Fine Arts Digital Learning
Digital Links & Reminders for the Fine Arts Teachers of PCSD
With the NEW Info of In-Person Classes Cancelled Through the Remainder of the Year, There will be Updates to this Page Soon about Instruction After Spring Break
Digital Learning!
There are also private FB groups between the individual contents/levels for collaboration over the course of these coming days and I am so appreciative of all of you for your part in making this a solid instructional time for our students.
Again, I will reiterate what I shared earlier in our weekly news because I believe it whole heartedly:
Please remember - your content is all about the things in life which make us human. While we have placed guidelines and suggestions in place about instruction in the coming weeks, please focus on this one thing more than anything - I just really want you to have your students use their art and their music as a way to express their feelings and have an outlet during this time of confinement. Of all the things going on right now to worry about, our content should NOT be stressful or painful. Please do not make it so unnecessarily.
Don't neglect the teachable moments which are bound to occur. I always love when art and music are used as a means of sharing and caring. Are you able to use this time we are in to teach them something about living artists? Functional Art? Music Therapy? Is there something occurring in the music or art world that is addressing a need? To me, we are in an unprecedented time in our world. Let's not waste the opportunity to grow the students in a social/emotional way through the arts.
Thank you again for all you will do to make these days of digital learning count and I have hopes they will learn just as much as they would inside your classroom.
If you have any Digital Learning Day questions during this time, please e-mail instructionaltechnology@paulding.k12.ga.us
Also remember, you can chat live with Canvas Support or call them at 866-443-1204. They are available 24/7/365!
Be Available - Check Your Emails Daily (Telework Guidelines Attached)
Refer to Digital Learning Info Below for Specific Details
NEW Important REMINDER
To ensure we can continue to do this, families are to reach out to their teachers for support and if teachers are unable to assist then the teacher will escalate to others for assistance.
Also, to ensure the quickest response, please be as descriptive as possible in your e-mail. Let us know examples of who is affected by the issue, what course or website it is happening on, what device was being used, etc. Screenshots are always helpful as well.
Canvas Tips
Tip #1:
Publish, publish, publish
In order for students to see your content, the item, module, and course must all be published! See screenshot below.
Tip #2:
Student view
- In that same screenshot above, there is a button called Student View, this allows you to fully interact with your course as a student. Very helpful for diagnosing issues and seeing how students should submit assignments.
Tip #3:
Canvas Instructor Guide and Instructor Video Guide
These guides have more answers than you could ever want and show you step by step how to do just about everything in Canvas.
Instructor Guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10460-canvas-instructor-guide-table-of-contents
Instructor Video Guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/community/answers/guides/video-guide#jive_content_id_Instructors
As always, please e-mail instructionaltechnology@paulding.k12.ga.us if you have any questions. The entire team is checking this e-mail, so your answer can get answered as quickly as possible.
Tip #4:
Caveat Emptor but for free stuff
- While we are closed due to the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), many support vendors are extending their hand offering to help us continue our students' education without interruption. Be cautious when you are considering new resources, especially ones that would require a district or school account, a taxpayer identification number, or the sharing of student data. Read carefully any agreements before giving personal information as well.
- Our Instructional Technology and Curriculum team has a base of resources that have been reviewed, used in training, and implemented; and, we recommend that you continue to use those resources. They are located on the Student Dashboards and the Instructional Technology site. In addition, the Instructional Technology site has a list for Digital Learning in the content area with guidance and resources specifically provided for this school closure event and is updated regularly.
- And now a new section of Digital Learning Tips, Accessibility Tool Tips! Amanda Inman will be providing great tips on how to make sure our Digital Learning content is accessible to ALL learners!
Accessibility Tool Tip #1
Need read-to (text-to-speech) and spelling supports (Word prediction) for students in Canvas?
- Remember on Pages in Canvas students have access to use the Immersive Reader Tool.
- Students can also use the Read and Write Toolbar (Purple Puzzle Piece) to read other materials outside of Pages. Students can use the RW toolbar to read in assignments, quizzes, PDFs, etc.
- How-to information and videos can be found on this public site: https://pcsdassistivetech.weebly.com
Tip #5
More Troubleshooting
- When logging into Canvas, teachers and students should not use @paulding.k12.ga.us after their username. When logging into Clever, teachers and students should add @paulding.k12.ga.us after their username.
