Welcome to the first Secondary Instruction Blog of the 21-22 school year!

The best thing about this year is that we get to start the year with student’s faces (at least the top half of them!) We all are working hard to stay safe, maintain our distance, wash hands and teach at the same time. It is quite a task – and one many of us never, ever expected.

Technology is continuing to play a crucial role in the education of our students. Two daily platforms that you are interfacing with are Synergy and Canvas. We wanted to start out this year with a quick blog post to remind you of the supports the Instructional Technology team has put together.

Synergy

Many of you have been using Synergy for years and feel really comfortable with it. New teachers just getting started in our district should know about “Synergy for Teachers”.  This website is your one-stop-shop for gaining knowledge about the grade book tools available within Synergy.  At the top of the site, you will see links to specific resources for grade book, Teacher Vue, report cards, and commonly used reports.  Synergy For Teachers is just one of the many resources that can be found in the  Tech101 resource found in our staff portal.  Or, better yet, bookmark this link right now!

Canvas

Canvas continues to be the required student learning platform. Resources for students, including all assignments should be posted here. This is especially important right now as students are quarantining and need access to relevant resources and to know what assignments are due. As most of us know from last year, the best way to understand Canvas is to use it. To support you, the Instructional Technology Team has created a one-stop shop for Canvas Training and Resources. Your schools also have Canvas First Responders who can provide you with additional support and answer questions.