Have you renewed your subscription for this school year? Renew your Agriculture or CTE libraries, and place your orders here.At the start of a school year, it is important for you to be prepared. In order to feel most prepared using MYcaert.com, we are sharing some recommended practices to ensure a smooth transition into the school year. 1) Create courses 2) Adding students 3) Assigning materials 1) Create Courses If you are new to MYcaert.com, and are unfamiliar with the various ways of creating courses, review this previous blog on Creating Course Outlines. Perhaps you would like to reuse course outlines from last year, you will simply "Make a Copy of Course Outline". Follow these simple steps: Under My Courses, select the course outline you wish to duplicate. Upon the course outline page, select the “Make a Copy of this Course Outline”. Upon the next screen you will rename the course outline for the second semester. In this example, I used “2nd Sem 16-17” after the original course name. You can now make changes to this course outline. You can delete the lessons you’ve already taught, along the right edge of the course outline. You can also reorder the lessons by selecting “Reorder Lessons in Custom Outline”. On this screen you can move the lessons by clicking and holding on the lesson you want to move, and dragging it to the slot desired. At the bottom of the screen, you must select “Submit” for the changes to take place. 2) Adding Students Once you have created all your courses, you can add students. We just made a major adjustments to the "Add Students" page that will help Google Education Schools. Review the single sign-on for Google users here. Simply add new students underneath the "My Students" tab. You may add up to 15 at one time. "Manage course rosters" underneath "My Students" to review all your students are in the correct courses. 3) Assigning Work Review the User’s Guide, pages 18-19. - Assign/ Maintain E-Units and PowerPoints It all starts with a course outline. You will need to build one in order to assign E-units and PowerPoints. For additional help, you can see a short video tutorial here. You can also add customized dates and assignments to student calendars. For example, you may have assigned a project for students in a specific course. The calendar will allow you to add important deadlines, and important documents for the student(s) to view, in the Custom Calendar. This option is also found underneath "Assign E-units/PPTs to Students".
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Over the last year, we heard from several teachers who utilize Google Classroom. MYcaert.com has implemented a Google Single-Sign-On, SSO, option for students. This is a secure authentication system that enables Google users to sign in with their Google account logins. Students will not have to remember their MYcaert.com logins and passwords. They will click the Google icon to log in. How To When you add students to your account, you have an option to select Google Enable. Once you click "Yes" in that column, you will add the student's Google e-mail address. This can be their personal Gmail account, or their Google education account. If students are already in your roster, you will select "Edit Students" underneath the "My Students" Tab. Click the student's name you wish to edit, and then you will have the option to enable the Google SSO. Special Student Note: When students login for the first time with this feature on a device they will have to click the Google G "Sign In" button. When returning to MYcaert.com, the browser will do a quick search to ensure they are logged in to their Google account. Perks The SSO will allow you to assign links to e-units and online assessments in Google Classroom. The students can click the links and be taken directly to those assignments. The SSO also removes inconvenient steps in assigning materials to students. Assessments and materials remain password protected, and you remain able to track student attainment via academic standards. Do you have a suggestion for MYcaert.com to consider? Please provide your feedback here to help us track helpful suggestions.
A common practice that teachers use to maximize their subscription is reusing quizzes to make a pre-test, and a post-test for a particular unit, lesson plan, objective, or set of standards. To create a pre-test you will add the questions that pertain the specific lessons you are teaching, from the CAERT Question Bank. To learn how to create a quiz, read our blog on creating and assigning quizzes. Most importantly, name your quiz "Pre-Test" Unit X or Pre-"Name of Unit X." The post-test can be created using an existing quiz. First, create a new quiz. Most importantly, name your quiz "Post-Test" Unit X or Post-"Name of X Unit." Upon creating the quiz, you will be directed to the page to select questions from your quiz. There, you will find the question menu on the right side of the screen. Click the first option “Select from Existing Quiz”. Next, use the drop down menu to select the name of the quiz from which you wish to add questions. Finally, select the boxes next to each question, and then click