Secondary Newsletters

☃ Good, chilly morning, party people! Here’s your latest edition of What the Tech, and it’s full of tips, freebies, and challenges. Hopefully this brings you some helpful insights you can apply today and some ready-to-go activities you and your students can enjoy before the end of the month. As ever, I’m easily summoned via email, so let me know how I can support you! 🥳

Side note before we get started: If you ever want to go back in time to read previous editions of What the Tech, you can send me an email or check out our website where we post all the issues: https://sites.google.com/cfbisd.edu/new-cfb-teacher-resources/newsletters/secondary-newsletters

🚀 HoverCam Hints

• Are you noticing that your Hover Cam keeps adjusting focus while you write under it? That can be mildly (or more!) distracting or disruptive to the eyes, and we can help with that! On your actual camera, there are five buttons at the base:

  • Rotate

  • Zoom in

  • Zoom Out

  • AF for Auto Focus

  • AF-L for Auto Focus Lock: if you press this button, it will lock the focus on your paper (or wherever it’s currently focused) instead of shifting between your paper and your pen or hand. 

• It’s a small change, but sometimes the small things have big impacts!

• Also, looking for more details about harnessing the power of your document camera? Check out hovercam’s page of short videos!

  • • View-Zoom-Focus video

• Did you also know that you can also record your Hover Cam activity into a video to post in your Canvas course later? You can! If you’re using the Hover Cam to instruct, why not record and share that video for your students to watch again later if they’re absent or need a refresher? 

  • • Record-Mulitscan-Pause video

🗣 EB Supports: Live Captioned Translations with Office 365’s Power Point!

• Did you know that our subscription to Office 365 will allow you to turn on live captions while you present to class? Did you know that it will also allow you to translate those captions into one of several other languages? It’s true!

• This document is full of Technology Supports for EB Students, and this one (linked within the first document) gives you a one-pager on how to start Live Translated Captions

• What if you’re not designing IN Power Point? What if all your slides are in Google or Canva? We have a hack for that! Start the translation PowerPoint in its own Chrome window. In a new window, start your Google or Canva presentation, then drag it in front of your translation slides and resize your presentation to not cover the captions. Clear as mud? Reach out—your DLS wants to help you with this!!

🎁 A Vocabulary Lesson Idea

• Are you looking for a new way for students to interact with vocabulary words? How about this Canva Frames activity template?

• You can have all your students work in the same document (woo for collaborative digital spaces!) or you can have each student complete and present their own document individually.

  • Example 1

  • Sample Directions

👚 Adobe Express Ugly Sweater Challenge

• Adobe has rolled out their 12 Days of Creativity, and you’re invited to participate!

• They have—no surprise—twelve activities for you and/or your students to choose from on their page.

🔥 Game On December

• Sharpen your problem-solving skills under the starry night of learning! Earn the "Campfire Conundrums 🔥: Problem-Solving Campout" badge by demonstrating your mastery of creative problem-solving strategies in the digital realm. This badge recognizes educators who foster resilience, adaptability, and ingenuity in their students by guiding them through unexpected challenges. Show how you help learners navigate engaging virtual “conundrums,” transforming obstacles into opportunities for growth.

• This month, you are asked to submit one lesson that features an online problem-solving experience using any of the tools listed below. Your submission should include the problem-solving tool, lesson objective/goal, TEKS, and photos and/or videos demonstrating student engagement and learning.

• Choose any resource that aligns with a meaningful problem-solving task. Whether students are debugging code, navigating escape room puzzles, engineering solutions, or experimenting with robotics, the goal is to highlight student reasoning, strategy use, and perseverance in the digital realm.

• 🧭 Problem-Solving Tools

·       Digital Escape Rooms

·       VEX Robotics

·       Bee-Bots

·       Canva Code

• Check out the Game On site for additional details (and tons of pre-made ideas!), or reach out!

💿 Spotify Wrapped-Style Template

• If you’re looking for a new spin on a recap/rewind/reflection, maybe use a template that mimic’s Spotify’s Wrapped infographic series!

