Communities are at the heart of Schoology, whether the community is your school, classroom, or after school group. Users who have teacher or admin roles also have the opportunity to join larger Schoology communities tailored to a topic, content area, or instructional practice. Many educators using Schoology are classroom teachers using it by themselves, in non-enterprise environments, so groups are one way these teachers connect and collaborate.
Joining a group is as simple as clicking on Groups, followed by Find Public Groups. Once you are there you will find a listing of suggested and publicly available groups. You can click on the group title to peek into the group and determine whether or not you would like to join.
After joining a group their updates will appear in your Home feed, but you can also post questions or ideas to these groups and likely find very helpful responses from teachers all over the world in teaching positions like yours. A few groups I would highly recommend joining are Schoology Educators, Blended Learning, and Flipped Classroom.
Are you finding inbox overwhelmed by Schoology notifications? No sweat! You can easily adjust your notification settings using two different tools. This applies to both students and staff, so feel free to pass this information along to your students. It is also a great opportunity to talk to students about tools for keeping track of their assignments and staying on top of their workload including Notifications and the Calendar.
Overall Schoology Notifications
The main notification settings window can be found by clicking on the small triangle icon next to your name in Schoology. Here you can select which conditions will trigger a notification and whether you want these to appear via email or as a notification pop up on your phone or tablet device using the Schoology mobile app.
Course-Specific Notifications
Sometimes you need to modify notifications for just one course. This can be accomplished by clicking on the Notifications button within the course. There you will find a series of checkboxes that determine which course actions will send information via your overall Schoology notification settings (email or mobile app).
If you have any trouble with these or need additional information just let me know.
I hope all of you enjoyed you first week of school. This year as we roll out Schoology I plan on sending out weekly Top 5 lists based on emails, feedback, and help tickets. Below are the 5 Schoology Items You Need to Know for the of August 17, 2015.
1. Configuring Schoology Gradebook
One of the very first things you need to do is configure your Schoology gradebook with categories and weights (if you use them). All gradebook configuration is done by clicking on Gradebook followed by Grade Set Up. Amanda also created this handy screencast that will walk you through the steps.
2. Adding Items to the Gradebook
Once you have your gradebook all set up you can start inputting grades for assignments. Any Assignments, Quizzes, and Discussions will automatically appear in your gradebook from when you created them in your course materials page. If you have items you would like to add that don't necessarily have a digital component just choose "Add Grade Column" from the dropdown menu in the gradebook. Additionally, check out the Gradebook portion of the Schoology Instructor Guide. You will find it quite helpful.
3. Setting Up Online Discussions
A few of you have asked me how to set up online discussions. These are great tools for facilitating online conversations, have students preview and discuss a video or article, and even as a forum for submitting work and getting feedback from peers. The Discussion section of the Instructor Guide has lots of step-by-steps for setting up discussions including how to enable them so that a student must post before viewing any one else's content.
4. Tools for Viewing as a Student
Often it is handy to see what things look like from a student view. You have two options for making this happen depending on your instructional goal.
View Course As - Just below the course icon photo there is a Course Options dropdown menu. Here you will see "View Course As" and you will be automatically taken to a menu where you can select one of your students and view the class as if you were that person.
Demo Accounts - Each academy has their very own demo account. You can use these for creating screencasts, tutorials, or other helpful resources where you really need to "embody" a student account. The login information for these was sent in an email on August 13th. It should still be in your inbox.
5. Customizing Your Schoology Profile
Schoology profiles are a wonderful tool for modeling positive digital footprints for all of our students. I know that many of you have started exploring the NCS Schoology Profile Guidelines and Launch Guide, but take a few minutes to build out your own profile. Include a professional photo, biography, and description of why you are passionate about teaching. Amanda even created a handy screencast for doing this!
Bonus Item! Advisees
Did you know that you can easily see how an individual student is doing in all of their classes? Click on Advisees on the left side of the screen (just above App Center), type in a student's name and click through the tabs across the menu (Current, Calendar, Grades). This is available to all teachers and administrators.