the “Add Selected Questions to Quiz” button. Utilizing the "Current School Year Report", you can view the students' scores from the quizzes/tests they have taken, between July 1 and June 30. The two most popular reports are: Quiz Question Summaries- This report shows how frequently a question is answered correctly or incorrectly to demonstrate validity and reliability and to indicate what concepts might require additional reinforcement. Quiz Scores - This report lists all of the individual quizzes you have given to your students. Clicking on the name of any quiz will bring up a page listing the student scores for that quiz. It will also show if a student has taken the quiz more than once. You can click on the View Student Quiz Summary column to see each individual submission by a student. Previously, the Course Outlines feature was highlighted. Today’s blog will focus on the lesson plans. Each lesson plan has been written by a practicing teacher in the designated content area. The lesson plans have then been aligned to national academic standards, and some state content standards. A lesson plan is downloaded in PDF format, where specific parts may be printed for teacher use. To view the lesson plan, click on the red title of the lesson. To download to your computer, click on the grey arrow right of the title. Common best practices of applying the lesson plan are: 1) Content and background knowledge 2) Utilizing the Sample Test and Labs, and Assigning to Students 3) Utilizing the Visuals 4) Adding to My Community 5) Standards Alignment 1) Content and Background Knowledge- The lesson plans are content centered to ensure you have the depth of knowledge needed for the activities. Technical terms are highlighted to guarantee clear definitions. 2) Utilizing the Sample Test and Labs, and Assigning to Students- The sample test is a favorite feature in MYcaert. It can be printed on paper, or filed electronically and assigned through MyFiles in MYcaert, or through Google Classroom. We find teachers use this in a variety of ways - as a test, as a review for a test, or as a worksheet - saving them valuable preparation time. At the end of each lesson plan, a hands-on application is provided, and may contain more than one. Teachers utilize these similarly to the sample test. 3) Utilizing the visuals- The visuals make for great handouts or note aides. They can be printed, and edited to fit your needs. For example, if using an identification visual, you may remove the names of the body parts, and guide students in note-taking. 4) Adding to My Community - Teachers may create or add additional items valuable to the lesson with My Community. Be sure to review and make the items your own. If you have an activity or handout to add, please do. Be sure it is not copyrighted. Check out a previous blog on My Community. 5) Standards Alignment- Each lesson plan is aligned to national academic and AFNR standards. Certain states have lessons aligned to state standards or pathways. MYcaert.com provides you the option to print out those standards you teach. Check out a previous blog on Standards Alignment. Would you rather watch a 2 minute tutorial? Download the file below to access a Windows Media file.
Previously, we created Course Outlines. Now, let's add new lessons to existing course outlines in MYcaert.com. At times, you may discover you wish to add lessons to your existing course outlines. Simply log in and select the lesson plan library needed. Once highlighted, click the floating submit button. Next, select the units desired. Click submit. Finally, select the lesson plan titles you wish to add to your existing course outline, by checking the red boxes next to the titles. At the top of the screen click "Select All Lessons Below", if necessary. Select the Existing Course Outline from the second selection box, and click "Save". Additionally, you may wish to search for specific lesson plans. First, hover over My Courses, and select "Generate List of Caert Materials--> By Vocabulary Term(s)". Next, search by a specific term for the lessons you need. For example, “communications" was used to add to an Ag Business Course Outline. A list of materials matching the term(s) used is generated. Select the lesson(s) you desire to add by holding "CTRL" and clicking more than one lesson title. Click “Submit Query” in the right corner of the screen. Next, select the lessons desired by checking the box next to each red title. Then Select "Save to Existing Course Outline" and find the course outline you desire. Finalize by clicking “Save.”
Would you rather watch a 3 minute tutorial instead? See our Windows Movie Video at the end of this blog entry. After you’ve created a course, you may want to view the standards aligned to the lessons in the course. This is a simple task. The standards are viewed in four simple ways.
If you are searching for lessons aligned to specific standards, you can do so by hovering over “My Courses” and selecting the area of study desired (IE: National AFNR, National Math, National Science, National English, or State Standards). By following the prompts, you will find the lessons aligned to those standards.
