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SLDS News

  May 2021

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2021-2022 Ambassadors Program- Registration Now Open
Registration is now open for the BRAND NEW Statewide Ambassadors Program. The Ambassador Program is for individuals who are serving in the classroom and who have teacher-level access into SLDS. Monthly online meetings will begin in September 2021 with a completion date in March 2022 for a total of six online meetings. Each online meeting will be 90 minutes in length with an expected additional hour of personal time spent each month outside of meeting time.

Each SLDS Ambassador will be a champion to whom others can look for support and information about applications provided through SLDS by the Georgia Department of Education. Since these teachers will be “point people” for their schools, enrollment into the program will require Administrator approval & evaluation. Teachers, if you would like to develop a more thorough understanding of how SLDS can help you in the classroom, please register. Administrators, feel free to encourage your teachers to register in this program.

Upon successfully completing all of the requirements of the year-long course, participants will earn a digital badge, a certificate of completion, and the distinction of being called an SLDS Ambassador. If you would like to register for this program, please go to Registration Page for more info.

SLDS Summer Opportunities For Teachers and Administrators
SLDS can help a teacher get a head start on preparing for the 2021-2022 new school year completing the following activities.
●Use the Teacher Resource Link (TRL) to search for resources and save them in My Boards.
●View Training Webinars.
●Take SLDS Professional Learning Courses (PLO)
●View new student data in the Teacher Dashboard as soon as teachers have access to their 2021-2022 classes in SLDS.

SLDS can help district and local school administrators prepare for the 2021-2022 new school year by requesting SLDS training for summer retreats or workshops for administrators or teachers.
●Teacher Retreats or Workshops: Data Overview, TRL Overview, Lexile - Reading Comprehension, Social Data, Assessment Data, Differentiation Based on Data, Teacher Refresher, SLDS Parent Portal for Educators.
●Administrator Retreats: Basic Administrator Training, Extended Administrator Training, IIS Data Analysis Tool.		 Teachers in a computer lab pariticipating in a workshop

Testimonial
Suzanne Smith, an English Language Arts teacher at Stephens County Middle School, shared via an email with an SLDS trainer how she leveraged the data and resources in SLDS for real-life application to student career choice.

"After noticing several students return week after week from the library empty-handed, I was looking for a way to get their attention. Then, I learned about the Career Database within the HUB in SLDS. It was an eye-opening experience for my students. After showing the Lexile levels of a couple of professions, I soon had a long list of requests in every field from art to medical. This led to a discussion about the importance of continuing to read and increasing their Lexile levels, so they'll be ready to pursue their dream career. The Career Database opened the door for a real conversation - not a lecture-based on my students' interests."

Teacher Comments from SLDS training
"It was beneficial and useful information for teachers. The trainer did an awesome job!"

"It was wonderful to see all of the student information that is at my fingertips. I love the amount of historical information that is available on each student and how this helps to draw a more complete picture for me of the students that are in my class."

"The trainer gave our staff a lot of information in a user-friendly way."

Update on TRL Content
A message from Curriculum Pathways

"After postponing the retirement of Curriculum Pathways because of the pandemic, we are now moving forward with the retirement this summer. Curriculum Pathways will no longer be available after July 15, 2021. We have already started shifting our development efforts to our new focus on data literacy, coding, and AI in K12."

For more information from SAS, click the following link. https://blogs.sas.com/content/sascp/2020/01/09/were-retiring-curriculum-pathways-heres-what-you-need-to-do

These items will be removed from the Teacher Resource Link (TRL) in July to include search results and saved boards. We will continue to work with Curriculum Pathways for integration into TRL as they release new content.


Featured Training of the Month:
 Basic Admin for School and District Administrators
Now that the Admin Tiles are available, administrators may wish to schedule Basic Administrator Training for their leadership team. This session provides an in-depth overview of all three SLDS dashboards (District, School, and Teacher dashboards), the Student Profile page, and the Teacher Resource Link (TRL). Attendees will learn what data is available for teachers to use for instructional purposes. School leaders can analyze enrollment/withdrawal data, Attendance Data, Assessment results, and Lexile scores. District leaders can use the information to look for trends and patterns within the various schools. To sign up for training click the Training Request Form.

Online Training Opportunities
The SLDS training team continues to provide training on the Statewide Longitudinal Data System (SLDS). We have adapted to providing this training online. Each session is tailored to suit the audience in attendance and the allotted timeframe provided by school or system level personnel. All sessions are designed to be "hands-on" so attendees should have access to computers during the sessions. Once a training request is received through email or the Training Request Form , a GaDOE trainer will reach out to the requester to discuss training options to meet the needs of the school or system.

Click here for a full description of each of the training options listed below.
Teacher Training Series -
7 Sessions (35-50 Minutes each)
●Data Overview
●TRL Overview
●TRL Workshop
●Lexile-Reading Comprehension
●Social Data- Attendance, Enrollment, and Course Grades
●Assessment Data
●Differentiation Based on Data
In addition we offer:
●Teacher Refresher
●SLDS Parent Portal for Educators		 Administrator Training
●Basic Administrator Training (120 Minutes)
●Extended Administrator Training (120 Minutes)
●IIS Data Analysis Tool (120 Minutes)
●Gifted Eligibility Form (60-90 Minutes)
●EL Form (60-90 Minutes)
Customized options for training can be arranged based on the needs of individual schools or systems. Trainers can be scheduled to provide multiple types of the trainings described above over the course of one day. For example, we can arrange an administrator training in the morning and a teacher training in the afternoon.
 
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Georgia Department of Education
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