New Schoology Feature: Student Annotations

When creating assignments in Schoology, teachers will now see the option to assign an Annotations Assignment which pushes a copy of a file (not Google) to each student for them to directly annotate on the document.  

Accepted file types: Docx, HTML, JPG, PDF, PNG, PPTX, RTF, TXT, XLS, XLSX, and XML

Students will then be able to use the tools to type and draw on the document. Changes will be saved as they work. It’s like using Kami on a PDF! (Parkway School District still has a license to use Kami for the 22-23 school year.)

Directions for using Student Annotations

Engagement Strategies

 Each of the short (under 2 min) videos below has a tip about different ways to engage students.

Tip #1 - Station Rotation (submitted by Ashley Wiedman at Central Middle)

Tip #2 - Using the 3E model in Schoology (submitted by Monica Dickens at South High)

Goal settings and Formatives

The new 2 Tips From Teachers has tips for goal setting and formatives. The first tip is about helping students self-assess by tracking goals using Kami. The second tip is about using Google Forms for daily checks. Check them out!

Tip #1 -Tracking student goals using Kami (submitted by Christine Keating at Bellerive)

Tip #2- Daily checks using Google Forms (submitted by Jenny Proffitt in TLA)

Zoom Tips

The new 2 Tips From Teachers has tips for using Zoom.

Tip #1 -Sharing a portion of your screen in Zoom (submitted by Samantha Stout at Wren Hollow)

Tip #2- Breakout Rooms- Talk & Type strategy (submitted by Monica Dickens at South High) - help provides equity with participation

Data Validation Tips

Every day we hear about the great things that Parkway teachers are doing in their classrooms. 2 Tips From Teachers is a PD series where you can get ideas from other teachers in the form of quick (under 2 min each) video tips to share what’s working in our classrooms. This week the 2 Tips From Teachers is about data validation.

Tip #1 - Using data validation with Google Forms (submitted by Jenny Proffitt in TLA)

Tip #2- Using data validation in Sheets to create custom dropdown lists (submitted by Stephanie Filardo of West Middle)

Google Slides

This week the 2 Tips From Teachers is about Google Slides. The first tip is about creating and adding audio to Slides and the second tip is about creating drag and drop activities in Slides. Check them out!

Tip #1 -Inserting an audio file from Vocaroo into Google Slides (submitted by Brigid Dolan at North High)

Tip #2- Creating drag and drop activities in Slides (submitted by Kim Bay at South High) For a full 20 min tutorial: https://youtu.be/-byn2YTVeWU

Parent Communication

This week’s 2 Tips from Teachers is about parent communication. These two teachers have shared ways that they are keeping in touch with parents during this year where everything feels different. Check out the link below to see what is working best for them.

If you’d like to see past tips, all videos will be archived on the Innovation site.

Annotating Tips

This week’s 2 Tips From Teachers is about annotating. Tip #1 (submitted by Erica Smalley at Central Middle) is a tip for teachers on annotating Google Slides with SMART Notebook. Tip #2 (submitted by Liz Lyons at Central High) is a tip to share with students on how they can annotate when reading an ebook from Sora. Check out the link below to see two different teachers share what is working best for them.

Organizing Online Content

Watch these 2 quick tips to get ideas on organizing online content.

Managing your Chrome bookmarks (submitted by Madysen Wilton at McKelvey Int)

Using Wakelet (submitted by Jenny Gray at Sorrento Springs)

Folder Organization in Schoology

Looking for ideas on how to best organize your folders for students?  Check out the videos below to see two different teachers share what is working best for them.

Submitted by Ashley Wiedman at Central Middle

Submitted by Melissa Gebhard at South High

Annotating Google Slides in Zoom

This tip is from Alicia Kilpatrick at Wren Hallow/Elementary Virtual Campus - posted by Elegan Kramer

Are you curious about using the Zoom annotation and the snipping tool to save? Watch this 2-minute video to learn more!

Document Sharing with Sphere

This tip is from Charlie Cutelli and Lauren Reusch from Parkway West High/ edited and posted by Elegan Kramer

If you’re still fumbling around with sharing your (AverMedia) document camera during Zoom, you can use the program Sphere to make the transition smoother. This may be especially helpful if you’re teaching in-person and videoconferenced students simultaneously. 

The advantages of using the Sphere program are:

• it streamlines the transition to sharing the document camera

• the camera’s field of view is much larger, and 

• it is also much easier to zoom in and zoom out.

Here is Charlie’s 1-minute video highlighting the difference between Zoom’s Advanced settings and Sphere.

If you are interested in using Sphere, here is the version of Sphere that Lauren Reusch recommended to her teachers: https://averusa.com/education/support/sphere 

Using Schoology Assessments as 'Target Checks'

Do not feel limited to giving only summative tests or quiz with the word Assessment. You can give Schoology Assessments as a formative assessment and call them 'target checks' to clarify the difference to the students. Check out this less-than-a-minute video from Jenny Proffitt at Parkway's TLA. This video shares how she used the Schoology Assessment settings and various question types to check for student understanding.

Multiple Questions on a Page in Schoology Assessments

This tip is from Veronique Lynch from Parkway South High. Veronique Lynch put multiple questions on a page so that students can refer to the image or audio prompt on the same page. Veronique was able to do this for fill in the blank dropdown question and fill in the blank text question in Schoology Assessments. Watch this 1-minute video to see what it looks like!