Happy New Years!!!

With the new year comes new beginnings. Here at School Island, we ring in the new year with the latest features/updates thanks to your incredible suggestions. Also in this newsletter, learn about a new trend - specialized high schools - and find out answers to one of our most frequently asked questions from our mailbag.

New Features / Updates

For Teachers & Administrators

Personal Content Sets

The Personal Content Set Editor can now be used with version 3.0 of the Safari web browser.

Statistics & Surveys

Consider this...

• The Texas Education Agency has awarded $4.2 million to school districts around the state to create three specialized academies and seven Early College High Schools.
• California enacts law to assist in the establishment of specialized high schools in the state to provide advanced instruction and training in high technology fields and in the performing arts.
• Specialized high school immigrants: a promising idea.

Quick Links

Trends in Secondary Education Links

For more information about secondary education issues, check out the following sites:

• Gifted Programs and Honors Classes
• Does Your Child's School Offer Edline?
• Does More Money Mean a Better Education?
• NYC Department of Education Specialized High School Student Handbook
• InsideSchools.org
• National Consortium for Specialized Secondary Schools of Mathematics, Science, and Technology

Upcoming Conferences

February 10-11-12, 2008

PA Education Technology Conference with exhibits to be held at the Hershey Lodge & Convention Center on February 10-12, 2008. For more information, check out www.peteandc.org. 

Question: I currently use School Island and would like to encourage other math teachers in my district to use some of my assignments. How can I publish an assignment and how do other teachers access my published assignment?

Answer:  You've asked a good question about one of our newer School Island advanced features! Any assignment can be published; that is, made available to other teachers within your school district. Let's say you've created an assignment in Integrated Algebra you want to make available to all of your colleagues within the school district. Here is what "you" need to do to publish the assignment:

1. Click the Assignments link from the Teacher Home page.
2. From the Short Answer tab of the Assignments page, select the appropriate course from the Course drop-down menu – Integrated Algebra – and the appropriate folder, if necessary, from the Folder drop-down menu to locate the desired assignment.
3. Click the check box just to the left of the assignment name to select the assignment. This places a checkmark inside the check box.
4. Click the Publish link just below the list of assignments. The Publish Assignment as a Public Assignment dialog window displays.
5. Enter the name of your assignment into the Publish Assignment as a Public Assignment dialog window.
   Note: You may use the original assignment name. However, since your assignment will now reside in a public area, you may wish to select a more complete or formal name.
6. Click the Publish link. School Island will ask you to confirm this action.
7. Click OK. School Island will display a message confirming the name of the new public assignment.
8. Click OK again to close the window.

Once the assignment is published, other teachers within your school district can create a new assignment and import questions from your published assignment into their assignment. For example: your colleague, "Jane," wants to use questions from that Integrated Algebra assignment you just published. Here is what "Jane" needs to do:

1. Click the Assignments link from the Teacher Home page.
2. From the Short Answer tab of the Assignments page, select the appropriate course from the Course drop-down menu – Integrated Algebra.
3. Scroll down below the list of assignments; enter a new assignment name into the provided field; and click Create New Short Answer Assignment.
4. Under Assignment Options (right column) of the Edit Assignment page, click the Import Questions link.
5. On the Import Questions to Assignment page, click the Public Assignments tab (the blue tab).
6. Set the course to Integrated Algebra - the course in which "you" created the public assignment.
7. From the list of assignments, locate the desired assignment and click its Import link.
   Note: Be sure to tell "Jane" the name of the assignment you used!
   The questions from the published assignment display.
8. Browse and select the desired questions from the assignment.
9. Click Import Checked Questions. The selected questions from the public assignment are now added to "Jane's" new assignment.
10. "Jane" may continue to add or import additional questions to complete her assignment, if desired.

Remember, online Help is available on every page. This feature is also documented in the School Island Teacher Handbook, which can be downloaded via the Documents link on the Teacher Home page.

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!