We are so Edcited to release our new interface! Feedback from our community helped us improve the teacher experience across our platform. Keep reading to learn more about these exciting updates.
5 Ways to Use Edcite as School Starts
Welcome back to school! The first month of school is a busy time for teachers, but using digital assignments on Edcite can save you some time. Here are five ways to use Edcite in the beginning of the school year.
Getting to Know You Surveys
Knowing and understanding your students is an important part of teaching, and these Getting to Know You Surveys will help. You can even refer back to your students’ answers in the Assignment Report throughout the coming months.
Baseline Assessments
Once you’ve started to learn about your students, a baseline assessment is a great way to begin your curriculum. The Edcite Math Baselines will instantly show you what math skills students have as they start the school year. The Edcite ELA Baselines will give you a sample of students’ writing skills.
In-Class Assignments
Many teachers have students work on Edcite during class. Visit our curated Featured Collections to find great assignments to assign to your students. Then use the Live Assignment Dashboard to view students’ progress in real-time.
Exit Tickets
You can also use Edcite to create a digital exit ticket for students to complete at the end of class. You will see answers and scores as soon as students finish the exit ticket, and you can use that data to inform instruction the next day. To create your own exit ticket, visit the Create Question option in your navigation bar for our 60+ tech-enhanced question types.
Homework
Students can use Edcite on any device, so teachers often give Edcite practice for homework. If you allow retakes, the Summary Report will give you the option of selecting which retake score you would like to view, and you can upload this to your report card system.
How do you plan to use Edcite the first month of school? Let us know in the comments or share your ideas on social media!
Edcite Integrates with Google Classroom
The Edcite Team is thrilled to be welcomed as a platform that integrates with Google Classroom! Read Google’s blog post below to learn about all of their exciting updates for the new school year, including Edcite’s Google Classroom integration.
We’ve seen educators do incredible things with G Suite for Education tools: creatively teach classroom material, collaborate with students, and design innovative assignments to achieve meaningful outcomes. Classroom is a useful tool for teachers, and since it launched three years ago, students have submitted more than 1 billion assignments.This year, we’re sending teachers back to…
via 10 ways we’re making Classroom and Forms easier for teachers this school year — Education
Top 30 Assignments of 2016-17
Throughout the 2016-17 school year, 18.5 million questions and 2.3 million assignments were submitted by students on Edcite! Below we have gathered the top 30 assignments with the most student submissions — math teachers, we hope you catch up next year! 😄
Click on an assignment name to preview the assignment and make a copy to use next year.
1. The Kudzu Plant: 60,000 submissions
nonfiction reading comprehension; upper elementary
2. Too Much Soda: 52,000 submissions
main ideas and details practice; upper elementary
3. The Lion and The Mouse: 49,000 submissions
reading comprehension; 3rd grade
4. Figurative Language Practice: 43,000 submissions
multimedia ELA practice; middle school
5. The Black Pearl: 40,000 submissions
video and passage comparison; middle school
6. Timelines: 32,000 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
7. Excerpt from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: 27,000 submissions
reading comprehension; upper elementary
8. Sam – Characters, Literal Comprehension, and Text Evidence: 25,500 submissions
ELA formative assessment; elementary
9. Government: 24,500 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
10. Overcoming Adversity: 23,000 submissions
text structure and justifying a claim practice; middle school
11. Yosemite National Park: 21,000 submissions
nonfiction reading comprehension with multimedia; middle school
12. Geography Skills: 20,500 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
13. Early Civilizations 1: 20,300 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
14. Adaptation: 19,800 submissions
nonfiction reading comprehension; 3rd grade
15. What Is Climate Change?: 190,700 submissions
nonfiction reading comprehension; 4th grade
16. Sweethearts: 19,700 submissions
nonfiction reading comprehension; 3rd grade
17. Nonfiction Text Organization: 19,400 submissions
cause and effect, main idea and details, topic sentences practice; elementary
18. How the Leaves Came Down: 19,000 submissions
poetry assignment; upper elementary
19. The Story That Has No End: 18,300 submissions
fable assignment; upper elementary
20. Totally Twisters: 18,000 submissions
interpreting visual information assignment; upper elementary
21. Historical Thinking and First Ohioans: 17,800 submissions
social studies assignment; elementary
22. Human Geography: 16,600 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
23. Early Civilizations 2: 16,400 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
24. Economics Concepts: 16,200 submissions
social studies assignment; middle school
25. Teeth: 15,600 submissions
reading information assignment; 3rd grade
26. Penguin Chicks: 15,000 submissions
speaking and listening standards practice; 4th grade
27. The Moon: 13,300 submissions
poetry assignment; upper elementary
28. American Revolution and New Nation: 13,000 submissions
social studies assignment; elementary
29. Segregation and Civil Rights: 12,800 submissions
ELA lesson; middle school
30. The Road Not Taken: 12,400 submissions
poetry assignment; middle school
Meet the Edcite Team
We are excited to continue our series: Meet the Edcite Team, where we feature a member of our team each month.
