NMPED News:

SANTA FE — The Public Education Department has awarded five New Mexico educators a $1,000 scholarship each to become school-based experts in the state’s official learning management system, Canvas. 

The recipients, announced Friday, will participate in a 36-week professional development series to become Canvas Certified Educators and the go-to person at their schools for teacher and student questions about the learning management system, which is software designed to create, distribute and manage the delivery of educational content.

Teachers use the learning management system to deliver and track assignments, quizzes, exams and other material to students electronically; to manage discussion boards and other communications; to track and analyze student progress; and to send automated reminders about deadlines.

For students, a learning management system organizes all their educational materials in one place, promotes self-paced learning and supports different learning styles by including access to audio narration, quizzes, videos and games. 

The awardees are:

•  Alexia M. Munoz, Gadsden Independent School District;
• Jennifer Neakrase, Las Cruces Public Schools;
• Chelsea Lucas, Deming Public Schools;
• Daniel Delgado, Cuba Independent Schools; and
• Jose Jesus Granillo, Santa Fe Public Schools.

In addition to completing four core courses, each will select two elective courses from these offerings: Promoting Digital Citizenship, Managing a Technology-Rich Learning Environment, Leveraging Canvas for Professional Learning or Teacher Leader Collaboration.

Both the core and elective courses were designed by educators for educators to strengthen skills using the system, teaching others to use the system and learning how best to use Canvas as a teaching tool.

“These educators will be making a deep dive into Canvas best practices to engage and motivate students and move them progressively toward learning goals,” said Kim King, the Public Education Department’s learning management system director. “As Canvas Certified Educators, they’ll spread these strategies through their schools and districts to impact student learning.”

 The department received 73 applications from 32 districts and charters for the five positions.

“I want to master this learning platform to improve my approach to teaching for the betterment of engagement and modeling for my students,” Jose Jesus Granillo, a teacher with Santa Fe Public Schools, said in his application. “I would like to mentor new teachers in an effective and productive way so that our learning community as whole can move forward in solving problems and take on technological advancements with an approach that surrounds computational thinking.” 

The Public Education Department adopted Canvas in summer 2020 and offered it, free of charge, to every New Mexico school district and charter as a learning management system option for remote, hybrid and face-to-face instruction. Use of Canvas is recommended but not required. To date, 66 districts and state charters serving 165,649 New Mexico students have fully implemented Canvas.

Additionally, the department is using Canvas to host its professional learning webinars – 41 so far – and plans to use it for all school and district personnel evaluations in the future.