2025-2026 BLaST Beginning of Year Information

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Below is a list of resources and tools to help you update your staff.

 

BLaST Back to School Video Chapter Links:

 

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2024-2025 BLaST End of Year Information

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Below is a list of resources and tools to help you close out the 2024-2025 School Year:

  • LaunchPoint Clean-Up:
    • TrustED Apps – please remember to review the TrustED Apps platform as digital resources are reviewed by your BLaST members and school leadership.
    • Update on DRAFT – AI Guidelines and Pilot
      • Pending decision – we expect to have an AI platform purchased for both teacher use and student use for the 25-26 school year.  Much more information coming for back to school.
    • Software Updates
      • SAFARI Montage access will be shut down June 30th, 2025
      • Newsela licensing will only be purchased for our middle and high schools for the 25-26 school year.
      • Nearpod licensing will only be purchase for our middle and high schools for the 25-26 school year.  Guidance about Nearpod for elementary teachers
  • Digging into Usage Data:
    • ClassLink Analytics had a recent overhaul, and we are working with ClassLink to better represent/visualize the usage data.
    • If we are able to get this addressed before school ends we will post a video with some summary district data for the 24-25 school year along with how you can compare your school’s usage data.
  • Wrapping Up 24-25 Courses:
    • Courses will conclude end of day on May 23rd and will be open to teachers until May 30th.  Courses will hard-conclude (disappear from Canvas dashboards) mid-June.
    • Identify courses which need to remain active (2-year)
      • IB Courses
  • Creating Canvas Courses for 25-26:
    • Using a Template?  Update before new courses are created.  Contact e-Learning (els@hallco.org) if you need help finding your school’s Canvas template or have general questions about using templates in Canvas.
    • Course naming convention – remember to have one and be sure to communicate it to your team members.
    • Make sure your teachers have at least one course created and aligned to the 25-26 Term so they will be sure to have access to Teacher Tools in July/August.
    • Continued emphasis on using Teacher Tools for course creation and rostering in Canvas.
    • Teacher Tools Functionality
      • Rostering
      • Associating blueprint courses (May 1st)
      • Grade Pass-Back
    • Importing teacher-made content from previous Canvas courses
  • Please Note:
    • Timing / Availability of IC rosters – roster data will be shared with our various vendors by mid-July, but it may take a while for the roster data to be visualized in the various platforms.  Our goal is to have everything operational by the first day of school, August 1st, 2025.
    • Teacher Sites Maintenance – after the last day of school, remember to turn off the Teacher Sites visibility for team members who will no longer be at your school.  Incoming team members will appear on your Teacher Site as they update/publish their Teacher Site for 25-26.
  • Information for Seniors, Transferring Staff, and Non-returning Staff:

Thank you all for serving as BLaST Leaders for the 24-25 school year!  Have a wonderful, restful summer break!!

 

 

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Kami – A Powerhouse of Recently Updated Features!

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How to use Kami Class View with Canvas:

Kami’s Class View feature allows teachers to:

  • View the whole class’ Kami Assignment files at the same time.
  • Monitor the students’ progress and performance with real-time monitoring.
  • Leave feedback using a range of multimedia tools.
  • Grade multiple students’ work simultaneously.
  • Leave a grade and have it sync automatically to Canvas (which means it can sync to IC).

See the link here for all of the details on using Kami Class View with Canvas.

How to use Insights in Kami Class View

Insights will provide a deeper dive into the data during a Class View session.  Please see the link here for more details.

How to use Kami Questions AI

Convert existing or create AI-powered, auto-grading assessments for faster checks and better learning.

Click here to see how to allow the Kami Questions AI feature to save you time as a teacher

Creating Kami Assignments in Canvas

The Kami/Canvas integration is one of the deepest integrations we have enabled.  Please click here to see the steps on how to push out assignments using the Canvas LTI integration.

Kami Training Hub

The Kami Training Hub is a reliable and up-to-date resource for whatever you need to learn more about with Kami.

Full List of Kami Features

We encourage teachers to take a look at the full Kami feature list.  It is sometimes easy to miss how powerful this tool can be!

 

December Resources from Kami – ‘Tech the Halls’

Kami Export - Gregory Odell - Dec. Tech Tip
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Preparing Canvas for Second Semester

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As we prepare to begin the second semester, there are two items that we would like to highlight in order to have a successful and smooth semester with Canvas.

1.) Information for all teachers using Canvas

Often January brings new students into our schools and classrooms.  If these new students are added to a NEW roster in IC, teachers will need to open Canvas Teacher Tools and add the NEW roster to the correct Canvas course.  Also note that if a new student is added to an existing IC roster, the student will automatically be added to the corresponding Canvas course within 24 hours.  For a refresher on using Canvas Teacher Tools to add rosters, please visit Getting Started With Teacher Tools.

 

2.) Information for High School teachers using Canvas

Please review your Canvas courses and rosters that are currently being used in your Canvas courses.  If you have any “A” Rosters (first semester only), it is best practice to manually CONCLUDE each student’s enrollment.  By completing this action, you will provide the student a read-only version of the course since s/he is no longer actively enrolled in your course.  This action will also allow you to continue using Grade Passback without errors.

You can now manually conclude rosters from Teacher Tools!  Here is how:

 

3.) (Updated 2/14/25)  One nuance that has been brought to our attention is that the above step does not remove “Test Student” from the section within the Canvas course.  “Test Student” is created when a teacher uses the “Student View” in their course.  “Test Student” populates in all sections of the course the first time the teacher clicks “Student View”.  If a teacher uses “Student View”, and has A sections in their course they will need to manually delete the “Test Student” from the A section.  Please open your Canvas course, go to course Settings and manually remove “Test Student” from all “A” sections.

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Mystery Science: New Updates

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Mystery Science is an innovative, standards-aligned, hands-on curriculum that teaches K-5 students how to think like scientists.  Mystery Science offers open-and-go lessons that inspire kids to love science. The hook, visuals, and activity have all been prepared for teachers!  If you are new to Mystery Science, take a look at the Video Overview below:

 

For teachers that are familiar with Mystery Science, you will find new content for the 2024-2025 school year!

These enhancements include:

  • Vocabulary Supports: Spanish & English vocabulary slides and printouts have been added to our standards-aligned lessons
  • Mini-lesson Extensions: Added mini-lesson extensions that are aligned to a lesson’s Disciplinary Core Idea
  • 3D assessments: All 4th & 5th grade assessments will be 3D assessments
  • Anchor Layer: Added and revised Anchor Layers options for more units
  • Updated Teacher Tools: Revised planning documents; Pacing, Standards Alignment, & other supports here

 

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