We’re familiar with the saying “Practice makes perfect,” and during this time of year, in particular, I enjoy taking the time to reflect on my teaching practices and philosophies. Personal and professional reflection isn’t “work” for me. Even with a ...

You Do You!February may be short, but for teachers it is often one of the longest months of the year. Students are tired. Teachers are tired. Tensions are high. Morale is low. It is hard to find the motivation and energy to pour into others if our ow...

We are an Office365 school but it would appear that pretty much every student has their own personal gmail account. The Head of MFL Faculty approached me about using Google collaborations with her A Level/IB French groups.I spent this morning explori...

We are just over 2 weeks into the full launch of Canvas at our school. We spent a considerable time planning for the implementation (over a year!). Wherever possible we tried to listen to the needs of each department and incorporate them in our plann...

I want to preface this by saying that, on paper (or ‘in the cloud’ as paper becomes more and more obsolete’) that my thoughts and feelings on using a learning environment like Canvas are well into the positive side of the spectrum. The potential for ...

I was made aware yesterday, that Google apps integration for Canvas Learning Management System was up and running.  Today, I dived in and tried a few things. I'm sure there is more here, but I'll dig in more when I have time.Our administrator already...

When I started working in elearning I was given some interesting advice when trying to persuade staff to adopt new practices.It wasn't the usual stuff like:Show something that will make an impact, show something that will reduce workflow, show someth...

The feedback between Instructors and Students is the cornerstone to Student success and mastery.  I have developed a table highlighting the major feedback resources in Canvas.  Enjoy!

Why are parents often among the last ones to be informed about digital developments' in a school? After working on virtual learning environments for 15yrs I am never quite sure this is by accident or design :O)It got me to thinking what possible reas...

I use quizzes a lot in my Physics lessons. I try to use a mix of closed and open question both to add variety to the quiz (and, if I am honest, to cut down on the marking!)When I set open answers, especially formula based questions, I like to give st...

This is a how to document that you can use to easily make your pages look professional and engaging with minimal formatting with the help of embed codes from sites such as Smore.

For those teachers who are evaluated using a tool that uses Marzano domains, this spreadsheet highlights the connection between Canvas Tools and high impact practices.

Notes taken during the K-12 User Group Meeting @ InstructureCon, 2016

We are a 9-12 Boarding School in the Mid-Atlantic and we currently have a member of our facilities staff who is hearing impaired.   From his first month, he immersed himself right into our community, not only with his job responsibilities, but becomi...

Starting Canvas in our school, it was agreed that all homework should be put on the calendar for the course you teach to encourage students to get on to and explore the platform.Staff could make entries either as:An event - For tasks not related to C...

Online journaling is a tool I’ve just begun to use that brings together the best of instructional methods and technology into one easy-to-implement classroom practice. The emphasis here is on the word easy.  In this activity, I've incorporated Google...

We recently re-discovered how to do an advanced image search in google. For those of you who did not know, google moved the way of filtering image searches based on copyright permissions.  The great news is you still can search for images that are ba...

It feels like preparing your Tax return! No one looks forward to doing it, but it sure is nice to have it done – especially if you get a refund. So it is with switching over from the legacy Turnitin API integration (to be deprecated by the end of 201...

This is my first blog post in the Community, so it might be a little underwhelming. Just yesterday, Canvas published the first wave of breakout sessions from InstructureCon 2016 on their YouTube Page. Today, I burned through all the posted sessions. ...

Welcome back to school! Following up last year ‘Packing up the Classroom’ we will revisit the series with administrator and teacher tasks for the beginning of the school year. The thirty minute webinar will cover course imports, Commons, term date an...

As an Edtech Coordinator one of my goals next year is to help teachers transform their feedback. Below are two posts I recently wrote on my personal blog that I wanted to share with the Canvas Community.Part 1One of my AAU basketball coaches would al...

In a previous blog post I expressed how surprised I was that the students in my classes had not embraced Canvas in the way that I had imagined: Students who say, "just tell me what to memorise," and how to serve them​Yesterday, having spent another d...

I love learning, *really* love learning: if I could avoid my classes and sneak into the back of colleagues' rooms to listen to lessons on classical civilisation, Russian grammar, and theoretical physics all day long, that would be heaven.As it is, I ...

I was directed to Versal last week by a tweet from @alicekeeler. Versal is a free course generator that allows you to develop a number of interactive learning activities using 'gadgets'.The software is very straightforward to use. Sign up is simple (...

All our students have planners to write their homework into.  We usually put some school-specific information into the front few pages of their planners.  I've made a couple of pages explaining students how to use Canvas.  Here's the PDF and DOCX ver...

I can't technically tie this to Canvas, but it has been so much fun that I wanted to share it with you.  I've been playing with Google Cardboard and Cardboard Camera over the last few months.  With Cardboard Camera (a free app for Android), you can c...

Differentiated instruction allows teachers to tailor study to a student's needs and/or interests. Nothing is more frustrating than having to watch a student who has easily mastered the material not be challenged as he/she waits for others to grasp th...

If we want our students to be well-prepared for an assessment, the way that we practice in class should closely mirror the format of the test itself.Why, then, are we still using paper review sheets?Don't get me wrong: there are some students who pre...