EdTech Support FOR YOU!

We are always seeking to improve upon and provide as much EdTech support and assistance as we can for our teachers across our district. We’ve been building out our EdTech website to include support materials that we think may be of help to you. Please visit our website, navigate around, and let us know what you would like to see more of.

There are three main sections: Teacher Tools, Parent Tools, and Student Tools.

Teacher Tools breaks down into six categories, and there are extra links in the menu on the left as well (Copyright Guidelines, Internet Options, etc.). Below are the six main categores:

Teaching with Technology: Overview and support links for the major platforms across our district.

Teaching with Devices: Guidelines and Procedures for the devices you may be using in your classroom with your students.

Technology Standards: The ISTE standards that we focus on in our district.

Teacher Communication: Recommendations on how to communicate with the parents/guardians of your students.

Classroom Management with Tech: Recommendations for how to manage a class when devices are in the hands of your students.

Digital Citizenship: The digital citizenship curriculum that we use in our district and link to CommonSense.org where you can get more materials to use in your classroom.

 

Parent Support

We’ve created a Parent Tools webpage on our EdTech website, where we provide Parents with information to help navigate the major software/platforms that we use across our district (IC, Clever, Canvas, etc.). We even have a handout you can pass out to your parents during the first week of school, if you think it would help: Parent and Student Technology Guide.

 

Student Support

We are still working on improving our Student Tools webpage. Please feel free to give recommendations as you see fit.

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Clever

• Navigate to your Clever Portal login on the MPS website.
• Log in to Clever with your username and password.
• Once logged in to your Clever Portal, you can access your applications, configure your Teacher Pages, check out the Clever Library, or help a student!
• Clever Academy is our free online training and certification program for educators. You can access it through your Clever Portal.  Go through all the courses and after successful completion, you’ll become a certified Clever Champion.

 

Seesaw

PK-6^th grade teachers: When your sections sync over from IC>Clever>Seesaw, all of your sections will show up in your list of Seesaw classes for both you and your students. You will want to eliminate the extra sections and just work out of specific ones. To do this, you will need to Archive your extra sections that you don’t need.

PK-3^rd, it is recommended that you work out of your homeroom section and archive all of the subject area sections.

4^th-6^th, it is recommended that you work out of your subject are sections and archive your homeroom sections.

Here’s how to archive a class in Seesaw:

1. Tap your Profile Icon and tap the Class you want to archive.
2. Tap the wrench in the top right corner and then tap Class Settings.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of screen and tap Archive Class. Tap again to confirm.

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Canvas

It is required that all teachers post their lessons in Canvas—the district’s learning management system (LMS). As we explore digital curriculums and learning spaces, we must have a common platform from which to operate—a place where teachers, students, parents, administrators, and support staff can access course materials and collaborate to continue delivering first class learning experiences. Canvas gives us that and much more. To learn more, please check out our Canvas webpage in the EdTech website from Teacher Tools>Teaching with Technology.

Cross-listing and Copying last year’s course over to the new sections.

When Infinite Campus syncs with Canvas, all of your sections will show up on your Canvas dashboard. You will pick and choose which sections you need to use, which ones you want to cross-list, and which ones you want to leave “unpublished” and hidden from your dashboard. Below are a few recommendations for each grade level.

Pre-K: You may want to cross-list your two homeroom sections together (AM/PM) and leave the other subject area sections unpublished. Or you can simply keep your AM and PM as separate classes work out of each homeroom section individually, and leave the other subject area sections unpublished.

Kinder-3^rd: It is recommended that you use your homeroom section to work out of. Leave the subject area sections unpublished.

4^th-6th: You may want to cross-list your subject area sections together and leave your homeroom section unpublished.

Elementary Specials teachers: You may want to cross-list all of your sections together.

7^th-12^th: Cross-list the same courses together. Remember, at the beginning of each semester you will need to cross-list again.

 

Once you determine which section(s) you are going to use and have cross-listed as needed, you will then copy last year’s course over into the section you are using for this year.

 

Cross-listing steps:

You must be enrolled in the MPS Canvas Training Course to view the demo showing how to cross-list your sections. If you’re already enrolled in the training course, click here to see the demo. If you’re not enrolled, login to Canvas and click here to enroll.

 

Hiding an unpublished section from your dashboard:

1. Click Courses icon on the left.
2. Select “All Courses” from the options.
3. Highlight the Stars next to the courses that you want to see on your dashboard. Leave the Stars blank for the courses that you don’t want to see.

 

Copying a course into this year’s section:

1. Open your new course and select “Import Existing Content”located in the upper right corner of the homepage 
2. On the Content Type dropdown menu, select “Copy a Canvas Course” 
3. On the Search for a course dropdown menu, select the course you want to copy into your new course
4. Select “All Content”
5. Check the box that says “Adjust events and due dates” and then select the option that says “Remove dates”
6. Select the blue button that says “Import”

 

Blueprints
Remember, when you import a Blueprint from the Canvas Commons:

1. Start a new course on your dashboard first. This is where you will import the Blueprint into.
2. Once you have it imported onto your dashboard, then you can copy the whole thing or even bits and pieces of it into the course that you will be teaching from.

 

What if my course still has students from last year listed in it?

If you added students to your course manually, instead of using a rostered section, your course will probably still have students in it from last year. They will still see your course on their Canvas dashboard when they log in. So, you need to Conclude the course, make a copy of it, and add your students for this year to the new copy.

To conclude a course:

1. Open the Course.

2. Select Settings.

3. Choose "Conclude this Course" from the right (or bottom).

Then, make a copy of the concluded course (it won't copy the students) to use with your students this year, and add your new students manually (People, +People).

 

Infinite Campus

How can I make sure my Canvas Gradebook will sync successfully with Infinite Campus?

-For grades to successfully sync from Canvas to Infinite Campus, an assignment must have a due date, a unique title, and you must use the assign to everyone option when creating the assignment. Refer to the MPS Canvas Training Course to find the video "Syncing Grades to Infinite Campus" for more information.

• PreK-1st grades: you do not need to sync your grades from Canvas to IC.
• 2nd- 3rd grades: It would be easier if you did not cross-list your subject area sections, and instead only used your Homeroom section as your main course in Canvas. When you sync your grades they will show up as "Unassigned" in Infinite Campus. You will need to move them to the correct subject area sections in IC.
• 4th-12th: If you combine two subject sections into one Canvas course, your grades may sync over as duplicates and as "Unassigned" in Infinite Campus. If you use Categories in Infinite Campus, you will probably want to set up the same categories in Canvas.
• Sync your grades from Canvas to IC on a weekly basis. If you wait until the end of the quarter/semester it will take a very long time to complete.
• If you change any grades in IC, be sure to also change those grades in Canvas as well. Otherwise, your grades in IC will be overwritten the next time you sync.