- LearnZillion- we are aware of the issue with the External Tool in Canvas not automatically logging students in. We are trying to fix the auto-login, but some work arounds are
- Some have had success with converting the external tool link to an external tool assignment, but this has not been extensively tested. Directions attached.
- You can also link to Clever (www.clever.com/in/pcsd) and have students log into LearnZillion from there and then do all of your assigning from LearnZillion itself. This should work for everyone. https://help.learnzillion.com/hc/s/?id=How-do-I-assign-share-and-grade-a-lesson
- If you or a student needs their password reset, please submit a help ticket.
- Britannica School typically automatically signs us in when we are on a district network. To log in from home, click the link on the student dashboard and use
- Access ID: pauldingcs
- Passcode: access
Tip #6
Live web conferences with your students
Live web conferencing is a great way to stay in touch with your students during this time. The tools we recommend for this are:
- Canvas Conferences- Canvas has a built in conferencing tool
- Canvas Conferences guides https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10460-canvas-instructor-guide-table-of-contents#jive_content_id_Conferences
- Canvas Conferences video guide https://community.canvaslms.com/videos/1101-conferences-overview-instructors
- Zoom- Zoom has lifted the 40 min time limit due to COVID-19 and has been approved for use by the county
- Set up a free account with your Paulding e-mail address, this should automatically lift the 40 min restriction
- https://zoom.us/signup
- You can then post the Zoom link in your Canvas course for your students to join.
- Zoom help articles and videos: https://zoom.us/docs/en-us/covid19.html
Both are great tools, but some have reported that Canvas Conferences was not working well for them. Canvas has now posted a message saying to consider other tools if our institution has over 10 concurrent sessions. One benefit of Zoom over Conferences is that you can download your recording and have it available forever. With Canvas Conferences, the recordings expire after two weeks.
Tip #7
Due Dates
As we get further into Digital Learning, organization is key. One thing that will help students stay organized is setting due dates on your assignments. If you set a due date, the assignment appears in students’ to do lists, on their calendars, and is organized by due date on their syllabi. You can set due dates on assignments, quizzes, and discussions. To assign a due date, go to the quiz, assignment, or discussion, click edit, and scroll to the bottom. You should see a box that looks like this:
More info on Due Dates: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10327-415273044
Tip #8
Differentiation and Specialized instruction in Canvas
Look back at the due date screenshot again, notice the Assigned to field? You can assign a quiz, assignment, or discussion to individual students or sub-sections of your class. Just remove the “Everyone” tag from the assignment and then begin typing the students’ names or the name of the sub-section you want to assign to. Want to provide scaffolding for some students but they don’t need to submit anything? You can make the assignment a “No Submission” assignment which then functions like a page but can be assigned only to those individuals who need it.
Canvas guide on assigning to individual students: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-9973-4152101242
Canvas guide on assigning to a sub-section: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10434-4152669141
Want even more differentiation? Check out Mastery Paths (note: recommended for more advanced users)
Canvas Guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10442-how-do-i-use-masterypaths-in-course-modules
Canvas Video Guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/videos/2690-mastery-paths-instructors
Accessibility Tool Tip #2
When posting materials to Canvas and other online resources, please remember to always make sure your materials are accessible. Videos should have close captions available.
Need help on how? How-to information and videos can be found on the Universal Design for Learning page at https://pcsdassistivetech.weebly.com
Remember, we are now archiving these tips on the DLD Teacher Website! Check it out along with all the other great DLD resources available there.
Tip #9
YouTube Videos without Distractions
Videos can be a great resource for digital learning and YouTube is the first place most people go to find them. However, ads, suggested videos, and comments all distract from the video and potentially lead to inappropriate content. While Canvas removes most of these by just placing a link inside Canvas, SafeShare and ViewPure go the extra step by removing all of it and giving you a new non-YouTube link to the video. Just paste your YouTube link into one of the sites below and it will convert it to a new link to paste in your Canvas course.
Tip #10
Message Students
In Canvas, you can quickly message all students who meet a certain criteria. For example, you could send everyone who was missing a particular assignment a message reminding them to complete it. Or you could send everyone who scored below a set score a remediation opportunity. You can also send a message to students who haven’t viewed a particular resource yet. Canvas sends these as individual messages, but you only have to compose the message once. There are two places to do this: Gradebook and New Analytics. See the guides below for more information.
