃 November

November 2- Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe Creative Cloud is available for free to K-12 educators and students in grades 7-12 throughout the state of Utah. Once installed on your device, you have access to many of the Adobe products including Acrobat, Rush, Photoshop, Premiere, Scan, Fill & Sign, plus many more! Adobe products are available for Desktop and/or Mobile, and some products like Express are available through the web. Contact your Field Tech to download Creative Cloud, or use these instructions. Links to an external site.

November 9- Comment Library in Canvas

The Comment Library within Speedgrader is a great Canvas hack. This feature allows you to create and save a comment to reuse feedback from one student to the next. For example, a teacher on a math assignment might want to leave the feedback “Be sure to check your signs and please resubmit your assignment.” You can now save that comment and use it over and over for student who are mixing up their signs, even across assignments! Check out this video to learn more about the Canvas Comment Library. Links to an external site.

November 16- Accessibility- Hyperlinks

A hyperlink is text or an icon that users can click on to get to another website or file. When providing hyperlinks it is important to ensure that the link is accessible to users who may be using a screenreader. When creating a hyperlink be sure that the hyperlinked text describes the content of the link. If your hyperlink is an icon, use the alt-text to describe the content of the link.

Check out the "Designing for Equity Links to an external site." Bite-Sized PD that shares what teachers can do to make content accessible.

Examples/Nonexamples:

November 30- Hour of Code

The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics. Visit canyonsdistrict.org/hourofcode/ for steps to plan an Hour of Code activity for your students.

❄️ December

December 07- Search for Names and Assignments in Canvas Gradebook

When trying to help one student see their assignments and grades in Canvas, it's helpful to be able to search for them. This is a snap with the Student Search feature in the Gradebook. You can search for Assignments, too, which gets tricky when trying to scroll through several assignments. Visit the Canvas Community Links to an external site. to learn how to sort and display student data in the Gradebook or this video Links to an external site. on how to do an assignment search. 

December 14-  Nearpod Premium Features

All Canyons School District teachers have access to Nearpod and all of it's premium plus features such as Immersive Reader and content such as their monthly content connections. View Nearpod's December 2022 newsletter Links to an external site. to learn more about this month's content connections, learning opportunities, and Immersive Reader.

 ☃️ January

January 4-  Paste without formatting shortcut

When copying and pasting content between documents or webpages, it can get very messy with all of the different fonts, spacing, and text colors. To paste content without any formatting or style information, use Command+Shift+V on a Mac or Ctrl+Shift+V on a PC. This shortcut works great for adding to a Google Slide or Canvas. View this website Links to an external site. to learn more.

January 11-  Outlook Sweep Rules

One way to make your email more manageable is to create Sweep Rules for your email messages. A Sweep Rule will search your email inbox and move messages with that email address to another designated location whether that be a folder you set up or to your deleted items. To set up sweep rules visit your online version of Outlook 365, click on the email you'd like to create a sweep rule for, choose what rule you'd like to follow, designate where you'd like it to move, and then press OK. Watch this screencast Links to an external site. to learn more. 

January 18- Google Docs Paint Format Tool

Have you ever had a document that had formatting issues (multiple fonts, different spacing, etc.) and wished there was an easy way to fix it? The Paint Format (Roller) Tool in Google Docs can help you easily fix these issues. You've probably seen the tool, but never known what it did. Watch this video Links to an external site. to learn how to use this awesome tool!

January 25- Email Safety and Security

Educational organizions continue to experience an increase of phishing attacks. Many of these attacks come in the form of emails that appear as if they are coming from a reputable source, but in fact are from a cybercriminal. Read COSN's Email Safety & Security - Best Practices Links to an external site. to learn what you can do to protect yourself from phishing attacks.

❤️ February

February 1- Thrive Time: Skills for Scholars

Canyons has developed the K-8 life skills curriculum Thrive Time: Skills for Scholars to help develop critical social and emotional competencies that help students to be successful in school and life. These lessons are currently in the testing phase, and the developers would like to have educators and community members preview the lessons, educators teach the lessons with students and all to give feedback. To view the lessons and find out more information, visit the Thrive Time: Skills for Scholars Links to an external site. website.

February 8- Create Virtual Valentine's Day Cards

☘️ March

Do you ever want students to follow along on a Google Slides presentation from their Chromebooks? Google Workspace launched a new 'Follow' feature that can simplify this process. Students just click on the teacher’s avatar in the Slides toolbar to jump to whatever slide they are on, and continue to move with them as they navigate and make changes to a presentation. To stop following, they just click on the teacher's avatar again. Check out the Google Workspaces website Links to an external site. to learn more about the Follow Feature in Google Slides.

March 22- Behavior Momentum

Did you know that behavior goes where reinforcements flow? Behavior Momentum is a principle which supports behavior management by getting a student to do something unlikely (low probability) by having them do likely things first (high probability). Check out this Behavior Momentum Links to an external site. flyer for more information: 

March 29- Live Text on iPhones

iPhone users, do you know about Live Text? It's a feature that allows you to use your phone's camera to interact with the text in an image. It also provides quick actions to easily call phone numbers, visit websites, send emails, and more, based on the text that appears in the frame. Check out the written directions Links to an external site. or video Links to an external site. to learn more about live text on the iPhone.

☂️ April

April 12- Creating a New Google Doc

Want to save time when creating a Google Doc? Type doc.new into the web address bar, and it will open a new Google Doc. This will also work with slide.new, sheet.new, form.new, site.new, keep.new, and cal.new. Check out goo.gle/Shortcuts to learn more.

🌷 May

May 3- Did you know that there is a quick way to organize files on the desktop of your Mac? To enable this feature all you need to do is right-click your desktop, then choose Use Stacks, or you can press Control-Command-O. Once it's enabled you will see all of the files on your desktop organize themselves into groups. Watch the video provided to learn more about using stack of your Mac. Watch this YouTube video Links to an external site. to learn more.

May 10- Have you ever been frustrated by the limited number of Padlets you can have for free? With Nearpod, teachers can use the quick launch button to immediately start a collaborative board for students to contribute their ideas to. Teachers can now add columns, change the background, and allow students to respond with images, GIFs, video, text, or an audio recording. Learn more from the Nearpod Blog Links to an external site..

May 17- Google Drive can automatically convert documents (Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc.) to Docs Editor Format when uploading content to Google Drive. Simply click on the gear > settings > then make sure “convert uploads to Google Docs editor format” is marked.

May 24- Adobe has joined the AI craze with their own set of artificial intelligence creation tools called Adobe Firefly. Adobe's AI focus with Firefly is to use text to create and adapt visual elements. As an example, watch this video Links to an external site. to see how to create your own font with, say, red licorice. Check it out. You can request Firefly access at: firefly.adobe.com. Links to an external site.

 

🦩 June