Honor for Stride

Dear Friends, As another year closes, we are reminded how grateful we are for you, our Stride partners! Because of your dedication, your students are well-positioned to make #MonumentalAchievements in 2016!

We are also humbled to announce that this month, LTS Education Systems has been honored among 300 edtech companies as one of the “20 Most Promising K12 Technology Solution Providers” by CIO Review. CIO Review analyzed over 300 companies providing K12 solutions to select the top 20 at the forefront of tackling customer challenges. As leaders of digital learning in your school, you can relate: “Digital learning implementation takes time, investment, effort and planning. No matter what piece of digital learning schools use, it will fail or succeed based on how serious of a commitment administrators are willing to make. Also there should be an effort to help students use the new tools in thoughtful ways,” said CIO Review Managing Editor Jeevan George. Thank YOU for making the commitment to Stride and following through for your students!

The CIO Review K12 special edition highlights LTS and Stride for our merit in “Improving Student Achievement through Game-Based Learning.” We hope you will take the time to read and share with your colleagues this spotlight on LTS and Stride from our Founder and CEO, Brian Shulman’s, point-of-view. Click here to download the PDF.

Thank you for another great year! Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Sincerely, The LTS Education Systems & Stride Team

Stride Alabama December e-News As we close the final month of another year in our 9-year partnership with Alabama schools, we are so thankful for the gift of working with you! We wish every Stride administrator, teacher, student and parent a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Remember to encourage usage of Stride over the Winter Break with Holiday Stride Contests! (Here's how.) "Top Thinkers" at A.M. Windham Elementary  Congratulations to the winners of the "Thanksgiving Thinking" contest at A.M. Windham Elementary (Daleville City Schools).  These two Super-Star Second Graders, pictured below with their official Stride certificates, are from Mrs. Barbara Webb's math class and together earned a combined 57,272 Star Points during Thanksgiving vacation! Principal Chris Mitten, Mrs. Webb, your CLAS Academic Specialist Gina Price, and the entire crew here at LTS are SO PROUD of you! Keep setting an amazing example for your classmates! Litzy Diego is Dreaming BIG with Stride!Eighth grader Litzy Diego has dedicated herself to using Stride consistently after school. What's her motivation?  Litzy aspires to be a doctor one day! She chooses to focus her Stride skills practice mostly on Science content. Over Thanksgiving Break, Litzy correctly answered over 1,000 questions and accumulated over 3 million Star Points! We think her diligence and drive is going to prepare her well for the long hours of learning and helping others one day as a future MD!   Pictured below: Keisha Ragland (teacher), Litzy Diego, Rhonda Lewis (CLAS Academic Specialist)  Litzy attends Zora Ellis Middle School (Talladega City Schools). She says Stride is making a difference in her life by helping her learn more and make real-life connections to her school assignments. Her favorite game is Pigskin Passer. Litzy was awarded a Walmart gift card from CLAS Academic Specialist Rhonda Lewis for her success. Way to go, Litzy! Your dream is within your reach! Let's Talk Turkey at C.L. Salter Elementary! (Talladega City Schools) Stride Coordinator Linda Varnedore organized C.L. Salter's first Thanksgiving Stride Contest over the break (titled "Let's Talk Turkey!"). "Students really enjoyed it and asked me to please do another contest. What was funny is most of the students went back on Stride when given a chance to do any program!" said Mrs. Varnedore. Pictured below with Mrs. Varnedore are the Top Winners, having earned the most Star Points during the contest. Congratulations to: 1st Place Winner -  4th Grader Harmony Webb with 39,945 Star Points.  2nd Place Winner - 2nd Grader Corneilous James with 34,644 Star Points. DIY: Create a Stride Informational Video for Your School Website! Here's a great idea to communicate on your school website how Stride works and how parents and community members can support program use -- Create your own podcast or informational video! Media/Technology Specialist Jana Moon at Highland Elementary (Etowah County Schools) shared her own podcast with us as a great model that you can mirror for your own video. Make it a goal for second semester to storyboard, film and produce a Stride video of your own that your school can be proud of! Your students and teachers will love being a part of the production! Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and we will see you in 2016! Amy Frith, editorStride Alabama e-news afrith@LTSed.com

End of Progress Monitoring Assessment 2

Just a reminder that the window for Progress Monitoring Assessment 2 closes December 5. Since the 5th is a Saturday, the last date students will be able to take PMA is December 4.

These Alabama schools are thankful for...

