For Workshop Leaders
E-mail Reminders
Remind workshop attendees to
include a valid e-mail address when registering to use TrackStar. This is
pertinent in case we need to contact them with questions or comments regarding
a Track. Tell attendees that if their email addresses change they can login
to their account using their old information and make updates to their address.
Appropriate Track Content
Be sure that you are familiar
with TrackStar policies before you lead your workshop. To see a list of
appropriate content, visit the Frequently
Asked Questions page. It's highly recommended that you include this
information in your presentation and discuss each policy with your attendees.
Making Demo Tracks
If workshop attendees create
a Track for demonstration or practice, please name it "demo" so that we
can remove it from the server.
If your workshop attendees are
only making demo Tracks that don't reflect quality work due to time constraints,
have them delete the Tracks before leaving the workshop. See Deleting
a Track to learn how.
Choosing a Subject
Remind workshop attendees to
select only the subject area(s) and intended grade level that best reflect
the content of their Track, since people often search for Tracks using the
subject and grade level categories.
If your attendees want to make
a real (non-demo) Track, but can't think of a topic, please have them choose
from the following subjects. These subjects are underrepresented, or could
use a more diverse selection of Tracks.
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Early Childhood
- Agricultural Sciences
- Business
- Careers
- ESL
- Family & Consumer
Science
- Health & Physical
Ed
- Social Sciences
- Special Education
- Technology
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Primary (K-2)
- Agricultural Sciences
- Careers
- Business
- ESL
- Family & Consumer
Science
- Technology
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Intermediate (3-5)
- Agricultural Sciences
- Business
- Careers
- ESL
- Family & Consumer
Science
- Technology
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Middle (6-8)
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High School (9-12)
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College
- Agricultural Sciences
- Math
- Technology
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Passwords
Make sure everyone enters a
valid password. This is essential. Tell users: "Create a secure password
that you will remember, and write it down and keep it in a safe place. You
need to remember your password to edit your Track and to make new Tracks.
A valid password can contain lower case letters, capital letters, numbers,
and any of the following characters:
! @ # $ % ^ & * (
) _ +
Links and Annotations
Please ask workshop attendees
to periodically check their Track for broken links. The Internet is constantly
changing, so the links on a Track may move or disappear altogether. To fix
broken links, users must login to their account and choose edit next to
the Track they would like to update.
Teach workshop attendees how
to analyze and repair broken URLs.
Teach attendees how to create
annotations that encourage higher order thinking
skills, and always encourage Track authors to add annotations.
You might want to teach attendees
how to use simple HTML to format annotations.
Quizzes and Web Pages
If users want to include an
original quiz or Web page from QuizStar
or Web Worksheet Wizard, please
have them create these items first. Like other Web sites, the URLs, not
just the numbers, for these items should be collected before creating the
Track.
Standards
If workshop attendees are school
teachers, please encourage the authors to add state standards and lesson
objectives to the description of the Track.
For Teachers
E-mail Reminders
Remember to tell students to
include a valid e-mail address when registering to use TrackStar. This is
pertinent in case we need to contact them with questions or comments regarding
a Track. Also, if their email changes they can login to their account using
their old information and make updates to their address.
Appropriate Track Content
Be sure that your students are
familiar with TrackStar policies before they begin creating Tracks. To see
a list of appropriate content, visit the Frequently
Asked Questions page.
Making Demo Tracks
If students are only practicing
how to make a Track, put the word "demo" in the title. This allows
us to remove practice Tracks from our server.
Planning
Have students make a storyboard
first.
Have students check their spelling,
grammar, and URLs (the addresses of their proposed links) before they put
the track online. One way to insure quality is to have students type their
annotations into a word processing program, run spell check and grammar
check, and then paste the annotations into the TrackStar form.
Check the students' work before
they put it online. Please look for appropriateness
as well as spelling and mechanical accuracy.
Once a Track is made, have the
student read through the Track for typos, and check that links are working.
If students are making a Track
for a grade, please have them include a date in the due date area on the
Make a Track page. The date should reflect the date you will grade
the Track (not the actual due date), so our reviewers do not review the
Track until after that date. Students should do this because our reviewers
correct small mechanical mistakes in Tracks, and delete inadequate or faulty
Tracks, which can be very upsetting to a student with a deadline. We reserve
the right to edit student Tracks one week after the due date. All Tracks
with due dates are automatically deleted two weeks after the due date.
Track Maintenance
Inform students that it is their
responsibility to keep all of their online Tracks updated and maintained.
Maintaining a Track requires the author to periodically check the links
in their Track and make replacements or edits when links are broken.
After student Tracks have been
graded, if you and the students don't plan to use them anymore, please have
them delete their Tracks. To delete a Track, please see Deleting
a Track.
Standards
If you assign Track creation
to the members of a teacher education course, please encourage the students
to add state standards and lesson objectives to the description of the Track.
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