I’m basing a district-wide Canvas course on Discoveries.The Canvas course will tie the daily format and school calendar to the Discoveries content. Students will complete the bulk of their work on the Code.org website. How do I properly credit Code.org within Canvas?
Also, I want to embed files within Canvas (Activity PDFs, etc.). I see how I can download a PDF bundle, with one PDF for all handouts, without page breaks. I want to download all of the individual files. Is that possible?
One more, what is the release date for the official 2020-2012 version?
Finally, on the same link above, at the top, there is a link to the .pdf documents for both lesson plans and activity sheets, but as you say, they are each one large .pdf file. There are page breaks, but they are all one file. If you want individual portions of the file, you would either need to download them individually from each lesson or you would need software such as Adobe Acrobat or another pdf editor that would allow you to export individual pages from the larger pdf file.
Hi. Are you sure the Discoveries course is complete? I created materials in the district canvas based on the version from 5 days ago, now some of the Unit names have changed. The materials are still listed as “In Development.” Is there an official release date for this curriculum, when the content will stop changing? Also, there are Slides for Unit 1-3, but not 4-6. Will these be added later?
@carol.ramsey, I’m checking for you on your first question, however, I don’t believe slides will be created for units 4-6 for this year as the focus for the past little while has been revising units 1-3 and creating slides for them. This isn’t for sure, but I would hope those slides might be created for next year’s version of the curriculum (2021-22). They are new this year for units 1-3.
Hi @carol.ramsey !
CS Discoveries will move from “In Development” to “Recommended” on July 1, 2020. We are making a few small changes to some levels in the next few weeks, but nothing big should be changing, and certainly not unit or lesson names. Please let me know the specifics of anything like that that looks to have changed and I will investigate right away.
As @mwood said above, we have created slides only for Units 1-3 at this time. We plan to develop slides for the remaining units over the course of this school year, for release next summer.
Let me know if you have any other questions. Thanks!
Thanks Mike and Mike!
I did a detailed standards mapping last week between Discoveries and Texas standards for Fundamentals of Computing. Oh, my, that was a painful process. When I created the mapping, Unit 1 was named Problem Solving. Now it is Problem Solving and Computing. Unit 3 was Interactive Animations and Games, now it is Animations and Games. Unit 1 has a Lesson 8 that wasn’t there before. Unit 2 Lesson 1 is Exploring Web Pages instead of Exploring Websites. I think I was looking at 20-21 the whole time. These are just names, but the names are in the mapping, filenames and several other places, since I have to split out the lessons and slides, so the Canvas modules can reflect the school calendar at the top level. (This is for new teachers at Austin ISD.) My deadline is the end of June (bad timing!), I’ll have to use what I have. Maybe they can extend the contract to update it later. Thanks for the new slides - I didn’t think I would like them - but they provide a guide for class timing and that is awesome for new teachers. I’ll look forward to unit 4-6 slides next time! - Carol
@carol.ramsey It looks like we’ve been inconsistent in a few places. Exploring Web Pages is the correct lesson title and was updated to align with the objectives of the first chapter of Unit 2. After investigating your comment, I found a few places where we mistakenly use shortened names for the units. We’ll work on updating these for consistency right away. The names should be Unit 1: Problem Solving and Computing, and Unit 3: Interactive Games and Animations.
I deeply apologize for the convenience this has caused. Thank you fo bringing it to our attention.
Thanks for the note. I definitely can’t use what is there now. The number of lessons, lesson names, content are different in the PDF Lesson Plans and the slides. Is July 1 the final date when all the pieces will be done, including Lessons PDF, Handout PDF, etc.? If I can’t get an extension, I’ll have to use the older version of the course.
@carol.ramsey Yes, everything should be stable by July 1! If you see any specific inconsistencies or need clarification about anything at all, please feel free to message me directly and I will get you the correct answer right away.
Hi Carol,
The teacher lesson plans are correct. The online lesson plans in the cases you listed had names that were holdovers from 2019. They should all be updated and correct by Monday. Thanks for your detective work!
Mike
I’m thinking of exporting what I created and sharing it with others, on Teachers Pay Teachers or maybe for free. It was very time consuming to separate the materials by lesson, so I could use calendar-based placeholders in Canvas. I created timing-based slides for Units 3-6. I think everyone whose district uses an LMS will need Code.org materials in the LMS in the fall, to support distance learning.
Do you want me to share what I created? It would save you time, and you could give me feedback to let me know how it could be more helpful to others. Email me at carol.ramsey@austinisd.org if you want me to send it to you.
I put what I created on Teachers Pay Teachers, here. It is free for now. It includes lesson-based slides for units 4 and 5. (I’ll add Unit 6 and post separately later.) You can use the content in your class. Please don’t share in a separate product.
Thank you so much!! We have been teaching using Canvas for a while. Our district is 1:1, so it is not as much of a transition for us. It has been so nice to have your information to compare with mine!!