New Stride User Guide

Stride has recently updated its User Guide. This will be a great document for teachers who have never used Stride before. It will also serve as a great reference for any teacher.

Note: Ignore any reference to "GAP" testing. We will not be using that.

Access the Stride User Guide here.

Stride Archive Complete...New Features

Welcome Back to Updates in your Stride Account!

We've been busy this summer, and we've just unlocked new enhancements in your Stride account! You can enjoy these updates today by using your refreshed access codes to log in. If you haven't already, look up your new login codes using our handy lookup tool. If you used Stride prior to 8/10/18, please clear your browser cache before logging in today. This will help ensure a smooth transition to the new experience!   NEW LOOK AND FEEL, NEW GAMES Right away, you'll notice a new look and feel to Stride, as well as brand-new game options! Click on a subject area coin to view the new skill mastery progress bars,Help Me feature, translation tools, and more available to students in question mode! NEW SKILL REVIEW ACTIVITIESOne of the most significant enhancements is the new skill review mode available to your students for extra help while they're learning. Students can choose from several targeted review activities for a particular skill. EARN BONUS CHESTS WITH EXTRA COINSNew bonus chests offer an extra, fun incentive for students to work through these activities and master skills. How many bonus coins can they earn in a bonus chest?Log in to Stride today to find out! QUESTIONS ABOUT THE UPDATES?Read more about these enhancements at the FuelEd Service Station. For help with questions, create a case at the Service Station or call 866.552.9192. Welcome back to school—we hope you enjoy the new experience in Stride!

Welcome Back to School

My name is Frank Buck. I will be the CLAS Academic Specialist for the 3 Calhoun County schools and 13 Birmingham City schools using Stride this year.

My background includes almost 30 years in public education. Most of that was in school administration. Now, I write and speak on organization and time management across the United States and internationally. My passion is making life easier for other people. My specialty is using technology to meet that aim.

My affiliation with Stride comes from a long-held interest in how we can use technology to automate routine tasks. We all need more time to teach. Effective use of technology is one way we can do that.

What to do now

Two things. First, in the sidebar, look for a place to put your email address. Watch your email inbox for a message to verify your request, and you are done! Every time a new post appears here, it will also show up in your email. 

That means you don't have to remember to come back to this blog. It doesn't become "one more thing to do." (All of us have too many of those already.)

All of the information about Stride that you need to know during the year will show up in your email.

Second, continue reading the rest of this article. It contains information applicable to every Stride school throughout the country. Yes, it's a program available in all 50 states.

The articles talk about what will be happening in the next several days. 

Once the annual archive is complete, Corey Murray will populate classes for Calhoun County. I am presently working with the central office in Birmingham City about a plan for getting student names into classes.

Scheduled Stride Downtime Aug. 10–13

Please be advised that the Stride online learning program will be unavailable from 5 PM CST on Friday, Aug. 10, until the early hours of Monday, Aug. 13, 2018.  This period of downtime will be scheduled for implementing significant enhancements to the Stride program. These enhancements include new questions, new skill review activities, and new games! ANNUAL DATA ARCHIVE The annual data archive will also take place during this time, providing a clean slate in your account for the upcoming school year. If your school or organization selected to opt out of the archive, your data will remain untouched. ENHANCEMENTS COMING MONDAY We look forward to revealing exciting new features in your Stride account! Look for a follow-up message on the morning of Monday, Aug. 13, when access to Stride will be restored. At that time, please be sure to use your new Stride login codes to access your account. NEW LOGIN CODES Login codes are being refreshed to indicate your state abbreviation. For example, if your school is located in Alabama and your current login is KCC12345, your new login code will be ALC12345. To look up your new login codes for student, teacher, and administrator-level access, please utilize our handy lookup tool: https://www.stridelogin.com/lookuptool/. Questions regarding your Stride account? Create a case at the Service Station, or call 866.552.9192.

