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Enter the Fortress of Solid Learning
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Nov 2008, Vol 8, Issue 3
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Do You Promote Parents as Coaches?
Greetings to fellow educators,
"What, you're Prof Bill on the support line?" Well, this corporate president remains an educator through-and-through, and on Sunday nights, I like to take calls that are invariably from "parents" who want to help their child (yes, even high school students get a parent to call for them!) with a forgotten ID or Password.
It is an awesome opportunity to hear what parents are thinking and learn that they remain very connected to the hope that they can inspire their children to excel and meet the challenges of an assignment. But they have more to say when speaking with me-they see the future for their children and we often talk about goals that are just around the corner when they graduate.
"Thank you so very much, you have given me just what I wanted to hear!" or "You are a gift to a parent with a teenager...bless you!" Parents want to help their children and Castle Learning Online gives them that chance.
As a teacher, YOU have a ready extension of your classroom when you think like Manhattan Hunter High School's Principal who advocates a program called "Parents as Coaches." Parents want to participate in their child's learning experience. Plan a PTA meeting, teach parents how to create a self-generated assignment and encourage them to work through some problems or reading passages with their student. Make sure you check this progress and encourage students by providing "extra credit" for that time spent with their parents.
Teaching gets even better when you know that parents are "part of your classroom."
- Professor Bill
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| Focus on English Literature
Castle Learning Online English has instituted a great literature review for high school English students. The unit, Introduction to Literature, contains multiple-choice questions on literary forms, literary techniques, figurative language, and special terms used in poetry. It also includes a section on analyzing and interpreting critical lens quotes, a crucial first step in writing literary essays
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Subsequent units cover books and plays that are commonly taught in high school English classes. Each unit contains a multitude of multiple-choice questions on plot review, analysis of the literature, and literary elements for each of the literary works. Questions are presented in t he order in which the literary work is written (chapter by chapter, or acts in a play) for easy access and use in the classroom.
Literary works covered so far include and The Great Gatsby, Macbeth, Lord of the Flies, The Crucible,The Catcher in the Rye. Coming soon:To Kill a Mockingbird and Romeo and Juliet.
All of the review questions have been designed and edited by English teachers who have extensive experience in teaching literature. With these questions, classroom teachers have ready-made material to use in their classrooms, and students have a chance to review these novels and plays for their classes as well as for State Assessments.
It is our intention to continue to add more literature as time goes on. We invite you to check out the literature portions of Castle Learning Online English; you will not be disappointed!
Painting of 'Romeo and Juliet'
by Ford Madox Brown (1821-1893)
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Here's a question
for you!
Are the parents of your students engaged in mentoring homework using Castle Learning Online?
Whether you're a new or longtime user, we want to hear about any of your experiences with Castle Learning Online.
Email us at ProfBill@CastleLearning.com
See you next month!
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November Mail Bag
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FOR ADMINISTRATORS
Moving Accounts within a District
Question:
I work in a large district with many schools enrolled in Castle Learning Online and my administrator account has district rights. A teacher recently transferred from one of our campuses to another. She used to have an account at her previous school. Is there a way to make an account for her that will retain the assignments she already created?
Answer:
If you have already created a second account for the teacher at her "new" school, she can sign into her "old" account and share all of her assignments with her account at the "new" school.
However, the best way to handle the situation is to move the teacher's account from one school to the other rather than creating a new account her. Your district administrator account allows you to move accounts as part of the Edit Account features. Here's how to move an account:
1. Sign into your administrator account with district rights.
2. On the Administrator Home page, select the name of the teacher's "old" school from the drop-down menu of district schools.
3. Click Accounts.
4. Locate the user's account and click the edit icon (looks like a pencil) next to the name.
5. Near the bottom of the account profile, next to the Move user to prompt, select the teacher's "new" school from the drop-down menu of district schools.
6. Click Save.
If you check the list of accounts at the teacher's "new" school, you will see the name listed there. The account will retain all of the assigned previously created. The teacher can now form classes at her "new" school and assign assignments to the students.
The technique above actually works for all types of accounts, including students. If you are not sure where the account exists, you can use the View/Search Accounts feature on the Administrator Reports page to locate it, then edit the account and move it to the appropriate school.
Teachers at Multiple Schools
Question:
What do I do with teachers who teach at more than one school? Do they need separate accounts for each campus?
Answer:
Teachers at multiple district schools do not need to maintain accounts at each school. You can make a simple modification to the teacher's account that will allow him/her to enroll students from another any district school into his/her classes. Here's how:
1. Sign into your administrator account with district rights.
2. On the Administrator Home page, select the name of the school in which the teacher holds his/her account from the drop-down menu of district schools.
