It's Time for Something Different...It's Time for a Breakout!

What you are about to read are real quotes, from real students...

    

"It was the best time I have ever had in a class." 

    "Interacting with others and working as a team to me is all what learning is about."

    "It was a fun surprise and really made me think out of the box."

While I would like to think that this is how my students describe each of my classes, I recognize that probably isn't the case.  So what was it that got my students demonstrating creative problem solving and collaboration?...(insert drum roll) Breakout EDU!

So what exactly is a breakout and why should you consider doing one in your classroom?  Breakout Edu is an immersive learning experience based on the problem solving and collaborate experiences of an escape room.    This fully customizable experience allows your students to truly push their cognitive limits while engaging them!  As with anything that we incorporate for student learning, it has to be about more than just student engagement and fun.  While your students will experience both, it has to be about student learning and achieving your learning objectives.

They Call This...The Beginning of the Year Checklist!

It's electric in the air! Can you feel it?!

They Call This...The Beginning of the Year Checklist!

Excited.  Anxious.  Maybe a little stressed.  The beginning of the year can make us feel a number of different emotions but there really is nothing like that moment when students walk into your classroom on the first day.  Enjoy those moments.  With that said, let's get right to it!  Here are a few items to consider before those students walk in on day one.

Setting Up Your New Courses in Schoology

Anytime I have to do something once a year, you can expect that I have forgotten how to do it.  Remember that in setting up new Schoology courses for the year you have two options.

1. Copy a previously used course - Go into your archived courses (Courses --> See All --> Archived), click on the gear icon located next to the course name and click "Copy Section".  From there, simply make small changes (clicking on the 2016-17 School Year under "Grading Period") and you are ready to go.  All the previous student information will be gone, but your materials, assignments, assessments, etc. will still be there!

2. Create a new course from scratch - To do this, simply select "Courses" and then "Create".  This will give you a blank template to work with. (Again, don't forget to select 2016-17 School Year under "Grading Period.")  Once your course has been created, you will need to either import materials, resources, etc. from your "Personal Resources" or add them into the course via the "Add Materials" button.

Reminder: Each year in July, your courses are auto-archived.  Never delete a course because they hold important resources and student submissions/grades.  You always have access to previous courses to recover any information and/or resources.

Tip: Schoology has a number of resources to help teachers get started on the right foot during the start of the new school year.  You can find articles, walk throughs and tutorial videos to help with "Back to School" on our new Instructional Technology website.  Check it out HERE!

Hapara Teacher Dashboard

Our friends at Hapara continue to make improvements to the Teacher Dashboard.  Here are a few things to consider as you begin the new year. 

1. Adding/Removing Students:  Occasionally you may notice that a student is missing from your course or a student has switched classes and remains in your Hapara course.  Hapara has made it simple to manually make the necessary changes.  To add a student, simply click on the "Class Info" tab located at the top of the screen.  From there, select "Add New" under the "Learners" section and type in the email address of the student to be added (i.e. rresite20@students.reshs.org).  To remove a student, check the box located next to their name and click on "Remove".  To view a tutorial video on this process, please click HERE (located at the bottom of the page).
2. Seminar:  New to your Dashboard this year, you will find your seminar course is now listed.  Some teachers had mentioned that it would be helpful to be able to view their seminar students screen, ensuring they were using their time productively.  Enjoy...and sorry to students for ruining seminar.

* If you find an error in Hapara, either a missing course and/or you have been assigned incorrect courses, please email me so that I can make the necessary changes.

Be Looking For...

1. Directions on how to utilize the new Cast for Education ability.  This will allow you to select what student you would like to allow the ability to project their Chromebook screen without having to connect it to the projector.
2. Training session on the new Schoology AMP feature.  Just think of the data-driven decisions you are about to explore!
3. Badges.  You'll find out more about this later...

For additional help, please contact Joe Lascon or Brad Czernik for assistance.  You can also find helpful resources in the new Instructional Technology website for faculty and staff.

Digital Spring Cleaning!

Well it is about that time of year again!  As we wind down the 2016-17 school year, we are reminded that spring cleaning also involves the cleaning of our digital closets!  Here are a few items to consider for the end of the school year...

First, If you're leaving Resurrection, there may be some digital items that you want to take with you (or need to make available for others). If you use Google Apps or Schoology and want to share, keep or take your stuff, please visit our previous post located here with directions on how to go about doing so.