In a previous blog post, we asked you to tell us what you would like to see in upcoming blogs. One request was “Best Practices” within MYcaert.com. Recently, we’ve received a few requests on how to create a course. This blog will focus on the best practice of creating a course, and example courses. Upon logging into MYcaert, you will land on a screen with each subscribed library shown. From this screen you have several options to create a course. A very simple option, is to create a course from a sample course outline. By hovering over My Courses, you will find several Sample Course Outlines to the right. You can select one of those course outlines, and select “Make a copy and save it to my courses”. You can rename the course, reorder the lessons, and remove lessons, or add additional lessons to the outline. Another way to create a course, from home screen, is selecting a library. For example, select Animal, Plant, and Soil Science. The following screen allows you to select the desired problem areas, taking you to the final screen to show you your lesson plan choices. Select the lessons you wish to save to your course outline, and create your custom course outline. You can also create a course outline by vocabulary term, academic standard, or library outline. By using the Library Outline feature, you can use more than one library to create a course. This allows you to add in FFA and Communication lessons to any standard agriculture class. In MYcaert.com you are not limited to what lessons you can put into an outline. A recommended number is 60-65 lessons for a school year. Check out our brief video tutorial, showing you how to create a course outline! Examples Courses: Non- Ag CTE Courses Business and Technology Concepts Business Marketing and Computer Education Computer Concepts and Software Applications Care & Learning Services Occupations SCCO Child Development and Parenting SCCO Culinary Occupations I SCCO Nutrition and Culinary Arts I SCCO Nutrition and Wellness Occupations SSCO Culinary Occupations II SSCO FCS Communications Health Science Technology Drafting and Design Green Construction Manufacturing and Production Technology & Engineering Education AGRICULTURE Courses Agricultural Biotechnology Agricultural Business Management Agricultural Communications Agricultural Construction and Technology Agricultural Leadership Agricultural Machinery Service Agricultural Mechanics and Technology Agronomy Agricultural Metal Fabrication Agricultural Sales and Marketing Animal Science Aquacultural Science and Technology Basic Agricultural Mechanics Basic Agricultural Science Biological Science Applications in Agriculture- Animal Science Biological Science Applications in Agriculture-Plant Science Environmental Science Food Science Technology Greenhouse Production and Floral Design Horticultural Production and Management Introduction to the Agricultural Industry Landscaping and Turf Management Natural Resources Management and Conservation Physical Science Applications in Agriculture Veterinary Technology Do you create your own assignments and worksheets? Do you use and assign materials from MyCommunity for your students? MyFiles, the red tab in MYcaert, is a great place for you to store your assignments, PowerPoints, and your own teacher files for each lesson and/or unit. Once you have created a course outline, your MyFiles automatically updates to include an overall file for the course. The overall course file, includes three smaller files: “Current Assignments”, “Expired Assignments”, and “Teacher Files”. You can store your files for your courses within the online MYcaert portal. What could be better to have all of your materials in ONE location? Once you have uploaded files into the correct folders, and assigned materials to students, you can actually view who has completed and turned in the assignments. You are also able to grade and comment on your students’ completed assignments. If you find materials within MyCommunity that you find beneficial for your class, you can also directly save those materials to “MyFiles,” by selecting the resource, and then selecting the course. If you have more questions on how to use it, check out Section 6 of the User’s Guide for step by step directions. You can also check out this quick video tutorial!
We've often been asked if MYcaert.com has a search bar for users. It does! Once you've logged in, under the "My Courses" tab, along the left, are ways to Generate List of MYcaert materials. The second to last option, "By Vocabulary Term" is often the desired search method. Using as many keywords as you need, and selecting search, a list of materials you have access to, is created. You can select as many lessons that suit your needs, and a course outline will be created. To select more than one item, hold down the "Ctrl" button on a PC, or the "Command" button on a Mac, and select your items. You can add those lessons to an existing course outline, or create a new one. You may find it helpful to search by your own state's standards, or by learning area. Those options are also found under "My Courses", along the left of the drop down menu. By Learning Area will allow you to select specific options within science, math, and language arts. Whereas, by "_________ Standard" will allow you to generate materials by specific academic standards. Have you been reading our blogs? We'd love for you to take a quick 3 question survey to tell us how we're doing!
With end of the semester exams around the corner, your mind is probably split between two places: creating semester exams, and preparation for 2nd semester. The past few blogs we have highlighted different ways you can re-use your quizzes- specifically, creating a quiz from existing quizzes. This feature is particularly useful for semester exams, choosing questions to compile from all the different quizzes you’ve previously assigned. You can also create a review quiz, with multiple chances for your students to view and submit. If you have already created your semester exams, you are likely preparing for second semester. As the first semester progressed you likely found that lessons may have taken longer, or took less time, depending on the topic and knowledge base of your students. In either case, you may need to reevaluate your course outlines for the second semester. To change a course outline for second semester, hover over My Courses and select the course outline you wish to change. Upon the course outline page, select the “Make a Copy of this Course Outline”. Upon the next screen you will rename the course outline for the second semester. In this example, I used “2nd Sem 16-17” after the original course name. You can now make changes to this course outline, without losing what you planned at the beginning of the year. You can delete the lessons you’ve already taught, along the right edge of the course outline. You can also reorder the lessons by selecting “Reorder Lessons in Custom Outline”. On this screen you can move the lessons by clicking and holding on the lesson you want to move, and dragging it to the slot desired. At the bottom of the screen, you must select “Submit” for the changes to take place. Want to see a quick video tutorial on this topic instead? Give yourself 3 minutes to watch this video!
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October 2017
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