Have you helped someone else at your school?

Skills Iowa's project leaders are always willing to help you with any questions you may have about the use of our programs, but sometimes there's nothing like someone sitting right down at your side and answering your questions RIGHT NOW. Since the project leaders can't always be right there right now, someone at your school who uses the programs might be the person to go to. The people using the programs may know the most about them.

Don't know who that might be? Your building administrator can log in and check on the number of logins and assessments given in Assessment Center, and the number of student minutes logged in Skills Tutor. It makes sense that the people with the the highest numbers are the people you might start with.

If your building administrator needs help running those reports, he or she should contact your project leader; they're always willing to help.

If you are that person in your building, letting others know that you might be able to help, may insure that your building keeps a viable level of usage that helps raise student achievement. You can make a difference!

Connecting

A few years ago, the novel Feed by M.T. Anderson presented a world where virtually everyone was connected to television and computers via a brain implant. People had these mechanisms implanted when they were born. The result was a world of people who could barely speak because they could already hear what others around them were thinking. They didn't need to read or write, and as a result, most couldn't. The world around them was bleak and deteriorating.

It all seemed interesting but impossible. Well, not so fast. At a recent meeting of TED, this presentation showed a mechanism that allows the beginnings of some of the same technologies. It presents a virtual sixth sense.

There is a link at the site that allows the downloading of this clip to your desktop or your iTunes account. It would make a great discussion/writing starter. Check it out.

It's amazing technology. Who knows, maybe this is the communicator of the future.

The "3 Rs"

In the March 22nd Des Moines Register an article by David Elbert entitled "Vibrant future predicted for Iowa" speaks about ideas for the future of Iowa. Eighteen prominent Iowans came together to brainstorm about Iowa's future, and they came up with many ideas ranging from light rail to a tongue in cheek notion by Fred Grandy that Iowa declare war on South Dakota. 

One of the participants, Anita native Victoria Bernhardt, spoke about how education has changed. The 3 Rs are no longer reading, writing and arithmetic but rather rigor, relevance and relationships. In other words, challenging, meaningful work that is supported at home, in the community and at school.

Skills Iowa is right there to help you do just that in your classes. The Assess, Analyze, Act strategy of Skills Iowa will help you make sure that your work is rigorous and relevant. Students who take formative assessments in Assessment Center can be directed to further work that is exactly what they need to master the skills needed for further learning. The reports in Assessment Center not only let you see how your school, and class are doing, but also give you specific information on how each student is performing on the necessary building blocks of education. With that knowledge, students can be directed to high quality resources in Skills Tutor. These skills are offered at performance levels from introductory to advanced so your students can work on rigorous lessons that are geared to their unique needs.

As for Relationships, Skills Iowa allows parents to sit down with students and work side by side with their student. Parents have the opportunity to be a part of their child's education. Skills Iowa lessons can be done at school, home or at the public library. Skills Iowa allows the teacher and school to see the larger picture of student performance for a classroom, building and district.

Skills Iowa is a great way for you to meet this view of modern education. No matter which way you view the "3 Rs", Skills Iowa is there to help you raise student achievement.

Skills Tutor Changes

There's a new feature in Skills Tutor that allows you some real choices. A new assignment option has been added to the assignment creation page. It states that the pretest can assign the posttest. By default, this box is checked, as are all of the option boxes.

What this means is that you can choose to have the posttest show up immediately after a student takes the pretest, or, if you choose, you can uncheck this option and give the posttest at a later time. This could be valuable if you want to do some additional teaching before your students take the posttest.

Any assignments that you have made before this option was added can be modified to allow you to make this change. Just log in and select your class. Choose the "Class Properties" and then select "Modify Assignment". Choose the assignment you wish to modify and under the options, uncheck the box which states that the pretest can assign the posttest.  Then you can make another assignment later that is just for the posttest. You must remember that some of your students may have already taken the posttest, and when you reassign it, it may show up as already completed. This doesn't need to be a problem since students can take the posttest as many times as they choose.

Since this is a brand new feature, there may be other implications. Give it a try if this is a control which you have been wanting.

Spring Meetings

Each participating Skills Iowa school will be having an implementation meeting to discuss the use of the Skills Iowa programs for the 2009-2010 school year.

If you have any concerns that you feel should be part of the discussion for your building, please share them with your building principal. This way we can be sure to have your topic brought up for discussion.

We thank you for your continuing participation is Skills Iowa and thank you for all you do for kids.

Renewal Notice

If you have noticed the renewal notice on the Skills Tutor home page, you may have questions about whether your school needs to renew your Skills Tutor account. The answer is no. All Skills Iowa schools receive our programs at no cost to the schools. Your account does not need to be renewed. You can keep right on using the program and not worry about this notice.