This week marked the first use of our learning management system Canvas with our touch Chromebooks. I created their first assignment on contractions.  This was similar to the assignment they had in Google Classroom last week.  If there is anything this pilot has taught me, it’s that simple is sometimes better when they are learning.  I wanted the objective to be for the students to learn how to navigate through Canvas and submit their first assignment.  I decided that would be easier if they had a familiar assignment so they could concentrate on how Canvas would work.  They were eager to get going and I was floored by the amount of engagement in the activity.

First thing I noticed is that headphones are going to be a must have.  I love to use videos to embed into their assignments to make them more engaging and visually stimulating. However, students are working at different paces and it can be rather distracting to hear other students at a different place in the video.  I was pleasantly surprised at how much they rolled with the punches though.  I can see that though becoming an issue the more assignments that are added within Canvas.  The question now becomes what to do throughout the rest of the pilot.

I did see the benefits of using Google Classroom last week to prepare them for Canvas.  They were familiar with the basic concept of receiving an assignment and submitting it correctly.  So I am glad I had given them the time to do this.  Next year if we are to roll out Canvas to more teachers, this may be something to suggest as a stepping stone especially in the younger grades.

What I love about Canvas:

1. I love how when you embed videos into assignments, students are not directed to YouTube but instead the video plays within Canvas. While it will be important to teach students what to do when they are out in YouTube, this will be a great stepping stone in teaching digital citizenship to younger students.
2. I love the option of creating your own rubrics. They give you a template but you can edit the categories, rating scale, points, and the format you wish for the students to submit the assignments.
3. Grading was a breeze. I was able to look at each student’s submission, select their rating they received according to the rubric, and then provide students with feedback on each category/overall if I needed to.
4. I appreciated the ability to not publish everything I’m building. Since I’m building the classes from scratch, I get to decide what the students see.  This allows me to continue working on building my site without the worry of students seeing it not ready.
5. Being able to organize everything in once place. You could either have one course and then a home page that links to all your subject or a separate course for each subject. I chose to do a separate course for each subject.  This way I could organize my files and folders even more.  All of my reading will be with reading and so on.  According to Canvas this is going to be a teacher preference thing.  When Canvas was linked through Powerschool, it sent me all the subjects that are currently listed in Gradebook.  I did have to create a few more courses on my own for other things I would like students to work on.

Setbacks I am finding using Canvas:

1. Grades are supposed to push to Powerschool (attendance/lunch cards/report card program), however K-2 is standards based grading so my grades won’t push out to Powerschool. I wish there was a way for that data to go somewhere or to be logged in to their report card.
2. From a teacher standpoint it will take a lot of time to build our curriculum within Canvas. Teachers are going to have to be given effective and ongoing professional development.  I loved that the pilot team was allowed to participate in a webinar and also granted a half day together and work on building our Canvas sites.  Since we were all in the same room this was really beneficial in terms of figuring out logistics and brainstorming what would work the best.  This will be vital in teacher buy in.  I also feel when we give them the time to work within Canvas, members of the pilot need to be present to guide and assist where needed.
3. At the moment you cannot assign a quiz or an assignment to individual students and you can’t change the due date for individual students. While I understand the need for these type of requirements, from a differentiation standpoint, I see this becoming an issue.  I have a lot of questions about meeting the needs of gifted and IEP students.
4. I enjoy there is a place called the Commons for us to use as a resource when creating our courses, but I have not found many things for second grade other than blank templates. I would love more samples of assignments that teachers have created.  I realize that as our district implements this, those resources will start to grow but it will be something to keep in mind when rolling out.
5. Canvas can be hard to navigate and figure out but then again anything is when you first implement it. There are a lot of steps to remember when setting up a course in terms of your home page/front page, and then how will your organize the rest of the course after that.  While I have better feelings about it then I did initially, it still can be stressful especially when determining the best way to organize your courses, modules, pages, assignments, etc.  I also feel I am pretty tech savvy and we must keep in mind there are teachers who are not as tech savvy.  What kind of support will the district and the pilot team be able to offer them?
6. The tables, fonts, and sizes are difficult to edit. Sometimes when you are editing a page it looks one way and then you go to save it and it looks different.  When creating a table, you can’t edit every line within that table so the sizing gets thrown off.  While not a big rock, that can be very frustrating for some teachers when wanting to create something that looks nice and clean. Also there is one font choice.  Again not a big deal but I wish there were more to choose from.
7. One item that has been problematic is that we currently have to log in with Google to get into Canvas. At school this is not an issue because they use their Google log in to log into the Chromebook itself.  However, if the whole purpose of this is for students to have access to it at home, they will have to make sure they are logged into Google first.  This could mean logging out of their parents Google and or siblings.  I think this is one of the pluses then to being able to bring their device home.  They wouldn’t have to bother with their parent’s Google information because everything they need would be on their own device.  I find myself sad that we are not piloting taking these devices home so we can work out some of these kinks.  It is my hope that is something that maybe could be tested before a full implementation.

This pilot has taught me so very much and I am extremely grateful to have this opportunity.  One of my favorite things so far in terms of support was having the half day to work with the other elementary teachers.  I learned so many neat tips and tricks that I can’t wait to use.  I said this last week, but there have been so many moments where I have felt like a first year teacher all over again.  While this can be frustrating it has been a great way for me to grow and push my limits as an educator.  There are things I never would have tried had it not been for this pilot.  This will be important to share as other teachers being their 1:1 journey.  It will be hard, it will be work, but it will get easier.  We will have to collaborate and lean on each other.

I also have learned that there is the same learning curve for students.  The initial response as a teacher is to get frustrated when we see students not able to perform as we think they should.  However, we have to remember that yes what they are doing in theory may be easy, but when we add a device and a new way for them to do it, it will take time.  It still has to be about the gradual release of responsibility.  They are figuring out things way quicker than I imagined, but we still have to give them time.  We have to plan these lessons just like any other lessons.  We have to build their stamina and knowledge base slowly and understand that typing and computer skills require a different mindset than we are used to.