Welcome back to the start of another amazing school year! With school beginning on Monday here is a list of the Top 6 Things to Know for 2015-2016 from the Technology Department.
1. New NCS PowerSchool Information
This year we have our own, fully independent version of PowerSchool. As a result, all related web addresses and login information have changed. Please make sure you check your email for a message from me regarding your username and password. Additionally, please update any bookmarks or website links you may have used in the past. I have also added the new student and parent URL, but those accounts will not be in use until mid-September.
This year teachers in Leading Edge, PFAA, VLA, and Project X at PACT will be using Schoology as learning management system for all of their courses. Schoology is a tool similar to Blackboard, Moodle, or WebCT that allows teachers to seamlessly connect in-school and at-home academic activities using a blended learning model. Students will be able to submit assignments digitally, engage in online discussion forums, and complete web-based assessments. All students and teachers login to Schoology (http://natomascharter.schoology.com) using their NCS Google Accounts.
3. Student Account Information
In the IT department we make every attempt to ensure all incoming students have their accounts set ahead of time and provide small sheets of paper with login directions to either homeroom, technology, or ELA teachers depending on the academy and grade level. All student account usernames have the same format - first name, last initial, graduation year (ex: JohnS2022). Email addresses are identical to usernames with the addition of @natomascharter.org. Students set their own passwords beginning in 6th grade, but new students will have the temporary password ncsyear1516. Below is an example of the full set of information for a student.
Username: JohnS2022
Email: JohnS2022@natomascharter.org
Temporary Password: ncsyear1516
4. Help Desk
If you need any technology support this year please always submit a Help Desk ticket. The system allows us to prioritize and track support as a team. Please save emails and phone calls for an immediate technology emergency.
Help Desk Website - http://www.natomascharter.org/helpdesk
Email Address - Your email address (staff only)
Password - A password you set
5. NCS Professional Development Portal and Year-Long Support
The NCS Professional Development Portal contains a plethora of information for instructional technology support. On this site you will find resource pages for a variety of topics from Schoology to Minecraft and Google Drive. If you are new to our school this year you will also find the resource page for our New Staff Tech Orientation. During the school year weekly technology professional development time will continue at the following dates and times. For the first few weeks of school I will also host open labs at these times. Keep an eye out for my weekly emails.
PFAA & LE - Tech Tuesdays 3:30-4:30pm in G-4
VLA - Wednesdays 9:30-10:45am in D-1
PACT - Bring a Challenge/Solve a Challenge Thursdays 8:00-8:45am
Star - STEAM Thursdays 3:15-4:15pm
6. Laptop Insurance
Have you signed up for laptop insurance this year? If not check out the Worth Avenue Group NCS page. We had an employee who ended up needing it this summer after she spilled water on her laptop. The process for repairing her laptop was quick, easy, and painless and only cost her the price of the deductible. You can also use the Worth Avenue site to insure personal devices, such as iPads, smartphones, and laptops.
Have a great year and a great first day of school on Monday!
When it comes to "showing what you know", one of the most powerful tools available for both teachers and students are screencasts. All of Apple computers come equipped with QuickTime Player with a built-in screencasting tool. However, a great resource that works on any computer using Chrome (Macs, Windows, or Chromebooks) is Snagit for Chrome.
Snagit for Google Chrome is a free screen capture and recording app that works on Chromebooks or in the Chrome browser. Using Snagit for Google Chrome can help you provide better feedback, encourage teamwork, and create images, videos, and animated GIFs that explain exactly what you mean.
Now you might be thinking, animated GIF? What the heck is that?!? An animated GIF is basically a very short, looping video (20 seconds or less) that you can pop into a Google Doc, blog post, or other digital resource that will walk students or staff through a series of steps. Below is an example of one demonstrating how to change your font in a Google Doc. They are perfect for showing users how to complete a simple, technical task. I know of educators who use these to remind students the steps for using a tool or submitting an assignment.
Snagit for Chrome will allow you and your students to not only create animated GIFs, but also annotated screenshots and videos. If you would like to get started with Snagit for Chrome check out this instructional video.
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