Welcome Back to School... School Island that is...

We hope you had a great summer. Here at School Island, we have been busy updating courses and making many improvements. Thanks to all who offered such great suggestions for making School Island an even better study and review experience! This issue of the School Island Newsletter includes a message from Prof. Bill; a reminder to schools to send in student enrollments; and a summary of the many new features and updates for students, teachers, and administrators. Also in this newsletter, learn about a new education trend - character education. Find out why this trend is emerging and learn how you can use School Island to add character education questions to your assignments!

Featured Article

The Changing Face of Education Over the Last Decade

I began teaching in 1966, at Intermediate School 61 in Corona, NY.  After 33 years of teaching both Junior High and High School on Long Island, I retired.  As President of CASTLE Software’s School Island - and Prof. Bill to many "on the Island" - I’ve been able to use my skills and thoroughly enjoy teaching in a corporate setting.  Through meetings, conferences, and training sessions, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting many teachers and principals, along with other administrators.  I feel right at home in any school I visit and have witnessed many changes in education.  None have been more pronounced than the changes faced over the last decade. 

The leading dynamics transforming the classroom are increased state assessment and required accountability on the federal level as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).  At every turn, I meet colleagues who say their lesson / curriculum planning revolves around addressing the needs of standards-based achievement expectations. What makes the classroom experience a formidable challenge is the role educators have in providing a solid education to a more diverse population to meet the learning needs of ALL students; students with learning disabilities to those with exceptional abilities and talents. Often unfunded or under-funded, state mandates based on NCLB are a great challenge for a number of reasons. Not only does NCLB legislation require local accountability based on how well students perform on state-wide assessments, but students who do not meet prescribed standards are now required to obtain remediation. In addition, schools who do not make Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) goals must initiate extensive reforms. 

To meet these as well as other challenges during the last decade, educators are integrating technology wherever they can across all curricular areas to improve level of instruction.  With technological innovation the essential ingredient, we at School Island look forward to our continued partnership with you in the classroom to ensure our students have the skills they need to become successful and competitive in the 21st century. 

Enrollments

Just a friendly reminder to all schools to send in your student enrollments and to take a few minutes to "houseclean" your teacher and administrative accounts. For more information, click the 7/24 ***Important Account Info for Admins*** link in the Information Center portion of the Administrator Home page.

Overview

School Island uses the latest in web technologies to provide a secure, efficient, and user-friendly environment. This requires the use of the latest versions major browsers. Before using School Island at the start of the 2007-2008 school year, please make sure that one of the following browsers are used:

• Internet Explorer 6 or 7 (for Windows)
• Firefox 2 or higher (for Windows or Mac)
• Safari 2 or higher (for Mac)

Once confirmed, please note the following features that have been added to School Island:

For Students

Class-Oriented Student Home Page

The Student Home page has been redesigned, allowing students to access School Island activities either by class teacher or by School Island course. With class teacher now being the primary method, Students can access assignments based on assigning teacher regardless of School Island course. This feature is particularly useful for teachers who use School Island, but teach non-School Island courses such as Health, Technology, and Art with their own content. For more information on how to access School Island activities by class teacher or by School Island course, refer to the School Island Handbook for Students.

For Teachers

Additional Class Parameter

To support the class-oriented Student Home page, the Edit Class page now includes an additional parameter. In addition to defining the Class Name and selecting the Primary Course, teachers are now asked to select which courses students are allowed to access from their Class page. A list of School Island courses display, along with a check box for each course. Teachers may check as many courses as they want. Selected courses then display on the Class page for student access.

Note: The primary course will always be available. In addition, students will also have access to any course where a teacher assigned an assignment, even if not checked on the Edit Class page. Once a student completes all assignments for a course, s/he can only return to that course if included in the Class page drop-down menu.

For more information on using this additional class parameter, refer to the School Island Handbook for Teachers.

Custom Courses

The Course drop-down menu (found on select School Island pages) now includes a "Custom Courses" option to support non-School Island courses. This new feature allows teachers to create assignments categorized as a "custom course" as well as include content from School Island courses and Personal Content Sets into the custom course.