New Analytics:
Based on assignments: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-18039-4152982519
Based on course activity: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-18031-41521081673
Grades:
Based on individual assignments: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16553-4152813641
Accessibility Tip #3
Read-to in Edge Browser
Read-to support is available through the Edge browser. You can use this feature for text-to-speech when in Canvas outside of Pages. To learn how, check out this video on https://pcsdassistivetech.weebly.com/reading-tools.html
Tip #11
Clear up a lot of issues by clearing your cookies and cache
If a website isn’t acting the way you expect it to, a lot of problems can be solved by clearing your cookies and cache.
Check out Indiana’s guides for how to do this on almost any device or browser: https://kb.iu.edu/d/ahic
Accessibility Tool Tip #4
EquatIO is accessible in Classic Quizzes The New Quizzes Feature does not at this time allow for accessibility supports through LTI apps. However, Classic Quizzes does provide an accessible environment and you can access EquatIO supports:
More information on EquatIO located at https://pcsdassistivetech.weebly.com/math-tools.html
Tip #12
Access Denied Error on File Links
If your students are getting an Access Denied message when they click a link to a file in your course, it is possible the file is not published. To check, go the files tab in your course, find the file in question and make sure it has a green check mark next to it.
Guide: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-12771-415241391
Tip #13
e-books
The media specialists have compiled a list of e-book resources that are available to you for free during this time. Please attached file (below)
NEW Resource Links
THEATER RESOURCES
- Facebook Group for Theatre Educators
- Playbill.com offering Free Streams from their LIVE Catalogue
- Playbill.com - 15 plays and musicals you can watch from home
- Stage Partners - Distance Learning Resources for Drama Classrooms
- Google Arts and Culture - Almost Endless Resource
- Teaching Theatre Online - Resource Bank from Theaterish
ELEMENTARY MUSIC RESOURCES
- Elementary Music Teachers of Georgia on FB
- Link to Canvas Elementary Music Resources
- Google Arts and Culture - Almost Endless Resource
- Online Resources for Music Educators
- Save the Music Foundation Resources
- Music Alive - Free resource for at home learning
ELEMENTARY ART RESOURCES
- Elementary Art Teachers FB Group
The High Museum YouTube Channel - all lectures available, gallery tours, and more
MS/HS MUSIC RESOURCES (INSTRUMENTAL, CHORAL, GENERAL)
VISUAL ART RESOURCES:
- 12 Museums offer Virtual Tours during COVID-19
- Google Arts and Culture - Almost Endless Resources
- The High Museum of Art YouTube - all lectures available, gallery tours, and more
- Art and Science Meet
RESOURCES FOR ALL
Elementary Music
As a general reminder, student accounts and assignments are the easiest solution for e-learning. You can deliver lessons to your students in three simple steps: Use the links above to guide you through this process, or contact us if you’d like a Quaver team member to walk you through the process. Or, if you need a quick solution to get your students up and running today, ask us how to enroll a single account in our Music at Home 2020 Master Class for a selection of ready-to-use, e-learning activities. Questions from teachers and colleagues who don’t have Quaver yet? Our Free 30-Day Preview is available now to all music teachers who need teaching resources to lead lessons for students at home and can also take advantage of the Master Class if needed! Please feel free to share the preview with fellow music teachers in and out of your school or district. We are here to help. We will continue to closely monitor developments and have taken steps to ensure the safety and wellness of our employees and customers. If we can do anything for you, please reach out to us at (866) 917-3633 or Info@QuaverMusic.com. Stay safe and stay well, Maura & The Quaver Team
Elementary Art
Students will login at the same website as teachers: https://paulding.davisartspace.com
I’ve attached spreadsheets that show the usernames and passwords for all accounts. I set up a simple generic password for everyone (art) and used the school name or initials for the usernames.
You also have access to the Canvas Materials you set up together at our Early Release day last semester.
See the attachments below about Davis Generic Accounts for K5 and for 6th Grade
You can reach out to Davis Monday-Friday from 9a.m.-5p.m. Easter at 800-533-2847; extension 2 or through email at Support@DavisArt.com
Katie O. Anderson
Email: KAnderson@paulding.k12.ga.us
Website: paulding.k12.ga.us/finearts
Location: 3236 Atlanta Highway, Dallas, GA, USA
Phone: 404-825-3982
Facebook: facebook.com/pcsdfinearts
Twitter: @katiepcsd