3. Click Accounts.
4. On the Accounts page, locate the teacher's account and click the edit icon (looks like a pencil) next to the name.
5. On the Edit Account page, below the User Type, click to put a check mark in the box Access to All Students in the District.
6. Click Save to save the change.
The teacher will now be able to add students to his/her classes from any district school.
Link to Castle Learning Online
Question:
Our district recently purchased subscriptions for our students. May we post a link to Castle Learning Online on our district website?
Answer:
Many schools ask if they can post a link to our website from theirs. We welcome such requests. See http://castlelearning.com/review/adminfaq.htm#faq7 for the code to post such a link on your school site.
FOR TEACHERS
Assignment Retakes
Question:
How can I arrange for a particular student to redo an assignment even though other students have not yet completed it? Would this affect the whole class or just the one student?
Answer:
Castle Learning Online offers tremendous flexibility when it comes to assignments. You can control assignments at the class level but also at the individual student level for differentiated instruction. The feature that you are looking for is an assignment retake for a specific student. Here's how:
1. From the Teacher Home page, click Assignments.
2. Locate the desired assignment and click to put a check mark in the small box to the left of its name.
3. Scroll down below the list of assignments and click Duplicate Assignment.
4. This creates a new assignment with the same name, prefaced with Retake: which now appears in the list of assignments.
5. Click on the Assign/Monitor Students icon for the duplicate assignment.
6. Select the appropriate class from the drop-down menu at the top of the Assignment Details page.
7. Click the Assign to Students tab.
8. Locate the desired student, click to put a check mark in the small box to the left of his/her name, and click Assign.
The next time the student signs in, s/he will see the alert to the "new" assignment from you.
Scoring Disputes
Question:
Some of my students are protesting that Castle Learning Online is not scoring their assignments correctly. For example, one student says that she answered the question correctly, but that is was marked as "wrong." Is there a way that I can see my students' responses and resolve these disputes?
Answer:
True scoring problems with Castle Learning Online are extremely rare and usually involve network problems at the customer end. In most cases, student complaints of incorrect scoring involve a misunderstanding of how a correct response on a retry is handled.
One helpful tool for checking out scoring disputes is the student responses report. This will show you how the students responded during their sessions. Here's how to access this report:
1. From the Teacher Home page, click Assignments.
2. On the Assignments page, locate the desired assignment and click its Assign/Monitor Students icon.
3. At the top of the Assignment Details page, select the appropriate class from the drop-down menu and locate the desired student.
4. In the last column for that student, click Responses.
5. A separate window displays the questions along with the student's responses. The status of the response is noted: Correct, Correct on Retry, or Incorrect, along with the student's first response as well as the retry response, if any.
Publishing Assignments
Question:
In our school, we want all students in a certain course to work on the same assignment, regardless of who is teaching them. Is there a way for me to transfer my assignment to all of the other teachers?
Answer:
The easiest way is to publish the assignment so that all teachers in your school can pick up a copy and assign it to their students. Here's how you can publish an assignment:
1. From the Teacher Home page, click Assignments.
2. On the Assignment page, locate the desired assignment and click to put a checkmark in the small box to the left of its name.
3. Scroll down to the bottom of the assignments list and click Publish.
4. A small window pops up, displaying the name of the course and assignment. You can use the same name when you publish it, but this window gives you the opportunity to change it. For example, you might want to include your name.
5. Click Publish then click OK to confirm.
The assignment is now available to any teacher in your school district. You might want to let your colleagues know that the assignment is now available to them. Here's what the other teachers should do to pick it up to use with their classes:
1. From the Teacher Home page, click Assignments.
2. Create a new assignment in the appropriate course, in the usual manner.
3. Under Assignment Options, instead of Add Questions, click Import Questions.
4. On the Import Question to Assignment page, set the appropriate course name and click the Public Assignments tab.
5. Locate the public assignment and click its Import link.
6. Browse and select questions in the usual manner to create the assignment.
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See you
Soon |
The Castle Learning Online team will be at these conferences. Hope to see you there.
November
Science Teachers Association of NYS
Pennsylvania Council of Teachers of Mathematics
SCOPE 14th Annual Technology Conference
NYS Association of Mathematics Teachers
NYS Technology
December
North Carolina Educational Technology Conference
Pennsylvania Science Teachers Association Convention
January
Nassau County Mathematics Teachers Association
NYS Council of School Superintendents
February
Pennsylvania Educational Technology
Drop by our conference booth. We look foward to meeting you!
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Contact Information
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Castle Software, Inc., 626 Layport Dr., Ste. 100, Sebastian, FL 32958
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