Manage Classroom Noise with Bouncy Balls

 

Bouncy Balls

Manage Classroom Noise

Created by Scott Aten, March 8, 2022

A quiet classroom does not necessarily mean optimal learning is happening.  Students can learn a lot by collaborating, discussing solutions together, and exchanging viewpoints on what they are learning.  There can be a fine line, however,  between productive classroom noise and disruptive classroom noise.   As teachers we can train our students on how to keep classroom discussions and collaboration at a volume that can be productive.  Joe Grigas shared this site with the staff at GMS recently and after looking at it myself,  I thought it was worth sharing with all of you.  The site is called "Bouncy Balls" and it can be used to measure the noise in a room.  

Here is how it works.  The teacher launches the free Bouncy Balls website. In the upper right corner of the site you will see a microphone with a line through it.  Clicking on this icon will turn on your microphone (you need to have a microphone connected to the computer). 

Next the teacher has the ability to set the sensitivity of the microphone.  This may takes some practice to determine what is the best setting for your classroom and microphone placement.  This also helps determines what noise level is too much.

The "Total" area allows you to determine the number of "balls" or other items appear on the screen.  Sliding the control to the right adds more and to the left reduces the number of elements on the screen. 

Bouncy Balls comes with more options than just balls.  You can choose different "themes" to bounce Emojis, Bubble, or Eyeballs.  Plastic is the default and represents the "bouncy balls".

The training part occurs when the "Noise Alert" is turned on.  The site will make a noise and display a message when the max noise level is reached.  This can be an audible clue to the class that things have gotten too noisy for productive learning.  There are two options for the noise alert - Beep and "Shush".  This alert can be turned off as well by clicking the "checkmark".

Overall this is a simple site to use and creates a visual interpretation of the noise in the classroom.  Give it a try next time students are working in groups.

Please feel free to schedule me to come and assist you with your next project that has at technology piece included.  I am always ready to come help.  

[Green Technology Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Taking the Mystery Out of Canvas Assignments

 

Canvas Assignments

Taking the Mystery Out of Canvas Assignments

Created by Scott Aten, December 3, 2021

Hopefully Canvas is becoming a little easier for you this second year.   On our past PD days I did a session called "Taking the Mystery out of Canvas Assignments."  I have recorded this session and am posting it hear in case you were not able to attend.  I am also including some time stamps in case you are looking for something specific dealing with Canvas Assignments and don't want to watch the whole presentation.  I am also including a link to the session presentation notes if you would like to see them as well.

Video Time Stamps
Canvas Assignment explained - 0:48

Creating Assignments in the "Assignments Area" - 2:21

Creating Assignments in the "Module Area" - 4:25

Importing assignments from past courses/sandbox - 5:42

Create new assignments that will sync to ProgressBook - 17:20
What types of things can be added into a Canvas Assignment - 21:03

Adding assignment information in the Rich Content Editor - 22:53

Four basic submission types - 25:33

Assign to Area - 30:24

Online Submission types explained - 33:05

Student Annotation Assignments explained - 36:26

Google LTI assignments - 39:54

Grading Assignment Tips - 47:09

Troubleshooting assignments that did not sync to ProgressBook - 53:07

Please feel free to schedule me to come and assist you with Canvas Assignments if you have specific issues with your Canvas Course.  

[Green Technology Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

 

Using the Canvas Commons

Find existing content for your Canvas Course

Created by Scott Aten, November 9, 2021

After talking with some of the presenters from our PD day, shout to out Natalie and Christine, we were surprised that a good amount of the staff is not aware of the Canvas Commons.  So I thought I would create this quick post to remind everyone about this great resource.

What is the Canvas Commons?
The Canvas Commons is a digital library that contains content created by other teachers. The Commons allows teachers to share resources with others, allowing them to import these resources into their own Canvas course. 

Where can I find the Canvas Commons?
When you have logged into your Canvas Instructor account, look for the "Commons" button in the far left menu.  Click on it to enter the Commons.

How does the Canvas Commons Work?
There is a lot of content available in the Canvas Commons.  By default, you will have the "Green Local Schools" filter turned on.  This filters and shows only content Green staff members have added to the Commons.  More on sharing content later, but for looking for things created by non-Green staff you will need to turn this filter off. Turn off this filter by simply clicking the X at the end of the label.

You can now search for content and will discover material added by teachers outside of Green.  Start by typing something in the search box at the top.  For example if I am doing lessons on "The Great Gatsby" I could type in "Great Gatsby" and I would find 102 results that include quizzes, modules, pages, assignments and even entire courses.  I am able to import any of these into my own course and use them with my students.