• You don’t have to be a music teacher to use this template–you can customize everything in the template to fit your content. Instead of “number of minutes of streaming,” consider “number of US Constitutional amendments studied” or “number of google docs created for this class”

• Matt Miller from Ditch that Textbook has a template for Google Slides, PowerPoint, and Canva. Have fun with it!

Greetings, Earthlings! I hope you enjoy this latest version of What the Tech. Looking for a previous edition? Check out CFB Learn Digital (bit.ly/cfblearndigital) and head to the newsletter section to see previous editions from this year and past years!

🎃 October Game-On Badge: Teamwork Trek

• This month’s badge is all about collaboration! Show evidence of ONE Teamwork Trek task from your Game-On course (think Docs, Slides, Padlet, Seesaw, Canva, etc.).

• Submit your screenshot in the October quiz on Canvas by the deadline of October 31–you know, this Friday!

🗣 Emergent Bilingual Supports

• Reminder/Refresher that the Digital Learning Department has a great support document to help you reach your students of all linguistic backgrounds

🎨 Canva Design Challenge: National STEM Day    

• Join the Canva Student Design Challenge to celebrate the power of  STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math)! Winners will score a special Canva swag pack and have their work showcased for the world to see.

• There are three challenge themes:

  • My Future STEM Job Poster (recommended for elementary and middle school)

  • STEM Visual Explainer (recommended for upper elementary and middle school)

  • STEM Innovative Video Pitch (recommended for high school)

• Submissions open October 27, and they close November 14

• Learn more about the challenge and enroll here

• Of course, if this is something you want todo and would like some assistance, let’s plan it together! Let’s teach it together! 

🤩 Three Canvas Feature Updates!

• SpeedGrader Sections (FINALLY!)

  • Switching between sections in your SpeedGrader is easier than ever now! 

  • From SpeedGrader, click the student’s name, then click “Showing: All Sections.” 

  • Now there are check boxes for easy changes! Check the box next to the section(s) you want to see, then click Apply. Voila!

• SpeedGrader Stickers

  • Are your online assignments missing that 90s vibe of stickers to show success? Great news: Canvas has introduced Submission Stickers, and it’s live in CFB now!

  • You can add stickers (more than the ones shown here!) from the SpeedGrader or from the Gradebook, and it will show up right next to the student’s grade.

  • After you add a grade and a sticker, the student will get a notification that they have a grade, and the details of the grade will show the grade, your feedback, and the sticker!

  • Once the student opens the assignment, they’ll see all the details you added, including the sticker!

  • You could create and share a sticker coding system with your students where stickers mean different things, or you can just go for them and add them on the assignment.

  • Read more about stickers here, or reach out to me, your DLS!

• • YouTube to Studio Migration

  • We’ve also enabled a new feature that has brought a navigational button to your Course navigation: YouTube Migration

  • Using this feature scans your course for Embedded videos (not videos in a slide deck), and offers to bring them to Canvas Studio for you.

  • Migrating removes the ads, takes away the suggested videos afterwards, and you can monitor student viewing behavior.

  • You can migrate manually or with the migration tool.

  • Check out Canvas’ guide here, or reach out to me, and I’ll be glad to help!

⌨ Helpful Keyboard Shortcuts for Your Windows and Chrome Devices

• Did you accidentally close a tab? Press CTRL + SHIFT + T to reopen the last tab you closed

• CTRL + C is copy; CTRL + V is paste

• CTRL + Shift + V is paste and match destination formatting

• CTRL + Z is undo

• CTRL + Y is redo

• CTRL + P is print

• Display/ hide the desktop: Windows logo key + D

• Switch between open apps: Alt + Tab

• Select all: Ctrl + A (I love this one!)

• Snap windows: Windows logo key + left arrow or Windows logo key + right arrow

🍬 External Badge Bingo

• Earn Game On credit for professional certifications like Adobe, Canva, Padlet, Pear Deck, and more. Get 3 = your first badge, and keep going for more—collect all 9 for the ultimate BINGO!

• Don’t miss out—badge season is officially open!

