Critical Updates for iOS Users

This information was in my email this morning. While teachers who subscribe to this blog by email get this information, parents and students who are using Stride Academy on personal iOS devices will need someone from the school to make it available. You may wish to copy the information below and paste it into your own school blog, Facebook page, or however you ordinarily communicate with parents.

In addition to the instructions below, first, be sure you are running the most version of the operating system. The latest release is iOS8.1.2, released December 9. (If you do not know what version you are running, here is how to find it:

1. Open the Settings app
2. Tap "General"
3. Tap "About"
4. Scroll down and look for "Version."

ACTION REQUIRED: 
iOS users MUST update your
Stride Academy shortcut ASAP

As a result of recent changes to iOS made by Apple, you must delete and reinstall your Stride Academy shortcut on your iPad to access critical updates to our program. This is necessary to avoid technical issues and ensure compatibility with Stride Academy.

Stride Academy will NOT function properly on your iPad if you do not reinstall your shortcut.

Please follow these steps to update your
Stride Academy shortcut:

1. Delete the Stride Academy icon (shortcut) from your home screen.
2. In Settings, select "Safari," then "Clear History and Website Data."
3. Power off/on your iPad.
4. Launch Safari.
5. Go to http://www.stridestart.com.
6. When prompted, click the button in the top bar to
   "Add to Home Screen."
7. Launch the app from the new "Stride Web" icon.

Congratulations! You have reinstalled your shortcut. You should now enjoy smooth and trouble-free access to Stride Academy on your iPad.

Be sure to share this important update with students and parents accessing Stride Academy on their iPads from home.

Using Data to Recognize Students

These students are in Casey Lee's second-grade class at Alexandria Elementary School. Every week, Mrs. Lee names a "King of Answers" and a "Queen of Answers" for the boy and girl with the highest number of correct answers for that week. To gather this information, she runs the "Stride Growth Report" and sets the later date range to the dates of the previous week.

Mrs. Lee also names a "Master of Coins." Using the "Rewards" menu, she clicks the "Print" button and produces a report showing coins earned for each student.

This example shows how teachers can use data to motivate student use of Stride Academy. The more they use the program, the better the data gets.

How are you using data to motivate students in your classroom? Leave a comment or email me. We want to spotlight the success you and students are having.

Stride Academy Alabama News

STRIDE ACADEMY ALABAMA NEWS - DECEMBER 2014

Enter the "Stride Alabama Accelerated Achievers" Contest! To get students on board practicing skills in preparation for ACT Aspire, we are sponsoring the "Stride Alabama Accelerated Achievers" Contest! Prizes will be awarded to the schools with top usage of Stride Academy from January 5 - April 5, 2015, plus one teacher and one principal who have effectively used Stride Academy at their school. Each category winner will receive a trophy to display at school! NEW! Teacher Impact Award NEW! Principal Impact Award Top Overall Usage - Elementary School Top Overall Usage - Middle School Top Overall Usage - High School Top Afterschool Usage- Elementary School Top Afterschool Usage- Middle School Top Afterschool Usage - High School *To level the playing field for smaller and larger schools, Stride Academy usage will be calculated by finding the average questions answered per student at each school (total questions divided by total active students).  Impact Award Guidelines: Share how a teacher/principal has effectively promoted and applied the use of Stride Academy at your school in 500 characters or less. Submissions should be sent to cpowell@ltsed.com and must include the teacher or principal's name, grade level and school name. All submissions are due by March 15, 2015. The winner for each category will be selected by a panel of Stride Academy Academic Specialists.  Stride Academy Alabama Spotlight New Brockton Elementary School: New Brockton, AL 6th grade students at New Brockton Elementary School in Coffee County have enjoyed using Stride Academy throughout the Fall. Pictured are the top performers from their Fall Break Contest. Amber, the overall winner, earned over 37,000 star points during the contest.  Dodge Elementary School: Mobile, AL  Louisa, William and Malik, winners from the Stride Coin Masters Photo Contest, show off their Stride Academy gym bags! Students at Dodge Elementary have answered over 407,000 questions in Stride Academy this year!  White Plains Elementary: Anniston, AL With over 100 submissions to our Fall Writing Contest on "What Does Thanksgiving Mean to You," Cassidy, a 3rd grade student in Mrs. Brewer's class at White Plains Elementary, was selected as the winner winning a pizza party for her class!