This month we are focusing on our innovative software engineer Sam Matthews. Read on to meet Sam!
What brought you to Edcite?
I joined Edcite shortly after moving back to San Francisco from Brooklyn, NY. I was eager to find a talented and ambitious team who were working on solving interesting problems. One of Edcite’s first engineers, Thomas, and I met at a developer event, and he introduced me to Edcite. I was really excited when they asked me to join the team shortly after that.
Tell us about what you do at Edcite.
I am a full stack developer at Edcite and have worked on or built many of the pages that teachers and administrators use everyday. Though most of my time is spent in front of a computer, I really enjoy communicating and collaborating with teachers to build tools that they find constructive and easy to use. Some projects I’ve worked on include the Live Assignment Dashboard, the Reports Hubs, and the never-ending goal of creating the most powerful, yet intuitive home dashboard for teachers in EdTech!
Which teacher in school impacted you the most and why?
One of my favorite teachers was my high school Natural History teacher, Mr. Sullivan. He created this amazing natural space behind our school’s football field that mimicked the four major eco-regions in California. Much of our class time was spent outdoors, and he was always willing to continue discussions or share stories long after the bell had rung. His passion for science and education was very encouraging.
What do you love most about the Edcite platform?
I really love how enthusiastic our team is about education, and making things easier for teachers. I also really like that our Founders are dedicated to making Edcite free for teachers and students.
Do you have any advice for teachers about using Edcite?
Just give it a try! There’s at least one tool or piece of content you’ll find useful. If you have any questions, issues or find yourself confused, reach out to us at hello@edcite.com! Our team is very responsive.
Thank you, Sam, for all of your hard work improving the platform!
Extraordinary Edcite Teachers
We are full of gratitude for our extraordinary teacher community and wish all teachers a Happy Teacher Appreciation Week! Below we have highlighted just a few of the teachers who have inspired us this year.
