Instructional Coaches Newslett

January 2026
Canva Teams
Have you been using your school team when building in Canva? We know it has been shared previously, but it can't be said enough. As a teacher you are assigned to your school's team in Canva. When you are creating something new you should be in the habit of checking to see that you are in your school team first. If you have a project saved in Archived and you want to use it or share it with staff or students, we recommend moving it from Archived to your school team first.
Want to share a project with another teacher! Watch THIS VIDEO to see how to share a view only copy. They can then Make a Copy to have their own copy!
Students should also be checking to see that they are creating in their school team as well. When teachers and students are trying to share things with each other from Archived they may run into trouble with access. Need help? Reach out!
Apple Classroom
Think of it as your ultimate command center for the 1:1 environment. With just a few taps on your iPad or Mac, you can:
Launch & Lock: Instantly open a specific app, website, or textbook page on every student’s device simultaneously—no more waiting for 30 students to type in a long URL.
Live Visibility: See a "bird's-eye view" of every screen in your room in real-time. It’s the easiest way to check for understanding (or off-task browsing) from your teacher device.
Showcase Success: Spot a student doing something great? You can project their screen to the front of the room instantly via AirPlay and View Screen to celebrate their work.
Focus Mode: Lock student devices into a single app during assessments or "eyes-on-me" moments to minimize distractions.
Ready to see it in action?
We’d love to help you get comfortable with these tools! Whether you want to explore the features during your next PLC time or would like live in-class support to try it out with your students, our Instructional Coach team is here for you.
If you are an elementary teacher and have memories of Apple Classroom not working for you, we are happy to report that it has been more reliable and feel it is worth the time to get reintroduced to this tool.
Magic School Student Rooms
MagicSchool Student Rooms are a game-changer for personalized intervention and extension. To help you get started smoothly, here are two pro-tips for your next lesson:
Seamless Sign-On: When creating a tool, select “Require SSO.” This allows students to log in with their TVUSD Google credentials. Not only does this keep a clear record of their progress, but it also lets students pick up right where they left off. **If you do not Require SSO, you will not be able to confirm the student's identity. You will be trusting that they type their real first name when they essentially are signing on as a guest.
Manage the Flow: Use "Room Statuses" to keep students on task:
Active: Open for business!
Paused: Students can review their work but can’t chat further (great for reflection).
Locked: Access is closed.
‼️ Best Practice: Pause or Lock rooms once students leave your visual range to maintain academic integrity. ‼️
Ethical Use of AI
A question that has been asked frequently in recent weeks centers around the use of AI for Feedback and Evaluation. In simpler terms, “Can I use MagicSchool AI to grade my students’ essays for me?” The ethical use of AI in providing feedback on student writing centers on recognizing it as a supportive tool, not a replacement for the teacher's professional judgment. Immediate feedback from AI that helps a student move forward with improving their writing is a great use of that AI tool. However, using AI to evaluate a student’s performance and subsequently assigning a grade needs careful consideration. It is a crucial ethical principle that teachers are ultimately responsible for the evaluation of student work and the assignment of all grades. Teachers should never use AI to be the sole grading of student writing. The final assessment requires a human perspective to account for nuance, context, individual student growth, and alignment with specific learning goals that AI algorithms cannot fully grasp. The teacher's role ensures fairness, equity, and a comprehensive understanding of the student's learning journey.
Enterprise Tools in Magic School
At the bottom of the page of Teacher Tools in Magic School you will find a few Enterprise Tools that have been created by TVUSD staff. These tools were designed based on needs of teachers and admin. These are only available on the teacher side and can't be assigned to a student room. First, check out the Formative Assessment Chatbot. This is a friendly AI coach that can help teachers design and choose effective formative assessments. Ask it a few questions to help you monitor students learning in a variety of ways. Next, check out the Academic Equity Chatbot. This one was designed to help teachers with strategies for differentiation. Do you need to know how to give ALL students access to the content and plan for learning processes that engage? Then, have a chat with this AI chatbot! Finally, there are helpful chatbots for Secondary Science and ELA that help you unpack the UPO and state standards. Let us know what you think and what kind of chatbot you would like to see next!
Clips App
Apple announced that it is no longer supporting the use of Clips. It has been removed from the App Store and as a result can not be downloaded from Mosyle. Existing users may still have the app and can still use it. But, new iPads will not have the app and won't be able to add it. If you have any projects on your teacher iPad that you would like to save you should save the video to your Photo library or Files. Two options for creating short video creations would be to use iMovie or Canva.
iPads and Logitech Crayons 🖍️
If you currently have an iPad 8 or earlier, you can visit your librarian and ask to exchange your iPad for an iPad 10. When you receive your iPad 10 you should also be given a Logitech Crayon. If your librarian does not have a device and/or a logitech crayon to give you they can put in a request by completing an IMS Help Desk Ticket.