Scenes from Alexandria Elementary School

These students from Alexandria Elementary School are enjoying working on Stride Academy. Part of each school day includes time in one of the school's three computer labs. Lab time is devoted to using Stride Academy to measure their progress through the Progress Monitoring Assessment or challenge each student at his or her level via the Stride Fast 360 Adaptive Technology.

During the recent SGA Presidential election speeches, one of the students said, "If you elect me as president, I promise to work to get more Stride Academy time at school for students." Not a bad endorsement!

Stride Academy Writing Contest

What Does Thanksgiving Mean to You?

The holiday season is around the corner! Here at LTS we’re celebrating what we’re thankful for all month long. We want to hear from your students and see what they’re thankful for in our Stride Academy Writing Contest! Here’s how it works:

1. Teachers will have their students write individual, 1-page maximum papers on the topic: “What does Thanksgiving mean to you?”
2. Submissions must include student’s name, grade level, class name, and school name.
3. Teachers will enter the submissions via email to cpowell@ltsed.com.
4. All submissions are due by 5:00pm CST on Friday, November 21.
5. One student’s paper will be chosen and showcased on the Stride Academy blog. Grade level capabilities will be taken into account.
6. The winner will be announced on Monday, November 24!
7. Winner will be featured on the blog and all LTS social media platforms and receive a $100 Papa Johns gift card for their class!

Questions? Contact: Cate Powell, LTS Customer Experience Specialist, at cpowell@ltsed.com. 

Notes from Schools Visits

Here are the notes from the presentation I made at each school. The link is to a note in Evernote which I have made public.

Click here to download the notes.

Scenes from Saks Elementary School

I had a great day working with teachers and walking through the school on Tuesday at Saks Elementary School. I walked in the computer lab to see a group of first graders enjoying working on Stride Academy. Here are few photos:

 

Introducing the #StrideCoinMasters Photo Contest!

Starting Monday, September 29th, Stride Academy is hosting a #StrideCoinMasters Photo Contest! Post weekly photos of your top 3 coin earners from your classroom on one of the following social media sites: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Google+. Follow us and use the hashtag#StrideCoinMasters for your chance to win!

At the end of two weeks, we will choose a winner and the top 3 students in the class will receive a Stride Academy Gym Bag! Winners will be chosen based on top scores and photo creativity. This is a great way to encourage students to participate in Stride Academy!

Submissions are due by 5pm CST on Friday, October 10th. Winners will be announced onMonday, October 13th. They will featured on all LTS social media platforms and in our monthly newsletter! Feel free to post multiple pictures of the week’s top coin earners!

Here’s How to Enter:

• Must be following us on the medium in which you are posting.
• Must tag us and use #StrideCoinMasters.
• Photos must be of top 3 students; the more creativity the greater the chance to win!
• Must include top 3 scores of the week in the post.
• Prizes will go to the 3 students in the chosen photo.
• All submissions are due by 5:00pm CST on Friday, October 10.

We can’t wait to see how your #StrideCoinMasters have excelled! Don’t forget to follow us on all social media sites to see what others are posting as well!

Alternative School and Stride Academy

During the Stride Academy training with the faculty at the Calhoun County Alternative Education Program, one of the topics we discussed was how to handle enrollment of students in Stride Academy during their alternative school assignment.

We decided that the best scenario would be to leave students enrolled in Stride Academy at their home school. The work they do there will be reflected in the data their teacher's in the home school are seeing. Data will always be available to the teachers to review, something which will come in handy just prior to their return.

While at the alternative school, the email address of one or more of the faculty members will be added to the "Parent Email" line. One a weekly basis, the faculty will receive an email summarizing the progress of the students.

Ms. Kines has a log in which will allow her to add these email addresses for all students and then remove them when assignment to the alternative school is over.