Hello, sparkly people! It’s the final week of the first nine weeks, and we have some tech treats for you. (But don’t worry: there’s no pumpkin spice anywhere near this email… we all know Cinnamon Apple is the superior fall flavor! 🍎)

Here are a few updates from the Digital Learning Department for your enjoyment. Please let me know how I can help you plan engaging and meaningful lessons, troubleshoot what’s going on, or act as a thinking partner for your classroom. ❤

🏕️October Game On

• It’s here! It’s live!

• Earn the “The Teamwork Trek 🗣️: Student Collaboration Trails” badge and unlock the power of student collaboration! Earn the "Teamwork Trek" badge by demonstrating your ability to create engaging digital spaces for student-to-student interaction. 

🍬 New! External Badge Bingo!

• Earn Game-On credit for professional certifications like Adobe, Canva, Padlet, Pear Deck, and more.

• Get 3 = your first badge, and keep going for more—collect all 9 for the ultimate BINGO!

• Don’t miss out—badge season is officially open!

🎃 No Tricks, Just Treats (that use the tech you already have!)
A short roundup of low-prep, high-fun tools to bring some seasonal joy:

• Canva Treats

  • Autumn vocabulary activity—I modified this template so you can make it a click and drag activity instead of a printed activity

    • this is a VERY elementary worksheet, but you could SO EASILY change this to fit your classroom

    • it’s not a very high DOK at all, but it’s a great review activity or even introduction

  • Halloween KWL Chart–again, you could so easily change this to fit your actual content

  • Follow the Pattern–this is a very elementary level math, but it doesn’t have to be! Sequence, formulas, or data patterns could be swapped out in a flash!

• Choice + Escape

  • Halloween Choice Board (by Tonya Nugent & John Sowash) – note that not all of these are ideal for your classroom, but there’s some good starting points!

  • Halloween Haunt Digital Escape Room

  • Lost in the Library Digital Escape Room presented by the Algoma Public LIbrary

  • The Haunted Mansion Mystery Escape Room as shared in Ditch That Textbook (answer key)

  • Halloween Math Mini Escape Room Google Form from Brandi Jordan, ideally suited for grades 3-5, but a great brain break for your students 

• 📩 Reach out if you want to collaborate on building your own or implementing any of these!

💍 Parent Engagement in Canvas

• One of the perks of using Canvas instead of Google Classroom is that your families can access your course without having to log in as their student. Canvas allows a Parent Observer role which will let families SEE what’s going on in the online classroom without any of the privileges of submitting work for that student. Huzzah!

• Guardians have to attach themselves to their student once, and then they’re linked for the entirety of the student’s CFB career, and guardians can attach themselves to many different students

• Feel free to share these directions with your students and their adults!

  • English: Canvas Parent Observer Role Directions (1).pdf 

  • Spanish: Spanish Canvas Parent Observer Role Directions - Google Docs.pdf 

👉🆕 Updated Canva + Canvas LMS integration

• Teachers can now use External Tools🔌 in the LMS to give students their own copy of a Canva design. Students can submit it back to Canvas in one click, directly to SpeedGrader. Teachers can even see student work in-process, without having to wait for students to submit!

• In other words, the Submit to Canvas button in Canva now works as you’ve long hoped it would! 🥳

• Video Directions for teachers to assignment Canva and for students to submit Canva assignment.

• Note: You’ll have to be in your campus Canva team when you create/edit the Canva design

👉🆕Canvas Course Accessibility Checklist

• The Canvas Course Accessibility Checklist offers practical tips to make courses more inclusive, from using proper headings and alt text to ensuring color contrast and captions. It’s a simple but powerful tool to catch common accessibility issues before publishing. Curious how many of these best practices you’re already following—and which ones might surprise you? Check out this blog post. 

• Hang in there—one more week and then we’re on Fall Break! 🍂 

🍐Pear Start 

• Are you looking for an AI assistant to help you write assessments or gamify your lessons? Have you hit the paywall with Magic School AI? Great news: we pay for Pear Start through our subscription to Pear Deck, and it’s great! 

• Visit https://start.peardeck.com/tools and choose Pear Sta­rt if prompted after logging in. From there, you have all sorts of options to plus up your instruction. 