Printing to District Copier on MacBook
Teachers using a MacBook can print to any Sharp copier in the district. This feature is available through an app called PaperCut. You will print like you always do from the File Menu of the application that you are using. After selecting print, the print dialog box will appear allowing you to select your printer. You will want to choose TVUSD - Find Me Printing Copiers. Select the number of copies that you need and click Print. Following these steps will send the job to the copy machine. You will then have 3 hours to go retrieve the job. Walk up to the copier. Enter your employee id to login. Then select Print Release. Select the job/s and tap Print. All done!
Click HERE to watch a short video of these steps.
DPA Info
⭐️The button below will allow you to view the status of any DPA requested.🔎
Elevating Teachers - January 27th
There are a few spaces left! Sign Up Today! Ready to refresh one of your upcoming units? Does it need more engagement and critical thinking? Then, you will want to join us for our next Elevating Teachers session. In this hands-on workshop, teachers will transform an upcoming unit to make learning more flexible, accessible, and engaging for all students. We can guide your integration of familiar tools such as MagicSchool, EduProtocols, Canva or iPad native apps. We are moving beyond the worksheet to plan tasks that allow students to make their thinking visible. Be ready to craft student-facing activities and authentic assessments that offer meaningful choices to support every learner. Click the image to sign up! Space is limited!
Welcome Winter - Eduprotocols
Here is a great resource if you want to try out some new Eduprotocols as you start the new semester! This resource was created by Eduprotocol power users and shared on the Facebook group. This group always overshares and is a great place to go for ideas and ready to use templates.The group is called Eduprotocols Community. Check it out! And, in the meantime take a look at this: Winter Eduprotocols
Digital Breakout Rooms
Check out this website that has some fun resources for trying out a digital breakout room! Click HERE.
Large Print Decodable Readers
Decodable readers are now available in large print. You can find them linked on the OG Hub!
iReady Diagnostic Brain Breaks
During the iReady Diagnostic your students will be prompted to occasionally take a brain break. The default setting prior to this point was to play a game. This became a problem. Several classes reported that students were working too quickly to get to the games. The good news is that we have changed the default brain break to something less distracting. Now, students will be given a break that is a one-minute relaxation exercise designed to help students improve their focus for the next portion of the assessment.
Seesaw and AI
Watch a short video to see one of Seesaw's new features! You can turn a resource into a Seesaw activity in seconds. This is just one of the new tools that launched within Seesaw that can make planning and creating activities quick and easy.
In addition, Seesaw has a Collection of AI Literacy activities that you can use if/when you are beginning to use AI with students. View the collection.
Coaching Connection - January
Here is the January Coaching Connection with small bites of information from the coaches. Click the image to check it out!
Pear Assessment
‼️Pear Assessment ‼️ Semester A Classes in Pear Assessment have not yet been archived but the district is aware of this problem. The vendor, Pear Assessment, is responsible for correcting this and your classes will be moved to archived when they make the fix.
Canvas Course Reminders
Reminders for setting up for success as we look forward to Semester Two.
Best Practice: When importing content from an older course, select "Adjust events and due dates" and then "Remove dates."
Crosslisting should be completed before publishing.
Best Practice: When Crosslisting rename your parent course and include: Course Name, Semester, Teacher, and Year.
DO NOT use your Sandbox Course as your "Parent Course."
Please let your instructional coaches know if you'd like to schedule a time to meet during PLC or for a one-on-one help session.
Secondary Resources Canvas Course
We highly recommend that you join the Canvas Course for Secondary Resources if you have not already done that. It is a landing page that holds crucial information, how-to videos and more! It should be your first step in getting answers to common questions. If you would like to join you can click this LINK.
Calah Hurd
churd@tvusd.us
Shandra Beer
sbeer@tvusd.us
Rosalinda "RO" Jaimes
rjaimes@tvusd.us
Julia Ebel
jebel@tvusd.us
Rebeka Rau
rrau@tvusd.us
Mary Beutz
mbeutz@tvusd.us
Donna Kronenfeld
dkronenfeld@tvusd.us
Curriculum Specialist - ELA
William Malone
wmalone@tvusd.us
Curriculum Specialist - Math
Jaclyn Dolen
jdolen@tvusd.us
Curriculum Specialist - Science