Harcourt Social Studies Software Training Plan

Tony Mitchell May 2007

 

 

Prior

  • Associate GeoSkills
  • See if Harcourt website are blocked at the school
  • Have teachers bring Harcourt social studies teacher textbook (to get ISBN number and/or author’s name for registration)
  • Take with you the Online Assessment guides for teachers (that we received during our training) and decide whether you want to give them our prior to training or as a reference after training
  • Perhaps check computers to be used for necessary plugins (you may want to do this for them or walk teachers through process)
  • Check to see if Geoskills videos play on the student stations

 

Introductory remarks

 

Quickly list four resources and give brief overview of each

  • GeoSkills
  • Horizons web resources
  • Eproducts – Online book
  • Online Assessment tool (really a part of eProducts)
  • Eplanner
  • Resources for help: add to handout now:  shared drive/ T Mitchell / Software manuals / Geoskills

 

GeoSkills

Notes:

·        For 4th and 5th grade social studies teachers and students

·        Four components:

o       GeoGlossary, Make a Map, Skills Activities, Explore Skills

·        Runs from server, but no student login is used to keep up with progress. Only Make a Map component allows a document to be created and saved

 

GeoGlossary

·        Defines terms, gives pictures and examples to illustrate

·        Zooms in and out, but slow

·        Can select icons or use dropdown menu (words) at bottom of page

·        North America icon at bottom of page gives more terms on a separate page (on second page, click link on left)

·        Web link takes user to www.harcourtschool.com not to a connected resource

 

Skills Activity

·        Three skills activities (or games)

·        Treasure Hunt: student uses map compose rose and distance legend to locate treasure

·        Map Match: student patches map pieces together to render complete map

·        Party Time: student reads maps, grids, and legends, to deliver packages (skills level increases with success)

 

Explore Skills

·        14 video lessons, from Reading a map, to Latitude and Longitude, to Reading Time Zone maps

 

Make a Map

·        Use dropdown menu at bottom to narrow map options

·        Gives three components for map making

o       Reference map, Legend, Blank map for student to fill

·        Tools and legend icons allow student to create map

·        Map can be saved

·        (there must be a way to get student created legend to appear on student map)

 

Horizons Web Resources

  • Go to www.harcourtschool.com to register
    • Bookmark for quick access later today
    • The Learning Site link (red) / Social Studies / Horizons
    • Type in green…. And rest of info
    • This registration is really a registration for the computer that needs to access the websites
    • It puts a special cookie on the computer that allows access
    • This must be done on every computer that will access
      • Only once
      • Home or school
  • Samples: Browse and demo a few of the better resources to spark interest
    • Today’s News / continue / National News – Squid / back button / GAMES (Rabbit Racer : arrows and space bar), Time Warp Trivia
    • Activities and Games: US History Beginnings
      • Redwood State Park / continue / Redwood trivia
      • Volcano activities / continue / maximize / pictograms / mt st. helen’s / view from spirit lake
      • Water science for schools / continue / Earths’ water (link at top) / where is earths water / scroll down to see graphs)
  • Many more links
    • Categorized for you
    • We will explore later if time permits

Eproducts

  • Register: Take teachers to register during training
    • Go to same website listed above -www.harcourtschool.com - and click eproducts link
    • Bookmark http://eharcourtschool.com/
    • Register
      • Not the same as registration above
      • Ehartman is already in
      • Click Register Here button
      • Choose from dropdown: teacher in US
      • Enter info: try to use regular pass and logins – email
      • If this does not work, add jns to login name but keep same password
      • ISBN code on textbook, first volume, no dashes
      • 2nd word on page 6 (so far every one has been “geography)
      • Print confirmation info
      • Go to Go to my Harcourt eProducts now.
  • Online textbook
      • Home access to textbook for student and parent
      • Reads aloud to student
      • Demo: chapter 4 opener; two click on Play
        • Notice navigational tabs at top
      • Not accessible to students immediately
        • Teacher must add and assign to her class
        • Cookie registration for computer
      • To exit only textbook section, click on the link at top of page: Harcourt eProducts
  • Teachers should add a class and at least one student into that class
    • Remember adding students and assigning them to a class are separate steps\
    • Add your class / add one student / assign that one student to your class
    • If time allows perhaps all students can be added, but a class is needed in order to demonstrate the Online Assessment component)
    • Managing classes, adding students, changing passwords, etc – directions at http://mitchell.mcsdga.net/HandoutsandHelpsfolder/HarSSHelps.htm  
  • Two more components to come
    • Online assessment
    • Eplanner
    • Take five minutes and look at online textbook and various web resources while I assign you access to the Online assessment component
  • While this demonstration is going on, (after they have registered for the eproducts) go to http://eharcourtschool.com/index.jsp and login with your admin login and give your teachers access to the Online Assement component; they will not have access to it or see the icon on their login screen until you have done this
    • The convention I will use is first initial last name and mcsd; example tmitchellmcsd. I found I sometimes had to add admin on the end; for example Rita yours is rmontgomerymcsdadmin. Password for everyone is horizons. You can change immediately to your preference using the My Account, Edit account links
    • My login is tmcbusadmin; pass f---0---
    • Once logged in follow these clicks:
      • Click Teachers on left panel
      • Click Assign product
      • Choose school from dropdown menu
      • Click HSP Online Assessment (their may be separate ones for each grade level)
      • Select teacher names: put green check in all
      • Click Submit
      • Click Done

