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 This article was written by Lance Suter, a CPS-using 5
th
grade teacher in SouthCarolina , and is posted here with his permission.Using CPS effectivelyIf you are already a daily users of the Classroom Performance System, youknow that it can save you large amounts of time when it come to creating andgrading assessments.On the other hand there are many people who saw a demo at a conference, or readan on-line article about CPS and how it has the potential to change your teachinglife. They were totally excited about the product, ordered one, it came in, andtechnology folks installed it . The question at that point, as with any newtechnology is: Now what? The first year is going to be frustrating for you becauseyou have seen what CPS can do, but perhaps you personally can’t make it do all of the things you saw or read about when you open the box. Keep in mind that thepeople you have seen using CPS successfully were just like you at one point. Thetruth is depending on your teaching style is going to determine how you use it.Advising people how to use CPS is difficult for some because teachers have differentteaching styles. The first step and most important step is setting up your CPS to use in yourparticular classroom. Get the rosters in the CPS system either by typing orimporting them from an excel sheet. Importing is a little advanced but you canlearn by watching a Webinar on the Einstruction website (www.einstruction.com). The good news is that if you can get your class rosters in a .csv (Excel compatibleformat), you wont have to type them in. And virtually all of the School managementsoftware’s in use( SASI, Powerschool) have that feature. To see a help file on how easy it is to get student rosters from SASI into CPS( without retyping a single name!!!) go to :http://www.scribd.com/doc/15356194/Importing-SASI-files-into-CPS To become more effective using CPS in the classroom one must be willing to trythings with the fear of messing up. You learn by getting in there and pushingbuttons and seeing what they do. If you back up your database on a flash drive,you can always restore your database to the way it was before you messed it up.By following a timeline you can force yourself to learn new things.Before you do any of these steps, be sure to set the ground rules with yourstudents for using the clickers. Where do they put them at the end of class? Howmany times can you push a button to answer a question? What are theconsequences of breaking any rule you have set when using the clickers?
 
 This timeline may look like too much material to cover. I can tell you from myexperience as a CPS user for 7 years now that I have learned to be a more effectiveteacher and my students have more confident in their abilities in taking test. Themore time you take to learn how to use CPS, the less time you spend grading,creating, evaluating, and recording grades later on.What do you do with that free time? You spend that time creating lessons engagingyour students and less time wondering if your students are getting what you areteaching. Personally, I have a life now outside of school and my own children loveme for it.Month One- Learn to create multiple choice questions in CPS. Learn to engage ateacher paced lesson. Learn to engage student paced lesson. Administer a test. If you use Examview, learn to add files. Over 6,400 textbooks come with Examviewtest banks. These import directly and seamlessly to CPS. There is a “Title Track “feature atwww.eInstruction.comthat will help you find such textbooks. Also,eInstruction offers a bank of over 250,000 questions called “the Learning Series”. If you school has a subscription to the learning series, you will have lots of questionsto sue. Learn to ask verbal questions. An example would be is to vote on issues inyour classroom. A nice feature of CPS is the “take attendance” tab. You can usethis in a variety of ways such as while students are doing group work, they can hit abutton when they complete their discussion. This link will assist you in yourlearning process. Learn to print reports, I suggest Instructor summary, study guide,and Post Report.http://www.einstruction.com/support_downloads/training/resources/index.htmlMonth Two- After success of administering a test and printing basic reports youhave gained some confidence if your abilities using CPS. Keep the ball rolling withtrying new and different things. Stopping now will limit your abilities as an effectiveteacher because your students will want to use the clickers more. