Tue, Aug. 22, 2023

Penney Matos

Centennial HS's Digital Learning Coach

Penney Matos taught elementary and middle school for 13 years before transitioning to instructional technology classroom support at Centennial HS.

Let me know when you're doing something awesome!

For Everyone!

AI use at Centennial HS

Have you used AI to save time or assist with a task? We are gathering ideas of how staff members (all staff, not just teachers) are using AI to make life easier! What has worked? What hasn't gone quite as expected? Please share your experiences!

https://forms.gle/1YF3LY9JyD9CTRd4A

Accessibility Options

If students and/or parents/guardians need digital accessibility options, here are a few to investigate:

Image to Text Conversion in PDFs. This ensures screen readers can convert images in a PDF to text. Then, the screen reader can read the text aloud. Read more.
Kami's PDF Read Aloud. How to use the read aloud tool in Kami.
Frisco ISD's Accessibility Recommendations

News and Noteworthy EdTech

Bulb ePortfolios

Frisco ISD pays for staff and students to use Bulb for an ePortfolio. If you would like to learn more, reach out to Penney Matos!

3 Ways to Use Bulb at the Start of the Year [About Me] [Goal Setting] [Newsletter]

ClassroomScreen

ClassroomScreen is a fun tool for teachers and presenters! According to them, Classroomscreen is what your students need when they don't know what they need. It's the online whiteboard that helps keep your classroom on task.

It houses many different desktop tools including a stop light, sound monitor, countdown timer, and much more! Meet the widgets. Thanks to Jeffere King for sharing this gem! https://classroomscreen.com/

Canvas Corner

DAEP Sections

If you have a student assigned to DAEP and you are emailed about setting up a DAEP section in Canvas, it MUST be done or your student will lose access to your Canvas course. See Penney Matos for help! If you are not contacted about setting up a section, your student will complete coursework through another method.

MasteryConnect

Centennial HS is using 4 tiers of mastery instead of the 3 tiers used in the past. If you haven't already, schedule a time with me and your PLC before creating your first MasteryConnect assessment. We need to set up a new Curriculum Map, your Canvas trackers, and discuss how to convert previous 3-tier assessments to be 4-tier assessments!

Due Dates

Due Dates are VERY IMPORTANT in Canvas! Due dates add the assignment to:

students' activity list (dashboard view most of our students use)
students' Canvas to-do list
students' Canvas calendar
your Canvas calendar
your Canvas gradebook

Because many of our students work from these lists, please make sure assignments are due on A/B days appropriately for each class.

Tip: Canvas defaults to 11:59 PM. If you want to encourage students to maybe go to bed a little earlier, set the due time to (1) the end of each class, (2) 4:30 PM, or (3) 9:00 or 10:00 PM.

How to assign different dates/times for each class: In the assign section, remove "Everyone" and add the section(s). Enter the DUE date/time. Look below the box to "Add" another box for the next section(s) and next due date/time. You can assign all A day classes in one box and all B day classes in another box or use separate boxes for each class period.

See Penney Matos for help!

In the Know...

Communicating with Students, Parents, Guardians

Emailing from eSchool's TAC

You can send an email to (1) students, (2) guardians, or (3) both. Follow these directions. Don’t forget to copy and paste in the text part of your email signature and use hyperlinks to Canvas or to files in Google Drive instead of attachments.

Canvas Announcements

Announcements are delivered to students based on the method they have selected for their Notifications. By default it emails students. They can add their phone numbers to receive announcements as text messages. They can also turn off all notifications (not recommended). Parents who are connected to their students as Observers also receive the messages based on their own notification settings. Not all parents/guardians are connected to their children. How to add an announcement in a course.

Remind

Remind automatically rosters classes based on your gradebook. The first time you log into Remind (sign in with Google) you’ll accept your new courses. It can take up to 45 minutes for them to fully populate once they’re accepted. If you send a message here, it goes to all students email (unless they added their phone number) and guardians email and/or phone depending on what’s in eSchool unless you change your audience. Read more. If you do not want to use the Remind classes that are connected to your gradebook, please go in and archive them! You can create your own Remind classes too.

Please reach out if you have any questions!

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