• Remember: you are the content expert, and AI can sometimes hallucinate (make up facts as if they’re true), so you should definitely not take everything it says/creates as if it’s the absolute truth and way. It’s a great thinking partner, not a thinking replacement.

🍐Pear Deck: Student Toolbox

• Pear Deck has added a new tool - Student Toolbox! Students will now be able to have the content in a Pear Deck read aloud to them AND translated ( +read aloud)🙌🏽! View these instructions to learn more 🤩. 

👩‍🏫👨‍🏫 Canvas Teachers

• You can add and remove extra teachers on your own! 

  • From your canvas course, click People on the left side

  • Click + People in the top right corner

  • Add the teacher’s email address, and choose teacher at the bottom of that menu box

  • Click next, review your changes, then click add user

🌟 Canvas Annotations to Save Paper

• Did you know that students can annotate documents inside of Canvas? You don’t have to print all the documents OR you could have some printed and some online for student choice! 😁 

• Students can annotate on top of a .doc, .pdf, .jpeg, .ppt or anything that has a visual component! Canvas will automatically convert all of those file types into a PDF so students can not change your original content, but can still add their own text, comments, highlights, strikethroughs, and drawings. Visible learning anyone 💁🏽‍♀️? 

• Please note: if you are trying to upload a Google file to this assignment submission, you will need to download the Google file (docs, slides, sheets) as its Microsoft counterpoint (ppt, word doc, excel), an image, or a PDF. 

Here is how to do it: (need a video too? No problem, I got you 😉)

1. Set your assignment submission type to “online” 

2. Choose “student annotation” from the checkbox menu

3. It will then prompt you to upload a document 

Check out this visual aid for additional details

📁 Google Chrome Tab Groups

• Do you have 87 emotional support tabs open that you’re sure you’re going to use, but maybe just not right now?? If you want to keep those available to you but clean up some visual clutter and speed up your laptop, consider creating Tab Groups.

• Right click the tab you want to save, then click Add tab to new group. (click here for a visual)

• Name the group, choose a color, and live your best life! (click here for a visual)

• Add additional tabs to the group by right clicking the tab, choosing add to tab group, and clicking the desired group. (click here for a visual)

  • Note: the tab group has to be OPEN to add new tabs to it.

• Clicking the name of the tab group will collapse, or you can right click the title of the tab group and close it. All the content will recall when you reopen it!

• Bonus tip: if you accidentally close a tab in Chrome, you can type CTRL + Shift + T to bring it back! (Keep typing that–it will bring up several tabs you’ve closed!)

🏕️ September Game On

• Earn the "Exploring the LMS Wilderness: Configuration & Deployment Quest" badge and become a seasoned digital explorer. This badge celebrates your ability to navigate and master the complexities of your LMS.

• To earn this badge, you must submit evidence of completing at least 2 Exploring the LMS Wilderness tasks in your campus Game On Course:

  • Screenshot your UPDATED Canvas Meet the Teacher page

  • Screenshot your Google Classroom Banner AND course card

  • Screenshot a Google Assignment LTI from your Canvas course

  • Screenshot your Module organization in Canvas or Google Classroom (Include any keywords or emojis you will be using as standard) 

  • Use a Canva Code Widget in a Canvas page

  • Show proof of using 2 Accessibility tools from the Playbook

• When you have both pieces of evidence ready, submit the September quiz in your campus' Canvas Course. 

🏅 Canva Teams

• Canva has teams to help keep you organized, and each team has its own sharing permissions. 

• Switch between teams in the bottom left corner of Canva, clicking your current team, and then choose the specific team you want to look at

• Check out a visual here

• Note: people from different teams can not collaborate on a document 

Happy Tuesday, party people! Please enjoy the latest 6-12 What the Tech?! (Do you have feedback for What the Tech?!? Let me know!)

🔄 Combine Securly Classes

• If you have multiple sections of a class in the same period, you can merge/join those in Securly following these directions.

• Remember: students can only be in one instance of Securly at a time, so you should not merge all of your classes into one mega class.

💻 Block/Unblock a Website

• To get a website blocked or unblocked, submit an SOS ticket/work order, and navigate to Network/Wi-Fi. From there, choose Request to Unblock/Block and follow the prompts. You’ll need a screenshot of the site to unblock/block, and a short description of it.

