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It’s that time of year again - the season of rebirth and renewal! But for educators, the weeks between Winter and Spring Break are challenging. With conferences and cold fronts to safety protocols and testing practices, the last few weeks of winter may feel overwhelming. At Eduphoria, we want you to know we appreciate you and the work you do year-round. We loved getting the chance to connect with educators at TASA and TCEA. If you didn’t get to see us, know we see you! We are hard at work making products to help educators reflect, refresh, and stay ready as we push toward success for the 2022-2023 academic year.

Food for Thought

The new year is time for reflection and learning. Check out these resources for Black History Month and Women’s History Month.

Founded by Dr. Carter G. Woodson as Negro History Week in 1926 to recognize the birthdays of both President Lincoln and Frederick Douglass, Black History Month was officially recognized by President Ford in 1976. Ford called on Americans to, “honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor through our history.” Check out these lesson ideas and primary resources from the National Archives, Smithsonian Institute, National Park Service, and other institutions.

The first International Women’s Day was commemorated on March 8, 1911. Dr. Gerda Lerner helped create National Women’s History Week in 1980 and Congress declared March as Women’s History month in 1987. President Carter said, women’s history in America, “is an essential and indispensable heritage from which we can draw pride, comfort, courage, and long-range vision.” Check out these lesson ideas and primary resources highlighting women’s contributions to our country’s history and future.

Joke Time

Why do teachers wear sunglasses to school? 🕶️

  • Keep reading to find out!

Get Ready for the Enhanced Aware Experience

Throughout the spring, you will log in to Aware and find yourself immersed in an improved space for navigating assessments and local data analysis. Eduphoria teams are ready to support you during this transition.

We will slowly move groups of districts to an updated default landing page for Aware.

As this transition occurs, we will monitor the performance of Aware and provide direct support through the Online Help Guide and in-app experiences. Over several weeks, all educators using Aware will start saving time on important assessment tasks as they become more familiar with the intuitively designed space!

Wondering how to prepare your staff?

  1. Watch the Aware Beta: Mini Series, Part 3 and share updates at your next staff meeting.

  2. Stay up to date with Eduphoria’s Aware new navigation rollout plan.

  3. Experience an in-depth walkthrough by registering for Aware Beta: Mini Series, Part 4.

  4. Engage in available in-app guides presented throughout the software.

March Webinars

March 1, 2023 - Student Monitoring: Supporting MTSS with Aware

Are you actively looking for MTSS and SEL solutions?

Aware puts the power in the hands of education professionals with familiar tools that already support various student needs. Explore key features to enhance your existing practices to support and grow students. Every student. Every class. Every day.

Register Now

March 21, 2023 at 12:00 PM CST - Aware Beta: Mini Series, Part 4

Grab a hot lunch and join us for the final event in our learning series.

During this short Lunch and Learn style presentation, Product Manager Jeremy Wagner will share the enhanced navigation features of Aware. We will recap all of the excitement shared throughout this Mini Series. Attendees will receive a short demonstration of Aware navigation, followed by a Q&A opportunity.

Register Now

March 29, 2023 - Professional Learning: Evaluating Trends to Meet Staff Learning Needs

How can you ensure professional learning matches the needs of your staff?

Planning intentionally curated professional learning requires explicit data analysis to meet staff development needs. Classroom walkthroughs, goal setting, and coaching conversations give us a lens to better understand existing needs. An effective evaluation system using Strive data tools supports district and school staff to better empower educators.

Register Now

Conferences and Cold Fronts

This month kicked off with two amazing conferences: TASA Midwinter in Austin and TCEA in San Antonio.

At Eduphoria, we find ourselves fortunate to spend time among fellow educators. As school and district leaders were faced with school closures due to winter weather conditions, we were reminded of the important decisions made in classrooms each and every day to promote student safety and well-being.

Thank you for being a valued partner in education and working daily to support the best interests of our students!

TEI Spotlight: Hot Spot

Hot Spot supports students’ direct engagement with a stimulus like an image or map.

Interactive Items: Hot Spot

As a test author, follow a 3-step process to create Hot Spot items.

  1. Create a prompt for students

  2. Upload an image (it will resize for you)

  3. Place answer choices on top of the image

It really is that simple! To further enhance the testing experience, you can adjust the number of responses a student may submit and set the scoring rule best suited for the question prompt.

Scratchpad: The Newest Online Testing Support for Aware

Students can flex their drawing skills with the new Scratchpad tool.

Scratchpad is an optional testing support feature that allows students to create dots, lines, or freehand sketches in a pop-up modal. They can use various colors to draw on a grid or sketch on a blank digital surface to their hearts’ content. Or, at least, until the test ends. The rest they’ll have to save for art class.

Check out the positive responses and insightful questions we’ve received about the Scratchpad from our customers and partners in education:

“…the new scratchpad for testing looks AMAZING!”

“How can I learn more about ‘enabling scratchpad drawing’ on an assessment?”

Check out Eduphoria’s Online Help Guide article for the new Online Testing Support: Scratchpad.

“I love this new tool. Is there a way a student’s work can be saved so a teacher can see their thinking and provide feedback at a later time?”

At this time, student use of Scratchpad is visible to the student only for the duration of a single test session. But we are keeping your feedback in mind!

Adding Evidence to a Professional Goal

At this point in the year, you have likely submitted a professional goal. For many teachers, professional goals are connected to an evaluation framework and a student growth goal linked to student learning standards. Let’s take a closer look at step four of the goal lifecycle to see how you can provide evidence of your work throughout the year.

There are many ways to demonstrate growth in a goal area. Here are some of the ways you can connect artifacts as evidence in Strive:

  • Text: write a brief summary of your actions

  • File Upload: provide an example lesson plan

  • Link: share a PLC meeting you led with peers

  • Workshop Portfolio Entry: connect to local professional learning

Want to learn more about the state of your goals throughout the school year? For more on how to keep professional and student growth goals up to date, Learn About the Goal Lifecycle.

Support Check-In: New Recommended and Supported Scanners

Keeping up with technology changes and upgrades is more crucial than ever for an online testing environment. Eduphoria works closely with our technology partners to test the accuracy of new scanner models and devices as well as to determine when it’s best to retire some models.

As a result, we have updated our list of Recommended and Supported Scanners. Each recommended and supported model listed here is cost-effective for our districts and boasts a 99.9% accuracy for Aware Plain Paper Scanning.

The following are the latest scanner models we recommend for our districts:

  • Brother: ADS4300N, ADS4900W

  • Fujitsu: fi-8170, fi-8190

For a complete list of scanner models and devices that are compliant and supported, compliant but ineligible for support, and non-compliant and not supported, review our release notes: Updates to Supported Scanners.

Now About That Joke…

A: Because their students are so bright! 🌞