You can apply filters to your search in order to find more specific content.  For example if I wanted to find a quiz I can use with my students who just read "The Great Gatsby", I can click the filter button and then click the quiz button.

This will limit the search results to just Canvas Quizzes.  You can run similar filters for Modules, Assignments, and Pages as well.  You may also filter by grade level to help focus the content to your age students.

You can preview the content by clicking on the links in the search.  This will allow you to see if the content is what you want before you bring it into your Canvas Course.  Please note that this content is not vetted, so please use your professional discretion before adding content to your course from the Canvas Commons.

How do I get this content into my Canvas Course?
Once you find content you like and want to use in your Canvas course, you can import it by clicking the "Import/Download" button on the right side of the screen.

You will then be asked to identify into which of your Canvas course(s) you would like to import the content.  Then simply click the "Import into Course" button.

Keep in mind if you import a Module, you will be getting all the pieces of that Module (assignments, quizzes, pages, discussions, etc.).  So this is a fast way to get a lot of content into your course.

Once the content is in your course, you will need to unpublish things you don't want the students to see, add the appropriate assignment types (practice and achievement), as well as alter some due dates.  If you import things to ProgressBook you will have to set assignments to sync as well.

Can you just show me a video of you doing all the steps?

How can I share content to the Canvas Commons for other to find?

If you have designed a nice assignment, module, quiz or other piece of Canvas content, you can easily add it to the commons by following these steps.

1) Find the content you want to share (if it is an assignment, go into "Assignments"  in your Canvas, if it is a Module, go into the "Modules" in your Canvas course, etc.)

2) Click the three dots at the end of the content

3) Choose "Share to Commons"

4) Choose who can use this resource ("All of Green Local Schools" - will limit it to just our staff)

5) Complete the rest of the info as appropriate

6) Click "Share"

It is that easy!

Hopefully this will help you find and share content in the Canvas Commons.  If you need assistance feel free to schedule me to come and work with you or your department.

[Green Technology Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Import Final Report Card Grades from Canvas to ProgressBook

 

Import Final Report Card Grades

Import from Canvas to ProgressBook with NO manual typing.

Created by Scott Aten, October 15, 2021

At the beginning of the school year you were given the choice of using the sync option to bring grades to ProgressBook or doing not syncing and manually type in the final grade on the report card at the end of the nine weeks.  What I didn't say at the time was that I was hoping to find a way to bring in the final grades to ProgressBook WITHOUT manually typing in all the final grades.  Good New! There is a way and this blog post will describe how to do it.

ONLY APPLILES TO STAFF THAT ARE NOT SYNCING GRADES 
So if you are doing the daily or weekly sync of each assignment into ProgressBook from Canvas, you can stop reading because this post does not apply to you.  For the rest of you here we go...

BASIC STEPS

1. Download your grades from Canvas as a spreadsheet
2. Make a few edits to the spreadsheet to get it ready 
3. Create an assignment in ProgressBook and copy that assignment to all the classes you teach.
4. Import Spreadsheet (final grade) into the assignment in ProgressBook
5. At report card time click "check/equals" and you are done with report cards

Now that you have the basic idea of what we are going to do, you are ready to look at the actual directions.  I have created both a written step-by-step document that tells you exactly what to do as well as a video of me doing all the steps that you can watch.

[Written Step-By-Step Directions]

Video Demonstration

That is all you need to do.  Follow these steps and your Canvas Final Grade will match perfectly to your ProgressBook Report Card grade.

Please keep in mind if you ever need to schedule me for a 1-1 help session, these can be scheduled using this link.

[Green Technology Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team

Built in Annotation Assignment Type in Canvas

 

Annotations in Canvas

Using the Built in Annotation Assignment Type in Canvas

Created by Scott Aten, September 16, 2021

New for this school year is the option of creating an "Annotation" type assignment for students in Canvas as a part of an online submission assignment.  This type of assignment will totally replace the use of Kami for this type of activity.  The challenge with the free version of Kami has been the saving of student work and then getting the annotated copy turned into the teacher.  All of these issue go away by using the annotation option built into Canvas.

What can the student's do?

• complete the annotation assignment directly in Canvas.
• add text boxes to a document
• draw lines on a document
• highlight on a document
• add comments to a document
• easily submit the assignment when finished

See how it works

Remember you can easily convert a paper document to a PDF with any building copy machine, so go ahead and eliminate all the paper on your desk by using this awesome feature of Canvas.

Please keep in mind if you ever need to schedule me for a 1-1 help session, these can be scheduled using this link.

[Green Technology Training Center]

[Click here to go to the YouTube Channel]

For more helpful information and the archive of previous posts, look for items in the menu to the left.

Green Local Schools

Tech Integration Team