I received this email today:

GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE! It's time to do a trot... And to give a little THANKS For all that you have got! GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE! We simply want to say... Stuff yourself with FUN & FOOD And have a HAPPY TURKEY DAY! Happy Thanksgiving from Stride & LTS! Thankful in Alabama! We are so grateful for the outpouring of support we received for our "Stride Thankfulness" campaignthis month! We asked Alabama students and educators to tell us why they're thankful for the Stride programthis year. Here are some of the great responses we received! B.B. COMER MEMORIAL ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Talladega County) We could not believe our eyes when Jami Danford, Technology Specialist for B.B. Comer Elementary, sent us this video she produced! Check it out:  Teachers at B.B. Comer highlight students with the top usage of Stride through two exciting contests: Stride "Super Stars" (classes with the top academic badges) and "Star Point Millionaires" (students with 1 million + Star points). Congrats to the November leaders in each contest (listed below) – You are truly #MonumentalAchievers! B.B. COMER MEMORIAL HIGH SCHOOL (Talladega County) Just down the road at the high school campus, teacher Jack Jackson shares, "Most of my students were hooked on Stride by day one. I have one student with over 3 million star points this first month of using Stride, and two with 2 million! The most points and the most badges by Christmas break win a pizza party." This is definitely something to look forward to! T.R. SIMMONS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL (Jasper City) Principal  Jonathan Allen at T.R. Simmons shared why he is thankful for Stride at his school: "Instructional leaders are inundated with programs and materials that all claim to support student learning.  When I first learned our district was approved to receive the Motivated Data/Stride grant, I was very skeptical.  Consequently, since Mrs. McLemore has implemented the Stride program school-wide, I could not be more pleased.  Teachers and students alike have commented about the learning and games they have experienced through Stride.  As the second window of progress monitoring opens, teachers are discussing how the testing data will inform instruction and document individual student growth.  Moreover, a few teachers have already begun using the individual student reports for student conferences and goal setting.  Many of our students have already earned over a million star points with as much as 10% of student usage occurring at home.  I am very pleased with how this program has engaged our students in their personal educational growth.  We have just begun touching the surface on how this will impact our instruction."  Thank you for your kind words, Principal Allen! PINECREST ELEMENTARY (Sylacauga City) Kristy Harmon at Pinecrest shared, "We are thankful for Stride because we enjoy having a program that helps our students practice the necessary skills they must have in order to progress to their greatest learning potential.  Our students enjoy the challenges provided by Stride, as well as the coin rewards they achieve.  Our school providesscheduled time for Stride each week and recognizes students with the highest percentage of improvement at the end of the nine-weeks.  They are also rewarded with additional coins." Keep up the good work, Pinecrest! CONSTANTINE ELEMENTARY (Anniston City) Amy Hurst at Constantine Elementary wrote, "We are thankful to have a program like Stride. Stride is encouraging and fun to our students, and we have the best support around by our CLAS Academic Specialist, Gay Adams!"  Thank you to all of the Alabama schools who sent in their expressions of thankfulness! Your teachers and students are the reason we continue to work hard to deliver fun and learning through the Stride program! And a special THANK YOU to all of our CLAS Academic Specialists for the incredible work you do supporting our Alabama schools. Happy Thanksgiving from the Stride & LTS Team! Amy Frith, editor Alabama Stride e-News afrith@LTSed.com 866.552.9192, ext. 1011 What is it that you are thankful for?

Video on Technology Enhanced Items

Stride is developing questions which go beyond multiple choice. These additional items, referred to as "Technology-Enhanced Items" are demonstrated in this short video

Here is the link to that video.

Progress Monitoring Ending October 9

Form 1 of the Progress Monitoring Assessment is available now to your students in grades K-8 in Math and Reading, and grades 3-8 in Science. The PMA provides four parallel assessments throughout the school year, helping to periodically diagnose students' skill gaps, provide differentiated intervention, continuously monitor progress and modify classroom instruction accordingly. Most students have probably competed their PMA. Here is a list of the PMA windows for this school year: Form 1: 09/01/15 - 10/9/15  Form 2: 11/2/15 - 12/5/15 Form 3: 1/11/16 - 02/5/16 Form 4: 2/17/16 - 4/1/16 Upon your students' completion of each PMA: Stride automatically assigns differentiated online curriculum and intervention to remediate specific skills as needed.  A Customized Printable Lesson is automatically generated for each student performing below mastery with printable skills practice worksheets targeting areas of weakness. Real-time data reporting is available in easy to understand, visual progress reports at the class, school and district levels. The PMA reports show percentage of students performing below, at or above mastery or proficiency, and map improvement from one assessment to the next. Reports include detail on specific skills and standards mastered or not mastered by individual students. Visit the Reports tab in the Admin and Teacher Control panels to access these reports.  Implementation trainings are a success across the state!  After receiving training on Stride, teachers at Ohatchee Elementary School in Ohatchee, AL successfully began using the program in their classrooms that same day!  Second graders are already having fun logging on to Stride and look forward to using the program at home on their laptops and tablets. Stride prepares students for ACT Aspire!  "The high level of critical thinking questions found in Stride pushed my students to get ready for the Aspire!" - Jane Hayes, 4th grade teacher at Nathaniel H. Stephens Elementary School in Alexander City Alabama Contest Corner Recognizing Stride "Jean"iuses, White Plains Elementary in Anniston, AL posts the top three high scores for each grade in Stride weekly outside the computer lab for all to see.  Munford Elementary School in Munford, AL hosted a Stride Summer Contest recognizing the boy and girl student from each grade with the most star points. The winners received pizza with the Principal! . Want your school to be featured in next month's e-newsletter? Contact: Cate Powell Customer Experience Specialist cpowell@LTSed.com 866.552.9192, ext. 1025

CAUTION, iOS Users: DO NOT Upgrade to iOS 9.0 at this time.