• Not all sites will become available, but at least you won’t be left guessing!

🌎 Emergent Bilinguals

• We have a great Technology Supports for EB Students resource full of help sheets, tools, and strategies to support students as they build their English skills. 

• A quick reminder from the Multilingual Department: we want to avoid translating everything and instead want to stick to translating instructions and using cognates to encourage literacy. For newcomers, though, translations can be a helpful launchpad!

• Be sure to check out CFB Learn Digital, too, for more Multilingual Resources

🌟 T-TESS Goals + DLS 

• Do you have any T-TESS goals involving student engagement? What about goals involving  technology or digital resources? Your DLS is more than happy to help you reach those goals! Reach out via email or a Teams Message so we can get started together. 

🏁 Game On: September Challenge

• 🏅 Congrats to our teachers who earned their August badge, and congratulations to the August 2025 Campus Leaders! These campuses have the most badges per staff member—and don’t worry: we did the math to take into account campuses with larger/smaller staff sizes!

• 🌲🌳The September badge is now open, and it celebrates your ability to navigate and master the complexities of your LMS (learning management system). Check it out, and earn your badge!

💻 Securly

• Don’t see your classes in Securly at all? Make sure you’ve published your canvas course!

• Want to create observation groups? Go here to learn how to monitor specific groups of students, even while those students are in their regular classroom sessions. This monitoring is done without interfering with the control or visibility of the regular classroom teacher.

• Looking to cross list/stack/merge your same-period courses with multiple sections? That’s doable!

• Check out blocking plans if you want to set specific allowable or blocked tabs for your classes.

✅ Tech Implementation Checklist

• The Getting Started in CFB Tech Checklist offers a clear product-based or timeline-based structure so you can get some guidance and suggestions on when to implement what

  • bit.ly/CFBchecklist to see a checklist by product

  • bit.ly/CFB_BOYchecklist to see a checklist by week

🏁 Game On: August

• August’s challenge is all about setting expectations, procedures, and routines in your classroom. To earn your badge, complete two of the things below (and gather evidence such as a screenshot!) then submit your evidence in the Canvas course.

  • 📸 Photo evidence of Device Care Lessons, or screenshot of it in your LMS

  • 💻 Screenshot of you using a Securly class with your students

  • Or include a screenshot of you using some of the tools in Securly (custom block list, limit tabs etc.)

  • ✅ Screenshot showing your published Canvas Course

  • 📰 Screenshot or link to a BOY newsletter to families

  • 👩‍🏫 Photo Evidence of a BOY meeting with your DLS

• Join our campus Canvas Course and start showing off!

• Use this link to learn more about Game On as a whole and join the canvas course

📺 YouTube for Students

• As you already know, students should not be on YouTube through their accounts

• For you to share a video with students, you must embed it in Google Slides or Canvas

• Here are some written directions for using Canvas studio

• Here is a video with directions showing you how to do that directly from a canvas assignment/page/quiz/discussion

• Here are written directions for embedding a video into Canvas

⚙ Embedding Files from Google Drive and Canva into Canvas

• If you want to give students view only access to a Canva or Google file, you can do that right from the Rich Content Editor (the text box) in a Canvas page/announcement/assignment/quiz/discussion

• Note: you have to be the file owner to use this method; if you’re not the file owner, you can use the embed code the same way you embedded a YouTube video above. Reach out if you want some guidance!

• Check out this screenshot for visual assistance

💬 Microsoft Teams

• Adios, Webex. Hello, Teams! Microsoft Teams is our official video conferencing tool, so you’ll want to make sure you have it installed sooner than later—it’s also how you and I can meet virtually if we can’t be in the same physical space but want to work together!

• You can use Teams to chat with your colleagues as well—just like a text chat on a phone

  • This is especially great for quick messages to your team or instances where you want to make sure you’re responding to the most recent message rather than an earlier email

• This two-pager has lots of details, but you’re also welcome to reach out: Intro to MS Teams

• Test it out by sending me a message in Teams! Bonus points if your first message is a lame joke. 🤡