The Learning Collaborative Launch
This month we launched The Learning Collaborative or TLC, which is made for Vista teachers, by Vista teachers. TLC is a repository of resources and professional development. It’s a place for VUSD educators to share some of their best practices and to get ideas and support from colleagues across the district. The Learning Collaborative was created to provide on-demand and live professional development for all staff members in the Vista Unified School District.
We are passionate about providing resources, tips, and tricks that will be useful for teachers, students, and staff. Please accept the course in Canvas so TLC will appear as a tile on your Dashboard. We will continue to add resources and if you have any recommendations for content or do not see the tile in Canvas and would like access to it, please send us an email at TLC@vistausd.org. **Note: if you have starred courses to filter your Canvas dashboard and do not see the TLC course tile, go to "Courses" on the global navigation bar and scroll down to select "all courses" to access TLC.
Since this is for Vista teachers, by Vista teachers we want to respect the creativity of our teachers by restricting access to these resources outside of Vista Unified School District. Please be sure you’re logged into your @vistausd email in order to gain access.
Secondary Teachers: How to Start a New Canvas Gradebook in a Year Long Course
Second semester is upon us! If you have a year-long course, but would like to start a new gradebook for the second semester, here are step by step directions on how to do this.
Directions:
In a Canvas course, select “grades” on the navigation bar
Select “view” at the top left to access the drop down menu
Then hover over “filters” and select “grading periods”
A new text box will appear on the right hand side of the screen that will allow you to filter the gradebook by semester or view the year as a whole.
Students will now also have the option to view their grades for each semester separately in their own “grades” section in Canvas.
If you sync your grades to Aeries, please remember that you will need to create a new gradebook in Aeries for second semester and make sure that all assignments have due dates that match their semester gradebook.
If you have any issues accessing this new filter or do not see the option to filter by grading periods for your site, please contact kirstenturner@vistausd.org.
Pear Deck Canvas Integration Training Coming in January/February
Want to learn more about Pear Deck and how it can be used within our Canvas LMS? The wonderful trainers at Pear Deck are offering two virtual training sessions! These will be paid professional learning opportunities held via Zoom. Your camera needs to remain on during the duration of the session for attendance purposes.
The first training is being held on January 19th from 3:30-4:30 and is Pear Deck 101 for the people who are new to Pear Deck and need to learn the basics.
The second training session, Pear Deck 201, will be held on February 2nd from 3:30-4:30 and it will be a deeper dive into Pear Deck, its many features, and how Pear Deck can be integrated within Canvas to maximize student engagement and participation.
If you are interested in attending these paid training sessions, please be sure to RSVP via this Google Form and we will send you a calendar invite. The max number of participants is 30 people so please RSVP as soon as possible if you want to attend. We look forward to seeing you there! Recorded sessions will be added to the TLC Canvas Course and running PD document in case you’re unable to attend.
Upcoming Training Opportunity: Canvas LTI 1.3 and External Tool
Want to explore the many different tools and programs that can be integrated with Canvas to increase student engagement? Canvas is providing two training sessions, one for elementary and one for secondary this month that focus on the different assignments Canvas offers! These will be paid professional learning opportunities held via Zoom.
The first training session is on January 25th 3:30-4:30 and is for Secondary staff members and the second training session is on January 27th 3:30-4:30 and is for Elementary staff members. Both of these sessions will be on Zoom and recorded. The recorded sessions will be added to the TLC Canvas Course and running PD document in case you’re unable to attend.
RSVP via this Google Form and we will send you a calendar invite. The maximum number of participants is 30 people, so please RSVP as soon as possible. Your camera needs to remain on during the duration of the session for attendance purposes.
If you would like to attend district trainings for EdTech, visit this running PD document for a description of upcoming trainings, a link to register, and a video recording of the session that will be included after. We recommend that you bookmark the running PD document so that you can revisit it as we add more trainings throughout the remainder of the school year. This is also linked through the TLC Canvas Course for your reference. We look forward to seeing you there!
Technology Tips and Tricks
Want to filter old courses out of your dashboard view on Canvas?
- Go to "Courses" on the global navigation bar and scroll down to select "all courses."
- When viewing all of your courses, you will see stars on the left-hand side. Star or select the courses that you want to show up on your dashboard and deselect those classes that you would like to hide (the star will be clear when deselected).
- The classes that you do not star (or deselect) will not go away. They will be available to you under all courses, but will no longer appear on your dashboard.
IT Work Order vs. Technology Help Form
If you have checked with your Canvas Site Expert and still need support, you can fill out our Technology Help Form and we will assist you! The technology help form is meant for help with Canvas. The IT Work order can help with technology set up (printers, monitors, etc), account supports (Aeries, Cloud Connect, etc). If you need support with Lexia or AR, these are site based and your administrator should be able to support you. If further support is needed, you can put in a work order under accounts. If you don’t have an account yet, register NOW! IT Work Order - password: 4680NorthAve
Contact Us!
Canvas Support Teachers
Taresa McSpadden (Elementary)
Kirsten (Kurdy) Turner (Secondary)
Contact: VUSD Technology Help Form
Email: edtech@vistausd.org