Note: Students cannot self-generate activities for these courses; that is, students can only access custom course assignments from their Class page.

For more information on using custom courses, refer to the School Island Handbook for Teachers. In addition, please contact Tech Support (support@schoolisland.com) if you would like to have an additional course name added to the list of custom courses.

Assignment Management Changes

The Assignment Management options found on the Assignment page has been redesigned. Options requiring input of additional parameters no longer include an entry field after the link for defining required parameters; additional parameters are now entered in a separate pop up window. For example: The Move, Share, Publish, and Duplicate assignment options for managing Short Answer assignments no longer include an entry field after the link for defining required parameters. Upon clicking the associated link, a separate pop-up window displays for entry of additional parameters. This eliminates user confusion as to whether to "click the link or set the parameters". For more information on using assignment management options for specific assignment types, refer to the School Island Handbook for Teachers.

Public Assignments

The name of the "Public Sets" feature has been changed from "Public Question Sets" to "Public Assignments".

For Teachers and Administrators

Benchmark Assignments

Overview

School Island now supports Benchmark assignments - a Short Answer assignment to be assigned to multiple groups of students in one or more schools within a district. Benchmark assignments differ from other Public assignments in that Benchmark assignments:

• Are standalone assignments; that is, teachers can only import questions from a Benchmark assignment if the assignment does not include any other questions.
• Are all-inclusive; that is, teachers cannot select which questions from the Benchmark assignment to include. All questions must be included in the new assignment.
• Cannot be deleted. More specifically, teachers cannot delete a Public Assignment that has been designated as a Benchmark.

Using Benchmark Assignments

When using Benchmark assignments, School Island recommends the following process:

1. An administrator or teacher creates the assignment.
   
   Note: An administrator does not have to be the creator of the Public assignment to designate it as a Benchmark assignment. In fact, any Public assignment created by any administrator or teacher within the district can be designated as a Benchmark assignment.
   
   
2. An administrator or teacher makes the new assignment a Public Assignment.
   OR
   A teacher submits an assignment to an administrator for designation as a Benchmark assignment.

3. An administrator designates a Public assignment as a Benchmark assignment. To do this, the administrator clicks the Public Assignments link on the Administrator Report page; designates the Public assignment as a Benchmark assignment if the teacher has not done so already; and unlocks the assignment to allow teachers to create assignments using the Benchmark assignment.
   
   Note: When a teacher submits an assignment for designation as a Benchmark assignment, both the Benchmark assignment and the teacher's assignment are immediately locked.

4. An administrator informs teachers who's students are to work on the Benchmark assignment to assign the Benchmark assignment to the appropriate students for completion on a specific date (or dates).
   
   
5. Teachers create a new assignment, importing questions from the Benchmark assignment using the Import Questions feature.
   
   
6. Teachers assign the new Benchmark assignment to students using the appropriate Assignment Mode (most likely locked until the students are about to access the assignment).
   
   
7. Teachers monitor results of their own students as with any other assignment.
   
   
8. Administrators generate and review Benchmark Reports to monitor results for any class or school.

For more information on using Benchmark assignments, refer to the School Island Handbook for Administrators.

For Administrators

Renaming Public Assignments

Administrators can now rename Public assignments on the Public Assignments page by clicking the name of the assignment or by clicking the Update icon to the right of the assignment name. For more information on using Benchmark assignments, refer to the School Island Handbook for Administrators.

Moving Student or Teacher Accounts

Occasionally, students and teachers move to a different school within the district during the school year. If you are a district administrator (administrating for more than one school), then you can move a student or teacher account to another school in your district. From the Accounts page, edit the user account to move, then select the destination school from the Move to option.

Statistics & Surveys

Why Do We Need Character Education?

