Adoption Consultant Update
 Just when you thought things were winding down in May, June started off with a lot of travel. At the start of the month, I headed over to Uinta County School District #1 in Evanston and spent two days with some newer Canvas teachers from Evanston Middle School and Evanston High School. Day one was a training day, going over the major Canvas functions and features that help when building a Canvas course from the ground up. The second day was much more workshop focused - teachers were able to build content and ask questions about how best to get their curriculum into Canvas. I think most everyone left with at least one completed module, and many left with even more.
After a brief stop at home, I hit the road for Canvas Roadshow VIII. My first stop was in Cheyenne, as we sat down for a planning session to look back at Year 1, and forward to Year 2 of Adoption Consulting in Wyoming. My vision is to have all Wyoming Canvas districts create written Canvas Adoption Plans this year. I believe most districts already have a plan in place, I just want to make sure that it is documented to help ensure the future success of Canvas in Wyoming.
Roadshow VIII continued to Pinedale, where I met with building administrators in Sublette County School District #1. We did a quick run through of how to build a Canvas course for their principals and technology staff. The district plans to move some of its Human Resources content (on-boarding and orientation) into Canvas, along with some opportunities for professional development.
It’s always a joy when new Wyoming school districts join Canvas, and I’m happy to welcome Sheridan County School District #2 to the Canvas party. I was able to stop in and welcome them personally to Canvas, and help get them started on their Canvas journey. I will visit again in August to help the Alternative High School teachers get ready for their students this fall. After this stop, I settled in Buffalo for a few days as a Canvas liason for a Quality Matters training at Johnson County School District #1. The training brought teachers from neighboring districts to learn best practices in Instructional Design. I was present to help our Canvas teachers apply this to their courses as they began to design new content. I will be back in Buffalo in August to deliver introductory Canvas training.
As always, feel free to reach me via email if you have any questions about how I can help you and your districts with anything Canvas related. You can also directly book video conference time with my Calendly calendar (linked below) if you’d like to meet virtually.
Canvas Best Practices
Using Templates to Build Content
One way to help teachers realize how Canvas can be used as a tool in the classroom is to have ready-made content, so that teachers can build from examples with a design already in place. The Wyoming Department of Education (WDE) contracted with the in-house Canvas Instructional Design Team to bring you three full-course templates that can be used throughout Wyoming.
These templates were chosen with themes in mind:
Each template theme will be available as Canvas courses with notes on how your Canvas administrator can disperse the templates to interested teachers and administrators. The templates each contain fully built-out modules where teachers can edit and add text to the design. There are extensive notes to teachers on how to use the content as well.
The WDE has created a document with all available Wyoming templates linked here. This document contains links to view the templates and information about how you can request the templates be added to your Canvas instance. There are also links to content that has been shared to the Canvas Commons from school districts throughout Wyoming.
Statewide Adoption Consulting Meetings
Relaunching July 23, 2019
Since Adoption Consultant David Stokowski started in October, he has held monthly meetings with district leaders, technology directors, principals, and anyone else interested. The purpose of the meetings were to discuss the state of adoption consulting in Wyoming and also to demonstrate new Canvas features. Starting in July, there will be an adoption consulting meeting starting at 10 a.m. on the fourth Tuesday of every month. Expect to see an invitation coming soon after the newsletter. As always, if you want to be a part of these meetings, email David to get added to the list.
The fourth Tuesday of each month was selected as it will always come after the most recent Canvas Production release which will be scheduled for the third Saturday of each month. If you have questions about the new Canvas release cycle, here is the official document that outlines the changes.
Statewide Canvas User Groups
Relaunching in August 2019
The user groups will relaunch in August as the new school year approaches. Stay tuned for email updates on these meetings and your personal invitations to join.
Here are the groups launching in the fall:
- Canvas for Elementary.
- Canvas for Professional Development.
- Canvas for Secondary.
- Canvas for Online Teaching.
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