 

Online Assessment

  • DEMO AS MY STUDENTS
  • Allows teacher to assign a vender generated test to her students
  • Remember that your ITS must give you access to this resource before you will see it and have access to use it. The access link will show up when you log in and will appear as an white elliptical button with the words Online Assessment
  • Unfortunately I found this online tool to sometimes load slowly and act cumbersome. I suspect that some teachers will feel the benefits are worth the trouble while others do not. Also Harcourt tech support said that pop-up blockers can be a problem with this component
  • Before teachers will be able to use the Online Assessment tool, two things need to be done
    1. The ITS must give them access by following the directions above in the section that started……… “While this demonstration is going on…”
    2. The teacher must then log into the system, click on the Edit a class link on the right, choose the class they created earlier, click Submit, scroll to the bottom of this page and put a green check mark in the box beside HSPOA Horizons Gr5 (or 4), then click Submit on this page and Done on the next
  • Have teachers log into eproducts using the username and password they created earlier
  • Click on Online Assessment link
  • Choose your class from dropdown
  • Teacher should see the one student they entered earlier
    • When adding students to test list you CAN MULTISELECT
  • Several tabs show across the top: Home / Student / Assignments / Reports / Help
  • These tabs have hover dropdown menus
  • Reports:
    • Login as tmitchellriv and show the reports from the test they took earlier (May 14 Built test)
    • Again see the teacher guide for directions, pages 40-48
    • When student logs in he will see that a test has been assigned to him
    • The system administers the test and grades it
    • When I tried to take a test as Bubba, the system timed out on me several times; however, it did continue where I had left off (also Johnson was experiencing network problems that day)
    • I have assigned a test to my students (if time permits we will take the test and the view report)
    • More detailed directions for using reports in teacher guide you received in training
  • General comments; see booklet for more detail
    • It appears that the only assignments that can be given are actually tests. ( I may find other options as I explore more)
    • The teacher can assign the vender made test OR build a custom one and then assign it
    • Build a test:
      • From dropdown Assignments menu choose Build test
      • Make choices in this window
      • standards will appear as links at bottom of page when view by standards is selected
      • another click, a bit deeper, is required before question appears
      • put green check next to chosen questions
      • approve test is last step
    • Assign the test
      • if custom then you must use dropdown menu to next to Content Library choose the custom one you just made
      • to assign a vender made test does not require the build a test step; you merely choose the test to assign in assign a test section
  • See the Online Assessment Quick Start Guide for Teachers, pages 18-35 for step by step directions for using this tool
    • NOTE: if you find that no questions can be shown (and therefore no test can be built), exit this page using the Exit to Harcourt eproducts (link at top of page) and check the following:
      • Click Edit a class
      • Choose your class from the dropdown menu and click Submit
      • Scroll to the bottom of this page and notice there are from 1-4 products available to you. Be sure to put a green check in all of the boxes and click Submit
      • NOTE: What must happen here is that you must have access to use the textbook and resources needed to build a test for the grade level you indicated when you set up your class
  • Similar to the OAS system, the teacher creates assignments and then assigns them in a separate step

 

Eplanner

  • Show correlation to GA standards (they are now present)
  • This component does not look beneficial to me
  • Allows teacher to put lesson plans on calendar, but is cumbersome and not intuitive
  • Perhaps if teacher want, I can do a separate session for this component
  • Quick demo:
    • Click Lesson Sequence tab
    • Open unit by clicking + sign
    • Click on arrow to get dropdown of chapters
    • Put check in box
    • Click on Schedule Chapter button toward top of gray box
    • In next window select lesson, date, and pace (number of days for lesson) and click Save
    • In next window click My Calendar tab
    • Click on the lesson plan link to see standards and resources (although resources activity link merely takes you to Harcourt web resources page)

 

Guided practice

  • Adding the rest of your students and assigning them to your class
  • Assigning a test (if needed)
  • Exploring various web resources
  • Considering use of ebook and how you might inform parents

Help resources