Happy Holidays from Alabama Stride

Good "Stride-ings" to You this Holiday Season! We are quickly approaching the glorious holiday season and a much-anticipated winter break for students and educators. Hooray!  We want to remind you that Stride will continue to be available to your students over the holidays to help keep skills sharp through engaging, game-based learning. Students may use their login codes to access Stride online, 24/7, from any internet connection.  Now is the perfect time to create a Holiday Contest, so students can compete over the break. Need a refresher on creating contests? Click here. Send us your Holiday Contest ideas, so we can feature your students and staff in an upcoming newsletter! Iola Roberts Elementary Presents "Zero Period" for RTI Iola Roberts Elementary in Pell City, AL, has designed a new approach to Response to Intervention that incorporates Stride's video lessons, customized printable resources, and quizzes. Cheryl Black, a third grade teacher, tells us: “Zero Period” is a program in the mornings where students can work on concepts that have not yet been mastered. This is time set aside three days a week to assist students who are struggling or need individual attention. " Whole Group and Individualized Instruction  Cheryl uses Class Summary Reports and her Stride teacher dashboard to identify which concepts should be addressed in a whole-group mini lesson, and which ones should be assigned individually. "If I notice that multiple students are struggling with patterns, I can click on the videos taband search this topic to bring up all related videos on the subject. By skimming the list, I can see which topic supports the standards I am focusing on."

Cheryl Black uses Stride video lessons on the whiteboard for whole-group instruction. Rewarding Hard Work with Fun The printable instructional resources that are tailored for each student are another tool for Zero Period. Cheryl believes the detailed lessons and examples provided are useful for teachers, students, and parents alike.  "Additionally, I can use StrideXChange to assign videos and quizzes to individual students on concepts that I have identified on their customized report as weak areas. I like having the option to require the student to review these items before proceeding to other work in Stride. This provides students with the opportunity to earn additional coins for games and rewards them for participating in Zero Period."  Below: Third graders work hard in Stride. "I have found the more I use Stride, the more I learn about what the program has to offer our students," says Cheryl. "The teachers and students at Iola appreciate the support we receive from Stride to ensure that our students meet grade level expectations at the end of each year."   Thank you to Cheryl Black, Iola Roberts Elementary, and CLAS Academic Specialist Rhonda Lewis, for sharing your story!   Do you have a Stride success story or implementation design to share? We would love the opportunity to highlight your students and staff in a future newsletter.  Contact Amy Frith at afrith@fueleducation.com Happy Holidays from the Stride and Fuel Education team! Be sure to follow @AlabamaStride on Facebook and Twitter!

Stride Science Curriculum Update

Stride Science Curriculum Update

Stride will be implementing updates to our Science curriculum for Alabama in grades 3-8.  All Science curriculum will now be directly aligned to the Alabama Science Standards, including newly added skills. This means more relevant content to better support our students.  Please see below for a full explanation of these updates: For these updates to take effect, the students’ current Science progress will be cleared.  They will then start over with the updated curriculum.   For the students to have maximum grade level exposure, Science will not be a part of the adaptive engine.  In lieu of the Progress Monitoring Assessment, teachers will be able to take advantage ofStride’s Quiz Builder feature to create Science assessments for their students. We are very excited about these improvements in our Science curriculum for Alabama and look forward to continuing to support our educators and students. Contact Stride Customer Support at 866.552.9192, ext. 2, or support@LTSed.com. Note: Stride Science will be temporarily unavailable from November 17th - November 22nd as we implement these updates.

New Look for "Settings" Tab

Teachers will notice a different look when clicking the "Settings" tab.




Everything that was there before is still there, only now you don't have to scroll. Menu items now display across the top.

Remember scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page to change your password? Now, it's a click away on the "Class Info" menu.

You'll have no difficulty with the new look. However, when you are used to one look, a different appearance comes as a surprise.

1,727

One thousand, seven hundred and twenty-seven...

That's how many PMAs were completed by Calhoun County students as of 10:00 AM on the second day of the PMA window.

Completing PMA within the first few days of the window offers several advantages:

1. You can take advantage of the Quiz Builder, Adaptive Engine (grades K-8), and changing the curriculum to just the standards you are focusing on right now.
2. You can give students their results and celebrate successes. When you run the Class PMA Report, you will see the overall score for each student in Math and Reading. The score from PMA1 and PMA2 appear side-by-side. You'll be able to see at a glance which students made big gains and which students did not progress.
3. From that same Class PMA Report, you can look at performance standard-by-standard. What was something you thought you taught well but the scores did not reflect that? You will be able to see what you may want to reteach. If you want to do small group instruction based on any standard, run the Student Grouping Report. Choose the appropriate time frame and watch the software divide the students into three groups based on how well they have performed on that standard.

Do you have something neat happening at your school you would like to spotlight?

Let me know. Send photos and descriptions of what's happening. As I visit your school, be sure to direct me to the things you would like to see featured.