Compass+Learning+Basics

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In the 09-10 school year, 13 Title I schools began to use a math learning program called CompassLearning Odyssey. This program has pre- and post-assessments created by the academic coaches of those schools for the students to take at the beginning and end of the year. Students are assigned a series of learning activities, based on their scores on the pre-assessments. Teachers create additional assignments to meet the students' needs at their level and generate reports to view their performance and guide additional assistance. Teacher tools are available within CompassLearning including a wide array of manipulatives and background building presentations.

=== Remember - To receive credit for this and any technology course taken in CMCSS, you must complete the survey at the end of this course AND click the link in the email from PLAN to take the survey from PLAN. There is no survey on PLAN for technology courses. Our surveys are through SurveyMonkey. Clicking the link in the PLAN finishes the process for getting you credit attending. ===

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ISTE NETS 2008 for Teachers
Teachers design, develop, and evaluate authentic learning experiences and assessments incorporating contemporary tools and resources to maximize content learning in context and to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes identified in the NETS•S. Teachers: > standards and use resulting data to inform learning and teaching
 * 2. Design and Develop Digital-Age Learning Experiences and Assessments**
 * c. customize and personalize learning activities to address students’ diverse learning styles, working strategies, and abilities using digital tools and resources
 * d. provide students with multiple and varied formative and summative assessments aligned with content and technology

Teachers understand local and global societal issues and responsibilities in an evolving digital culture and exhibit legal and ethical behavior in their professional practices. Teachers:
 * 4. Promote and Model Digital Citizenship and Responsibility**
 * b. address the diverse needs of all learners by using learner-centered strategies and providing equitable access to appropriate digital tools and resources

Course Outline
Participants will explore the activities listed in CompassLearning and compare them to the CMCSS math scope and sequence in the Curriculum Guide to create assignments that would be appropriate for their students. Participants will explore the most relevant reports for monitoring their classes' progress through CompassLearning activities. They will also be guided through the instructional tools including Math Toolkit pieces, Exploratories, Flash Cards, Handbooks, and Boxer Math activities.


 * Intro (15 minutes)
 * Login (15 minutes)
 * Finding Content (15 minutes)
 * Building Assignments (45 minutes)
 * Break (10 minutes)
 * Monitoring Student Progress (30 minutes)
 * Instructional Tools (30 minutes)
 * More Information (5 minutes)
 * Survey (15 minutes)

=Login=

Teachers
Teachers using CompassLearning can open the address in any up-to-date version of Firefox or Safari. If your browser is older, Compass may not work as well as it should. Click the links above to go to the browers' websites to find the newest software available.

CompassLearning Odyssey is only available to the computers within our school system buildings. No one outside can have access to it. Even though that is the case, **never share your username or password with anyone**. We may not open CompassLearning Odyssey to home computers outside our school system buildings, but if we do, the last thing you want is your login information floating around cyberspace. The CompassLearning Odyssey server has a web address. It is [].

Teachers have an account to build their small groups, to assign students work to do beyond their learning path work, and to view the progress of those students so they can make any necessary adjustments. To access your teacher account, your username is your MUNIS* number. Your password is your capitalized first and last initials followed by the last 4 numbers of your social security number. Leave the school name as ODYSSEY.


 * Your MUNIS number is the same as your PowerSchool number. It can be found by logging into PLAN, clicking "My Profile" in the left hand column, and then clicking on the "Employment Details" tab in the main section of the screen. It should be called your employee number.

Students
In our district's student computers, only Safari has worked reliably with CompassLearning. This is a result of Parental Control settings on the student machines. The Parental Control settings seem to block Firefox from sending the username and password to websites. As a result, Firefox sends back to you that the username/password were incorrect simply because it is not smart enough to say that a program is blocking the username or password from being sent in the first place. The short answer is **"Use Safari on All Student Machines."** It is the only way to get past the parental controls.

CompassLearning Odyssey is only available to the computers within our school system buildings. No one outside can have access to it. Even though that is the case, **never share your username or password with anyone**. We may not open CompassLearning Odyssey to home computers outside our school system buildings, but if we do, the last thing you want is your login information floating around cyberspace. The CompassLearning Odyssey server has a web address. It is [].

Students have an account to access any assessments, assignments, or activities that the teacher feels are vital to the learning path of the student. The username for CompassLearning Odyssey is the student ID number also known as their lunch number. It should be 6 numbers long. The student password is his/her capitalized first and last initials followed by the last 4 numbers of his/her social security number. Leave the school name as ODYSSEY.

=Finding Content= CompassLearning has a wealth of activities and resources to be used for math instruction. There are several ways to search through the library of content.


 * **Curriculum Index** - The Curriculum Index, under the CONTENT tab, allows you to search.
 * 1) Change SUBJECT to Math.
 * 2) Click to choose the grade level, K through 6. Don't stop with just your grade level. The content is arranged in Compass by national standards. Our Tennessee standards are arranged in a different order. You may need to search in a grade level above or below in Compass to find activities that will work for you.
 * 3) Click the 3rd bubble on the right side of the page is labeled "Standards".
 * 4) Click the standard number by the blue and gold folder. The activities will show in the larger window on the right.
 * 5) Preview the activities by clicking on the name or by clicking the "S" button on the right. The "S" button shows a student resource or work page. The work page is layed out to match the activity and takes less than a minute to preview.
 * **Math Scope and Sequence PDFs** - The Math Scope and Sequence PDFs are under the CONTENT tab under RESOURCES. Go to the center section labeled "Odyssey Math". Click on Math Scope and Sequence. Click on "Odyssey Math" and grade level. A PDF will download to your computer to print or save for later use.
 * **Assignment Builder** - The Assignment Builder is under the ASSIGNMENT tab and is searchable just like the Curriculum Index.

=Building Assignments= **The minimum amount of time per week that the students are expected to work in Compass is 45 minutes per week per student. Although this sounds like a scheduling nightmare, think of it this way. That works out to be 9 minutes a day for a 5 day week (prorated for shorter weeks). One activity in CompassLearning takes between 6-8 minutes. If you students log onto CompassLearning, complete one activity and log off, that will get them their 9 minutes.** This is no different than Accelerated Reader. Students in that program routinely log on, take one quiz, and log off without teachers having to completely restructure their schedule. It is another tool.

CMCSS Curriculum Navigator - []
Once you have created your student groups and loaded them with the children in your class, one of 2 things will happen. Either your school's academic coach will assign those students the district math pre-assessment or you can begin to add assignments to those students yourself. All students involved in the CompassLearning Odyssey program, whether assessed or not, should have assignments created for them by their teacher. The tutorial below will walk you through the simple process for doing just that.

As you are building your assignments, you can preview the student activities 3 different ways to decide if they are appropriate.
 * 1) If you click on the highlighted activity name, it will open a window so you can work through the activity just as your students will. (Most activities take approximately 8 min.)
 * 2) If there is a quiz that coincides with the learning activity, you can click the quiz to see quickly how the activity addresses the learning.
 * 3) If there are the resources available, you can click on those printable resource pages to quickly preview the content and instruction level for the associated activity.

** Update -** When building assignments, DO NOT include any activity that has the words **Exploratory** or **Handbook** in the name. Additionally, you should avoid building activities with a letter B in its number. They are teacher tools, not activities for independent practice. They do not generate scores. Students can click through and receive credit without reading or learning anything.

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The district level assessments are built around some key standards for that student at their instructional level. A learning path, also created by the academic coaches, is automatically assigned to the assessed students at the end of their test.

=Monitoring Student Progress= Students are expected to work in the activities a minimum of 45 minutes per week, which is basically 9 minutes a day. For the students to get the most growth from their experiences, it is good practice to monitor how and what they are doing. Both teachers and students can view student progress through the reports in their login screen. The reports are accessed slightly differently, but they are the same reports and the same data.

**Students**
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Teachers
In CompassLearning, there are reports that teachers can run to find out their students progress within the program. The document listed below shares several reports that can be used at various times of the year.

