What is Notability? Notability is a note-taking and PDF annotation tool. It allows you to start from scratch on a note or open existing PDFs, add text, handwritten notes, shapes, and pictures. It can also be used to scan documents or insert pictures to create PDF files, which then can be annotated. Why use it? Notability is a great tool to reduce th...

Summer might be a time for teachers to relax and unwind but not for edtech companies! It's a busy time for updating their tools before teachers return for the fall! Below are just a few updates to common tech tools used across the district.  Canvas Updates Assignment Submission for Students (Mac) When students go to submit assignments on their MacBo...

What is it? Green Screen by Do Ink is an iPad app which gives you the ability to create "green screen" videos and photos. By using layers, add backgrounds and additional graphics to a pre-existing photo or video. Why use it? Do Ink lends itself to activities for students both collaborating and individual projects, captures student creativity and voi...

What is iMovie? iMovie is an easy to use, yet powerful video editor. You can use it to combine images, videos, and sounds to create professional looking movies or "trailers." The app has transitions, sound effects, and theme music that you can use or you can import it from other sources.  Why is iMovie a great tool?  iMovie is a great tool for creat...

What is Google Meet? Google Meet is a communication tool that staff use to video conference and share their screen while working remotely. This tool is available to students and staff but only staff can initiate a meeting. Why use Google Meet? Google Meet is a fantastic collaboration tool because it allows you to connect with people across distances...

Shakopee employees have two email accounts. You are responsible for tracking and responding to email from both accounts. The easiest way to do this is setting up Gmail in the Outlook application on your MacBook and Outlook to manage both email accounts. All employees should create a professional email signature. This lets the recipient of the messag...

What is Book Creator? Book Creator is an iPad app and a Chrome app for MacBooks that allows students to create an eBook they can share with a public audience. Students can create pages with text, images, drawings, video, and audio. There are also comic book-style templates that you can use to create amazing looking projects. Additionally, a teacher ...

What is Minecraft Education? Minecraft Education Edition is an open-world game that promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving in an immersive environment where the only limit is your imagination. Students can use blocks, signs, and their creativity to demonstrate their knowledge in a 3D environment. Why use Minecraft Education? Minecra...

All secondary staff are required to utilize the course template. It is automatically installed upon creation of your course. You must complete the section titled "Required Setup" in order for your grades to calculate properly.  Once you have completed the required setup, you can proceed to import content from a previous course.  Step 1: Required Set...

Overview Seesaw classes are automatically created for you each year if your class is rostered in Infinite Campus. If you do not have classes automatically created for you (such as for intervention, EL, speech, SPED, etc.), please create a help desk ticket and list the names of the students you need added to the class. Do not manually create your own...

What is Explain Everything? Explain Everything is an interactive whiteboard app that you can use to create and record digital presentations. As the name suggests, you and your students can use it to explain a concept and export it as a video. In addition, Explain Everything will open many different file types so you can use files such as images, PDF...

What is Canvas Studio? Canvas Studio is a tool built into Canvas that allows you to create video-based discussions and quizzes. You can use Studio to record videos of your computer screen, use your webcam, or both. You then can embed those within pages in Canvas. Students can also use Studio to upload videos to Canvas and submit to assignments. Why ...

Canvas is the official Learning Management System (LMS) for Shakopee Public Schools. Canvas is primarily used at grades 6-12, with some elementary teachers using it for assessments and Shakopee Online. Teachers at the secondary level do have expectations for using Canvas is the tool for sharing information about their class, posting materials, and a...

Shakopee employees have two email accounts. You are responsible for tracking and responding to email from both accounts. The easiest way to do this is add Gmail to the Outlook application on your MacBook. Read more here - Setup Gmail in Outlook‍  All employees should create a professional email signature. This lets the recipient of the message ident...

It’s been an exciting year in Shakopee Public Schools! Recently, teachers have been implementing some really exciting and engaging projects where students create digital stories such as Crash Course Videos and Podcasts to demonstrate their learning. While creating these projects, students are in desperate need of images, video footage, music, and so...

The goal of formative assessment is to monitor student learning during the process and to provide feedback on how to improvement. There are many tools that you can use to gather formative data. You can use them to either determine concepts/skills that need to be retaught to the entire class or target interventions with small groups of students. Belo...

What is Loom? Loom is a Chrome Extension you can install yourself on PCs and an app you can install from Self Service on MacBooks. Click here to learn how. Loom allows you to record your screen with (or without) picture-in-picture of your talking head. Videos are automatically uploaded to the Loom website and stored in the cloud. Why use Loom for sc...

Skip to end of banner Go to start of banne Whether you are a Shakopee Online teacher or an IHD teacher, knowing how to host an interactive lesson online is a skill we should all have in our tool belts. I'm sure we’ve all experienced a Google Meet by now and we can all recognize how different the experience is leading a class virtually compared to be...

Canvas is the official in-progress Gradebook for Shakopee Schools. Final grades for each quarter are posted on Infinite Campus. Read the information below to learn some of the nuances of the gradebook and how to effectively grade students. Assignment Settings Assignment Groups Make sure you have created assignment groups that you need and weight the...

Email. It is essential to the functioning of any workplace but it also can add a lot of stress to our already busy days. The sheer volume of emails we receive daily can be daunting so I thought it would be good to go over a few etiquette tips that will help everyone and give you tips on how to manage your inbox. If we all do our part by following th...