? for the experts :-) - keeping work for outsourced classes

[mlktwins]

My boys have taken 3 classes with the same local teacher.  All work was submitted and corrected in Canvas.  She will be one of their recommendations for college apps.

What do I need to keep, if anything, from Canvas?  I have the very long syllabus printed (with textbook info, etc).  I have their grades printed.  For biology, I have graded lab reports printed.  I don't have anything extra printed or saved for Honors Government and Politics or AP World History.  I have a subject test score for biology, a CLEP for GOPO, and will have an AP Exam score for World History.

Should I printout out any specific comments she made about their work on assignments?  Would this matter for anything?  Again, she will be one of their recommendations. 

Thanks so much for dealing with all my questions!
  

[kokotg]

If there are graded papers from the gov and history classes, I'd save one from each (particularly if there's a research paper) in case they apply to schools that want a portfolio. When my oldest was asked for those the description of what they wanted was pretty vague...he tried to send in some kind of sample work from each of the 4 core subjects (probably wouldn't have sent math, except he's a mathy kid and had lots of written proof stuff he could send in). Anyway, it doesn't hurt to save a number of good papers so there's plenty to choose from if needed. 

[EKS]

I saved everything.

[Clemsondana]

Can't you access Canvas classes for several years?  I know that teachers can, but I don't know what students see.  I encourage students to do all of their work in a word or google doc - even if they paste into a text box, have a copy somewhere else because I have seen Canvas eat assignments.  It's rare, but I know it's real because one night I looked to see that some students had uploaded a presentation for class the next day, and when we got to class the next morning one of the presentations was missing.  It also happened to my own kid, who was able to go back to a document and copy the answers to resubmit without much effort. 

If they have the assignments saved, then you can print the grade sheet so that you have the grades associated with each assignment if you want.  I might save comments for a paper or 2 if they are extensive and useful, but I wouldn't bother with generic 'Nice work!' or 'There's a misplaced semicolon in line 14'.  Some umbrellas require a portfolio here, and I wouldn't save more than what you would put in that.  Most students save 3-4 assignments that are representative if they make a portfolio.  

[Farrar]

The course description from the website is the main thing. Because you never know when Athena's Academy will decide to be helpful and remove every single course description ever. Sigh. They're not the only one. Just the latest.

But agreeing with lab reports and a suburb graded paper with the comments if one exists. Otherwise that's it.

[mlktwins]

12 hours ago, Clemsondana said:

Can't you access Canvas classes for several years?  I know that teachers can, but I don't know what students see.  I encourage students to do all of their work in a word or google doc - even if they paste into a text box, have a copy somewhere else because I have seen Canvas eat assignments.  It's rare, but I know it's real because one night I looked to see that some students had uploaded a presentation for class the next day, and when we got to class the next morning one of the presentations was missing.  It also happened to my own kid, who was able to go back to a document and copy the answers to resubmit without much effort. 

If they have the assignments saved, then you can print the grade sheet so that you have the grades associated with each assignment if you want.  I might save comments for a paper or 2 if they are extensive and useful, but I wouldn't bother with generic 'Nice work!' or 'There's a misplaced semicolon in line 14'.  Some umbrellas require a portfolio here, and I wouldn't save more than what you would put in that.  Most students save 3-4 assignments that are representative if they make a portfolio.  

Yes. Both of my in-laws had just passed last spring and I totally forgot to download any of their grades or anything from Canvas. The teacher opened it back up to me as read only so I could get what I needed.

I'm not sure if they typed their assignments in Canvas or in Word and cut and paste for these 3 classes. I didn't keep track of that. I just periodically checked what assignments were due, looked at some comments, and monitored their grades. They are going to be taking their first DE class in the fall and they will use Canvas for that also. I will tell them to type out their stuff in Word first so they have a copy of needed.  Thank you!

[mlktwins]

11 hours ago, Farrar said:

The course description from the website is the main thing. Because you never know when Athena's Academy will decide to be helpful and remove every single course description ever. Sigh. They're not the only one. Just the latest.

But agreeing with lab reports and a suburb graded paper with the comments if one exists. Otherwise that's it.

Oh, that would hurt @Farrar!  So sorry that happened.

I am making sure I have everything I need to get their transcripts done.  I'm praying I have all the course descriptions! I know I do from this year and for next year.

[EKS]

I said I saved everything, but I realized that that isn't true.  I saved everything for which I was granting the credit.  So, all of the Derek Owens stuff was saved, but the only thing I kept from classes taken at actual credit granting institutions (a private high school, a public high school, and a community college) were course descriptions and book lists.

[kristin0713]

I am pretty much just keeping grades and papers/essays. I printed out a list of grades from canvas. Some teachers sent a grade report separate from canvas, which was great, because the format that canvas uses for grades doesn't print nicely. Or maybe I didn't do it right, I don't know. For science classes I have kept a lab report or two. For math I am not keeping any work because I have the corrected tests emailed back to me from the teacher. The one thing I am keeping all of is essays from Lantern and DS' writing from his lit/comp class on OpenTent. I have a binder of writing for each of them. I might not keep it forever, and the kids do have copies of their work on their computers as well. I also have the emails from the instructors with feedback. But for now I want to have a binder with their writing because it shows progression in skills and makes it easy to grab a writing sample if needed. 

[kristin0713]

Re: course descriptions - I have kept an updated document with course descriptions yearly along with a transcript. I didn't want to have to do this all at once when she's applying for colleges.