[| http://www.scribd.com/doc/34628935/Key-Reports-for-Teachers]

=Instructional Tools= There are math toolkits available in both the students' and teachers' login screens. Each is viewed slightly differently, but contains exactly the same virtual manipulatives. The students can view their own math toolkit by clicking the icon on the left of their launch screen with a picture of a screwdriver and wrench and then the MATH button in the window that opens. The teachers can view their math toolkit by clicking on CONTENT and RESOURCES, then looking in the center section of the window for the words "Math Toolkit". The student's math toolkit has pictures that identify each different manipulative. The teacher's math toolkit lists the manipulatives by name. Every tool in the math toolkit, except Algebra Tiles, has a tutorial and can be printed.
 * ===Math Toolkit===

The following virtual manipulatives are available in the Math Toolkits. Math exploratories are additional great teaching tools that is available within CompassLearning Math. You can find a list below.
 * Algebra Tiles
 * Base Ten Blocks
 * Calculator
 * Coordinate Graphing Tool
 * Counters
 * Data Representation Tool
 * Fraction Tool
 * Geoboard Tool
 * Number Line Tool
 * Probability Tool
 * Solid Shaper Tool
 * Transformation Tool
 * ===Exploratories===

List of available Math Exploraties in PDF Download PDF by clicking here. [|math+exploratories+3-4[1.pdf]]

More tools that are available, yet not obvious, are virtual math flashcards that come with their own timer. The math flash cards can be as simple as ones for basic addition and subtraction facts. They can be as challenging as dividing a number by a 3-digit number or multiplying two numbers containing decimals. They are not as easy to find as the Math Toolkit. Each does have an activity number. They can be found using the teacher login.
 * ===Flash Cards===


 * To Find the Math Flashcards**...
 * 1) Login to [] using your MUNIS number and password.
 * 2) Click on the CONTENT tab.
 * 3) Click on CURRICULUM INDEX from the drop-down menu.
 * 4) Select Math from the SUBJECT menu. (You may also click to select a grade level, but it is optional.)
 * 5) In the Search box on the right, type "flash cards".
 * 6) Click the Arrow button to search.

A list of activities that function as digital flash cards will appear on the screen. If you have the model classroom equipment, you could use it during transitions, as reviews, or for warm-ups. The more students correctly practice their math facts, the more they become second nature and the less they have to struggle to know them. Handbooks are like PowerPoints with interactive features. They are nothing to send students to use independently. They do make a very nice teacher tool. Download PDF by clicking here. [| CompassLearning Math - Handbooks Spreadsheet.pdf]
 * ===Handbooks===

Boxer Math activities are activities that are 2 parts which work together. There is an interactive "PowerPoint" style of content presentation that can be displayed and a printable work page that can be given to the students. On the page that is given to students, the activities are not numbered 1, 2, 3, 4... They are instead marked by which page in the presentation the answer can be found. It allows for some note-taking skills within mathematics.
 * ===Boxer Math activities===

Download PDF by clicking here. [|List of Boxer Math activities.pdf]

=More In-Depth CompassLearning Information= More detailed and advanced techniques are available at the main CompassLearning page on this site. Click Here.

Setup Classes
It is very important to create small groups in CompassLearning Odyssey within your main class. Once you have logged into Odyssey, setup at least 2 groups of students. You will need a group for your students who are struggling with grade level math skills and a group for students who are above the proficient level of math skills. Compass does not call them groups. It calls them "classes". First create the group, then add students to the class from the list already in CompassLearning. Use the information in your TCAP and previous math benchmarks to decide where your students belong. Your academic coach can assist you with this process.

The following video is very short and walks through how to make a new "class" and then how to add selected students to that "class". media type="file" key="CL-TeacherClassCreation.swf" width="864" height="648"

Accessing the Site from Student Computers
CompassLearning Odyssey is only available to the computers within our school system buildings. No one outside can have access to it. Even though that is the case, **never share your username or password with anyone**. We may not open CompassLearning Odyssey to home computers outside our school system buildings, but if we do, the last thing you want is your login information floating around cyberspace. The CompassLearning Odyssey server has a web address. It is [].

Students have an account to access any assessments, assignments, or activities that the teacher feels are vital to the learning path of the student. The username for CompassLearning Odyssey is the student ID number also known as their lunch number. It should be 6 numbers long. The student password is his/her capitalized first and last initials followed by the last 4 numbers of his/her social security number. Leave the school name as ODYSSEY.

=== Remember - To receive credit for this and any technology course taken in CMCSS, you must complete the survey at the end of this course AND click the link in the email from PLAN to take the survey from PLAN. There is no survey on PLAN for technology courses. Our surveys are through SurveyMonkey. Clicking the link in the PLAN finishes the process for getting you credit attending. ===

End of Course Survey