Dr. Thomas Lickona, author of Educating for Character, stated, “Moral education is not a new idea. It is, in fact, as old as education itself. Down through history, in countries all over the world, education has had two great goals: to help young people become smart and to help them become good.” Good character is not formed automatically; it is developed over time through a sustained process of teaching, example, learning and practice.”

In today’s society, character education is particularly important. Our youth face many opportunities and dangers unknown to earlier generations. Consider the following sobering statistics*:

• 10% of our youth reported carrying guns.
•  27% of young people frequently smoke cigarettes.
•  21% of youth are having sexual intercourse before age 13.
•  36% rode in a car with a driver who had been drinking alcohol.
•  Over 7% attempted suicide within the past year.
•  Over 50% had at least one drink of alcohol in the past month.
• 33.4% had five or more drinks of alcohol on at least one occasion during the past month.
• 26.2% used marijuana during the past month.
• 3.3% used cocaine during the past month.
• 16% used inhalants during their lifetime.
• 73% of all deaths among school-age youth and young adults result from four causes: motor vehicle crashed, other unintentional injuries, homicide, and suicide.

*Statistics are based on the 1997 Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System (YRBSS), a comprehensive survey of high school student health behaviors which includes data for the nation, 36 states and territories and 17 cities.

Sources: FreedomForum.org and TeachingValues.com

Questions & Answers

Question:

How do I incorporate Character Education questions into School Island assignments?

Answer

To incorporate Character Education into any assignment, use School Island's Personal Content Set feature. First, create a Personal Content Set with applicable Character Education questions. Then import the Personal Content Set into any assignment. Or, consider using School Island's new custom course feature to add Character Education as a separate course.  For more information on using Personal Content Sets and the new custom course feature, refer to the School Island Handbook for Teachers.

Quick Links

Character Education Links

For more information about Character Education, Teach-nology.com recommends the following sites:

1. Building Esteem in Students Today - The BEST Program is a school-wide Character Education Program comprised of nine character themes teaching character, value, and citizenship.
2. Careapy - Developed by Barbara and Glenn Smyly through their work in the Alivening Project, this site distributes Character Education Distance Learning Courses.
3. Character Counts!- A diverse, non-partisan alliance of leading human-service and educational organizations working together to strengthen the character of young people today to safeguard tomorrow for all.
4. Character Education - Programs train educators and students to manage aggressive behaviors, build self-esteem, resolve conflicts, encourage diversity tolerance, practice core values, and promote character education.
5. Character Education Center- Provides a great variety of information for both educators and parents.
6. The Character Education Network - For students, teachers, schools, and communities to facilitate character education. This site is dedicated to providing quality, ready-to-use curriculum, activities and resources that integrate with and enhance the classroom experience.
7. Character Education Pages- Contains links and lists of resources for educators and parents; all are related to the practice and theory of character education.
8. Get to Know Yourself!- Self-esteem, personalities, intelligence, and health are the focus of this page.
9. Learning for Life- Provides programs designed to support schools and other youth-serving organizations in their efforts toward preparing youth to successfully handle the complexities of today's society as well as to enhance their self-confidence, motivation, and self-worth.
10. Making Ethical Decisions- This booklet is designed to help you perceive the ethical implications of your choices; clarify the ethical values and principles involved and help you arrive at decisions that will bear scrutiny from others; and meet your own ethical aspirations to do the right thing.
11. Moral and Character Development- Information on how we can help our young people strive for excellence and fulfill their potential.
12. Moral Issues- Features a large index of relevant articles.
13. The Jefferson Center for Character Education- Promotes programs to teach children in grades K through 12 concepts, skills and behavior of good character, common core values, personal and civic responsibility.

Educational Resources

The following are some useful links:

• U.S. Department of Education
• No Child Left Behind Legislation
• New York Education Department
• New York State Board of Regents
• North Carolina Public Schools
• North Carolina Non-Public Education
• Virginia Department of Education

As a member of the School Island family, this is your newsletter. If you have any comments, ideas for future newsletter articles, or suggestions for a School Island product feature or enhancement, please send them to support@schoolisland.com. We would love to hear from you!