Positive Teachers
Jana Mitchell has just begun to dive into Edcite and her excitement is overwhelming. Not only did she create her final for her kids, she is now working on getting all of her chapter tests into Edcite for next year. She asks many questions, and I am so grateful that I can help her use this tool the way she wants. So excited to have another person share my love of Edcite!!!!! – Joslin Lee, Biology Teacher, Benjamin Logan High School and Edcite Evangelist
I want to thank all of the teachers in Rocky River City Schools. I helped our team member Julia Sweeney lead a district-wide PD, and the teachers there are incredibly professional, collaborative, and willing to learn new technology skills. – Nicole Bixler, Content and Outreach, Edcite
Brianne Huber is an Edcite Schools teacher from Dover Intermediate School in Westlake, Ohio, who is becoming an expert in creating content on Edcite so that she can better prepare her students for the Ohio State Test. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
I was able to meet our Teacher of the Month Maria Sohns at Sunman-Dearborn Middle School in Indiana. Her students use digital programs, including Edcite, every day and are completely engaged in learning language arts! Her students are curious, knowledgeable, and very respectful. She’s done a stellar job as a teacher! – Nicole Bixler, Content and Outreach, Edcite
Carita Carryl introduced Edcite to her 9th grade students at West Boca High School in Boca Raton, Florida. This technology-enhanced practice helped students prepare for the type of questions they were required to answers on the FSA. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
Super Content Creators
Jessica Beckford, a teacher at McArthur High School in Broward County, Florida has created exceptional high school math content and gives her students authentic practice for the FSA. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
Pam Sever, a science teacher at John Adams Middle School in Santa Monica, California has truly impressed me this year! She has been creating really engaging science assignments on Edcite and has shared her expertise with her entire science team. – Nicole Bixler, Content and Outreach, Edcite
Melissa Runyon has given lots of great feedback on improving writing in Edcite for students and teachers. She also creates lots of wonderful middle school English content for Bryant Public Schools! – Brian McIntosh, Edcite Product Manager and Computer Science Teacher
Rachel Brown is a 6th grade language arts teacher at Dekalb Middle School in Indiana who has created very strong content for her entire team. She is an Edcite pro! – Nicole Bixler, Content and Outreach, Edcite
Joseph Winters from Four Corners High School, part of the Charter Schools USA network, has created an entire writing curriculum in Edcite Schools, helping prepare his students for the FSA writing exam. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
Carissa Stevens is a math teacher at Logan-Hocking Middle School in Ohio who has created a lot of strong 5th grade math content and has shared it with the Edcite community. I encourage teachers to check out her assignment collections and follow her on Edcite Social! – Nicole Bixler, Content and Outreach, Edcite
Teachers Leading the Way
Christine Salcido, Math Department Chair at Pacheco High School, helped set up Edcite Schools in Los Banos Unified School District and has created a MASSIVE amount of great content on the site. She is also great at finding and trying out new features on Edcite! – Brian McIntosh, Edcite Product Manager and Computer Science Teacher
Opal Ferron, a coach at Plantation High School in Broward County, Florida has not only learned how to create content and assign assignments to students on Edcite, but she has encouraged every teacher in her school to use the platform so that all students have engaged practice with technology enhanced questions. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
Shelby Swartout and Kelly Cooper have helped lead Edcite professional development sessions, worked with Edcite creators to make Edcite Schools better, and created amazing assignments to help their students master the ELA and Social Studies Standards. Edcite is an amazing product but having great teachers like Shelby Swartout and Kelly Cooper to create and administer assignments on Edcite makes measuring learning a success! – Courtney Stewart, Technology Coordinator for Mary Blount Elementary School in Tennessee and Edcite Evangelist
Nikolaos Chatzopoulos from Plato Academy, located on the West Coast of Florida, has engaged his entire network of schools in EdTech by creating a symposium where educators can discuss technology that works in the classroom and has introduced Edcite Schools to Plato Academy. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
Andress Scott, a Literacy Specialist in Bryant Public Schools in Arkansas, has done a great job advocating for teachers she supports, helping Bryant create lots of great common assessments, and she is using Edcite’s rubric report to improve writing all over her district. Last but not least, she introduced me to a wonderful bakery in Bryant! – Brian McIntosh, Edcite Product Manager and Computer Science Teacher
Lucy Zarut-Bellon from North Hialeah Elementary School in Miami-Dade County, Florida, is an Edcite Schools leader extraordinaire and has created incredible Edcite assignments for her elementary-aged students. – Josie Mittleman, PD and Curriculum Strategist, Edcite
Thank you from the Edcite Team!
Teacher of the Month: Brenda Blee
We are excited to present our April Teacher of the Month, Brenda Blee! Brenda is an exceptional elementary teacher in Nevada, a leader in her school, and a long-time Edcite user. Read on to learn more about Brenda and how she uses Edcite.
