As we kick off the new school year, teachers are busy creating classroom communities, as well as organizing and orienting students to both their physical space and their digital space. Clever is one key aspect of our digital spaces, helping students and families find the resources and information that they need quickly and efficiently.
Below are tips and tricks from teachers to make their Clever pages a helpful extension of their physical classroom.
Consider Organizing with Categories
Because Clever is such an important piece of communicating with students and families, it’s important to organize it in a meaningful way.
For example, you may decide to create a section for important links and documents: links to your class schedule and expectations, and to the school website. Some teachers also link to the PTA website and district website to assist families in finding the information that they need.
Consider organization of your student-specific links, as well. Will you create a section for each content area?
Add Documents for Families & Caregivers
Once you have organized your Clever page, it’s time to add those important links and resources for families to access. Clever allows you to upload PDFs as well as create links. PDFs are not able to be translated, so we encourage you to instead create links to your OneDrive, where you can upload word documents. This way, families can translate those documents in the language of their choosing. Once you have linked your folder, you simply add to your OneDrive with each new newsletter! Fewer clicks for you.
The first step in this process is to create a folder in your OneDrive to house the newsletters.
Next, generate a read-only share link, which you will then place in Clever. To add a link in Clever, use the big green “Add” button.
Prefer to view these steps in a short video tutorial? Click here!
Link Resources for Students
Apps, links, and documents will also assist with student learning both inside and outside of the classroom. Consider how you might curate your resources for students in a way that fits with your instruction.
You will use the green “Add” button to either search for an app, or add a link. For example, if you wanted to add a link to Raz-Kids, you would follow the same process as above (adding a OneDrive link). Select one of the icons that Clever provides, or upload your own!
You can drag and drop to reorder the resources for your students.
Your Clever page can and should evolve as this year progresses. It is both your one-stop-shop, as well as a fluid resource to help your students and families get the information that they need seamlessly.
Consider Clever Messaging
A final note on Clever is the Clever Messaging function. Announcements have now been consolidated with individual messaging, and teachers may or may not want to use this function (depending on where they prefer to receive communication from students and families). As the teacher, you do have the ability to enable and disable Clever Messaging, although it will default to be enabled.
By clicking into your Message Settings, you can disable Clever Messages if you choose to do so.
Read more about Clever Messaging (and see the student experience) by clicking here!