In this month’s TechBytes, we’ll review some instructional tech tips to help you wrap up the end of the school year. 
 

1. Google Classroom 

As we wrap up the end of the year, you need to do some housekeeping within your Google Classroom. 

1. Return all student work in Google Classroom—You do not want to miss this step. Make sure you return all assignments to your students. This transfers ownership back to the students, so their files don’t clog up your Google Drive account. 
2. Archive your course- After you submit your final grades and return all student work, archive your course to prevent students from submitting assignments or adding new comments. 
3. Clear out your Google Calendar—Go to your Google Calendar and hide all your old Google Classroom calendars to make room for next year’s courses. 

Note- If you are creating Google Classrooms to share learning materials with kids over the summer, new students who enroll in the district throughout the summer cannot be added to this Google Classroom. Student accounts are not created for students until closer to the start of the school year. It is best to post learning materials directly on our district web pages. 
 

2. Mentors and Student Teachers 

It is important to note that district accounts for student teachers will be deactivated at the end of the school year. Mentors, if your student teacher created Google files that you want to be able to use with your students next school year, please make sure that ownership of the file(s) is transferred to you. Any files where the owner is the student teacher will no longer be available once the account is deactivated. Here is a video on how to transfer ownership of Google Files: How to Transfer Ownership of a Google Drive File. 

3. Canva Updates

On May 20th, our Canva accounts updated to Visual Suite 2.0, which includes Canva Code, Canva Sheets, Magic Studio at scale, and many more. Here is a playlist of all the features. You can also read about the new features by visiting Canva Create Launches. 

4. Summer PD Opportunities

The Regional Education Media Center Association of Michigan (REMC) offers tailored professional learning opportunities just for you! All PL is free of charge and includes free SCECH credits!

As the school year winds down, this may be the perfect time to refresh your teaching strategies for the next school year. Check out the REMC PL page to see all of the offerings.