Google Apps

The first stop on our digital spring cleaning adventure is our Google Drive!  While Google Drive has changed how we share and collaborate, it can become the digital equivalent of a cluttered basement if not properly maintained!  Primarily, there are two areas of Google Drive that are going to need our yearly attention, our main drive and our "Shared with me" drive.  Let's take a few moments to review how we can organize each section: 

1. Main Drive:  Over time, as more Google Docs and presentations are created, your Drive can become cluttered.  The first step to take when organizing your Drive is to utilize a folder organization system (remember that Drive allows you to create folder within folders for added organization). From clubs to various courses that I teach, I have a folder for everything.  If you are in the habit of creating new documents/presentations directly from your Drive, you may have a number of loose documents in your Drive.  Take some time to sort those loose documents into their designated folders.  (TIP: If you create new files from within a selected folder, the file will automatically store itself in that folder.)  Also take this opportunity to delete any old documents that you will not need in the future.  While this can be difficult, it can also provide a feeling of relief!
2. Shared with me:  Unfortunately, this section is the wild west of Google Drive.  This section of Drive does not allow for the same organizational options as our main Drive (i.e. creating organizational folders).  Here are a few tips to help with your "Shared with me" section:
1. Any files that you would like to keep from your "Shared with me" section need to be added to your main Drive.  To do this, simply right click on the desired file and then select "Add to Drive".  Once you have added it to your Drive, you can organize it in the ways that we described above.
2. As with our main Drive, take an opportunity to delete old files that you will not need access to.  I try to take ten minutes here or there to do this so that I don't spend two hours just deleting files.

Schoology Materials & Resources

Statistics show us that over the past two years we have continued to see an increase in faculty Schoology usage.  As we continue to build our courses and add resources, we want to make sure that we don't have to reinvent the wheel each year.  Please take a moment to visit Schoology's official "End of the Year" checklist blog here to learn more about your courses, resources and how to end the year.

Reminder: Our Schoology school year ends on June 30th. That means that on that date, your courses will be auto-archived. You will still have access to both the courses and your resources but they will no longer appear under the "Courses" dropdown menu. I would not recommend ever deleting a course, simply archive it.

Tip: Teachers can create summer Schoology courses that students could access during the summer if needed.  If you need a summer course set up please let us know in advance.  You will need to select the summer grading schedule when setting the course up. 

Hapara Teacher Dashboard

In the same fashion as Schoology, Hapara also requires a yearly archiving process.  The archiving also will happen in July but there is no need to worry about lost student files.  Any archived folders and files will still be retrievable in your Google Drive.  Students will also have access to their own files even after the archiving process. To learn more about how the archiving process works for Hapara (remember, this impacts your Google Drive) please click here.

Tip: If you plan on having students access resources and/or turning in work over the summer, please remember that the folders they are using now will be archived and you will not have the same access to them at the start of next school year.  I would recommend having students keep summer work in their Google Drive and then adding them to their new folders at the start of the new school year.  Making submissions through Schoology would be my other recommendation.

A little bit of yearly spring cleaning will go a long way in helping you start off the next school year on the right foot!  As always, if you have any questions about items listed above, please contact me at JLascon@reshs.org

Taking It With You

Tuesday Tech Tip: Taking It With You

If you're leaving Resurrectionl, there may be some digital items that you want to take with you (or need to make available for others).  If you use Google Apps or Schoology, here's how you can share, keep or take your stuff.

Google Apps

The most important thing to remember about items that live in Google Drive is that once your account is deleted, all of your items become inaccessible, even if you've shared them.  Additionally, you can't transfer ownership to an account that lives outside of the school (in our case, an address that doesn't have "@reshs.org").   Here's how to handle your Google files:

1. Transfer ownership of files that others still need to access.  If you have shared files that in-school folks will need to continue using, be sure you transfer ownership.  You can either do this on an individual or folder level (using the "Sharing" options) or you can contact someone in the Technology department and they can transfer all files that belong to your user to another in-school account.
2. Use Google Take-out to download all of your Google data.  If you have files that you want to take with you, you can download your files (the default for Google Docs is to convert to MS Office equivalents but you can change those options).  To get your Google account data (including your docs, drawings, slides, forms and spreadsheets), go to https://www.google.com/settings/takeout and select the services for which you wish to download your data.  Google will create downloadable archive files and email you when they are ready to be accessed.

Schoology Materials & Resources

If you created content in Schoology, and you still would like to access & use it, you have a couple of  options.  You can create a free, personal account and share your collections with your personal account or you can export items from your Personal Resources if you will be using a different Learning Management System (LMS) in the future.

1. Continue to use Schoology with a personal account.  You may be leaving our school, but that doesn't mean to have to stop using Schoology.  While we have the Enterprise version at Resurrection, Schoology also has free accounts that you can use as a teacher.  
1. Go to http://www.schoology.com and signing up for a free teacher account, using a personal email address (like Gmail or HotMail).  
2. Make a "connection" between your personal account and your Res account (see this support article for directions on making a connection).
3. Create a collection in your Personal Resources and share that collection with your personal Schoology account.
4. Go into your personal Schoology account and create a new folder, moving the shared collection items into it for continued access.  (* Use the collection sharing directions above to share items with in-district colleagues or use an existing Schoology Group to make sure your shared items are still accessible by others.)
2. Export your Personal Resources into a Common Cartridge format for import into another LMS.  If you will be moving to another school that uses a different LMS than Schoology, you can export your items into a Common Cartridge format.  Most LMS platforms allow for import of CC formatted files.  
1. Go to your Personal Resources area and use the arrow pull-down to choose "Export."
2. Select the folder or collection you wish to export.
3. Schoology will create the export file for you in your Transfer area (http://www.schoology.com/settings/transfers), notifying you by email when it is ready for download.

If you have any questions about this (or how to get other items you own, like items from your Resurrection server), please contact someone in the Technology Department for further assistance