Just received this information... CAUTION, iOS Users: DO NOT Upgrade to iOS 9.0 at this time. Our technology team has discovered that upgrading to iOS 9.0 on iPad at this time may result in a loss of audio events within certain Stride games. To ensure complete compatibility with Stride Academy on iPad, please refrain from upgrading to iOS 9.0 for the time being. Our team is working diligently to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. We will advise all Stride users when you may safely upgrade to iOS 9.0. Please note that currently, Stride Academy is 100% compatible with iOS version 8.4.1 and earlier. If you have already upgraded to iOS 9, you can downgrade to iOS 8 by following these instructions. You may lose audio for certain Stride Academy games on your iPad if you upgrade to iOS 9.0 at this time. Please wait for notification from us when it is safe to upgrade your device. Be sure to share this important alert with students and parents accessing Stride Academy on their iPads from home. We apologize for any inconvenience, and thank you for your patience. Sincerely, The Stride Academy Team

Important New Login Information

You and your students will notice an important new step when you log into Stride this year. Teachers will notice an additional change.

Alabama Users Click Here

Remember how your students always saw a little link that said, "Texas users click here"? This year, they will also see a link that says "Alabama users click here."

Students will click this link before entering the KCC code. Yes, it would be logical to put the link above the login, because people work from top to bottom. Realize the link only applies to Alabama schools, so we want the rest of the country to ignore it. Hence, the link put below the login.

What happens if the students doesn't click the Alabama link and enters the KCC code instead? The figure below shows the message they will receive.

The reason for this change has to do with the large number of Alabama users, and is designed 

New URL for Teachers and Administrators

Please use http://al.stridelogin.com to log into Stride. This change is made because of the high number of Alabama users and to prevent problems when large number so of users across the country are logging in at the same time. 

You Could Still Win a $50 Gift Card

You will be hearing a lot about Captain Captivator this year. This post from the Stride blog explains all about him.

Are you taking a trip between now and July 27? If not, will you be working in your classroom or visiting a neat place in your home town? You could win a $50 gift card to TeachersPayTeachers.com.

To get started, print out this picture of Captain Captivator. Take him with you to interesting places. Post a photo to Twitter that includes him and tell where you are. Include the hashtag #MonumentalAchiever. You don't have to email anything. Simply using the correct hashtag puts your photo in front of the right eyes. That's it!

Want to see what photos others have posted? Click this link. (I think it will work even if you don't have a Twitter account.)

Not on Twitter?
Speaking of not having a Twitter account, why not take 5 minutes and get started? The first step in moving from "I don't understand what Twitter is all about" to "Now I get it...and it's worth it" is to create an account. Go to Twitter.com.

But before you do, here is my quick suggestion...decide on a username first. Go to Namevine.com. Enter a name you would like. You can use letters, numbers, and an underscore. Do not use spaces.

You will see if the name is available not only on Twitter, but on all of the major social media networks. The best user name is...well, your name. It sort of makes it easy for other people to remember your Twitter name that way. If you can't get JoeSmith, try Joe_Smith, JoeMSmith, JSmith, JMSmith, DrJoeSmith, etc. The more common your name, the more you might have to play around with it to find something that's not already taken. Namevine.com is the best way I know to find a username that's going to work everywhere.

Once you have decided on your username, hop over to Twitter before someone else scoops it up and create your account. Then post pictures of your travels with Captain Captivator and include the hashtag #MonumentalAchiever. You may be the winner!

5 New Stride Games to Kickstart Summer

LTS distributed a email in late May about 5 new games that are available now. If you did not receive that email, here is the information.

Congratulations to all students and teachers on the close of another great school year. It’s Summertime!  Please enjoy 5 brand-new Arcade game selections, available today (and all summer long!) when you login to Stride.

Star Burst

Solve math problems and aim your Starfish at the correct answer to score as many points as you can before time runs out!  Available for Grades K-5.

Flappy Challenge

Navigate the Flappy Fly safely through a maze of hurdles — but take care, or she’ll go “splat!” Available for all grades.

Diameter

Test your timing and reaction skills with this fast-paced, arcade-style game. Available for all grades.

Klokz

This “survival” game requires you to use your sense of direction and timing to act fast and “stay alive” as you dodge projectiles coming at you from every direction! Available for all grades.

Korridor

Be quick! Challenge your reaction skills to make it all the way through the fast-moving korridor obstacle course. Available for all grades. 

Be sure your students are aware of these new game selections before school lets out for the summer!  If you need help, please feel free to reach out to Customer Support at support@ltsed.com or call toll-free at 866.552.9192, ext. 2.

This entry was posted in Games and tagged arcade, Games, summeron May 21, 2015 by Cate Powell.