Bright💡Ideas

Need an assist? As always, don't hesitate to contact me with your DnA questions. I'll do my best to help you as quickly as possible! nicholsk@calhounisd.org

Happy Hearts!

I hope this newsletter finds you with a happy heart! January felt like the longest month on record, but February is finally here and already flying by. As winter testing windows close, there are many reports and piles of data to dive into.

Let me know if you need assistance navigating your data analysis - my heart is happy to help!

DnA Assessments

• Teachers can now add a comment to EACH question within a skills assessment. Users no longer have to wait until the end to make comments. Learn more here: Skills Assessment Refresh

Pro Tips - New Item Bank!

This semester's Pro Tips series is focusing on the New Item Bank. As many of you know, the Legacy Item Bank is phasing out in June and being replaced with the NEW Item Bank. Each month I am including tutorials on how to use the New Item Bank to help you transition to this awesome way to assess your students.

Thanks for reading and have a FANTASTIC FEBRUARY!

Kim

Nearpod is part of the ecosystem of products owned by Renaissance. You can sign up for their newsletters here. Check out this month's tips for helping students review for tests:

6 Ways to Make Test Prep Review Fun for Students

Renaissance has revised the storage of pdf files in DnA. Renaissance is now the owner of the area for storing pdf files which was formerly stored with a third party vendor.

If you find there is a glitch with the visibility of your pdf, the change in vendors may be the source of the issue. Don't worry!

If students cannot view your pdf, simply delete the pdf from the assessment. (I recommend you download and save it first!) Then, you can upload it again and re-attach the pdf to the assessment. This will make sure your pdf is now stored with Renaissance.

With the change in storage, there is also a new way to preview your pdf. When you preview the pdf attached to the assessment, it will now open in a new tab on your browser.

Don't hesitate to contact me if you need help with your pdf attachments...nicholsk@calhounisd.org

If you haven't heard already, the P/SAT Suite of Assessments are fully digital moving forward. Students will take these tests on their devices using the platform known as Bluebook from College Board. To help your students be successful with digital, interactive testing, secondary teachers are encouraged to do three things to give your students a head start:

1. Download and explore the Bluebook application (sign in using your own College Board account).
2. Once students have access to Bluebook on their devices, have your classes explore the app, design a lesson on the preview, or even take a practice test.
3. Introduce online, interactive tests to your students through DnA (Illuminate)!

To learn more about digital interactive testing, check out our Pro Tips section below 👇

As standardized assessments go digital, it is even more important to prepare our students for this shift in testing. A great tool to help prepare students is the New Item Bank style of assessments in DnA. Use the NIB with Live Proctoring features to assess your students digitally.

I recommend that you start small with quizzes, bell ringers, or exit tickets to help your students acclimate to digital, interactive testing. Make it fun and exciting to "test online" in a low stakes environment. Students will learn how to navigate the system and help you decide the best way to use this in your classroom at the same time. This month is Part 2 of our New Item Bank basics. Just in case you missed it last month, I've also included Part 1 below:

• New Item Bank Basics, Part 1
• New Item Bank Basics, Part 2

Calling All Science Teachers!

The CISD is working in collaboration with the BCAMSC to bring you this workshop on writing 3-D assessments aligned with the NGSS curriculum. This workshop is open to ANY SCIENCE TEACHERS grades K-12 using any science curriculum. The focus is developing and writing small, formative tasks that will engage students and help teachers gain insight into student understanding.

This is a two day, in person workshop. Participants will receive all of the materials necessary and leave the workshop with a fully written and published assessment task for immediate classroom use. Participants will also earn 12 SCECH for the two day workshop.

Secondary Science Teachers: March 14 and April 11

Elementary Science Teachers: March 21 and April 18

For more information, check out (or share!) this pdf:
Level Up Flyer

To register, visit the Cereal City Professional Development website:
Level Up Workshop Registration

For more information contact:

Sandy Erwin

serwin@bcamsc.org

or Kim Nichols

nicholsk@calhounisd.org

Find more resources and help guides for using DnA at the CISD DnA Training Website:

Archive of Newsletters

Catalog of Assessments

Catalog of Reports

Catalog of PD in 10 Tutorials and Help Guides

Student Services Consultant

Calhoun Intermediate School District

Regional Technology & Data Services

Gifford/Schultz Building

17111 G Drive North

Marshall, MI 49068

Email: nicholsk@calhounisd.org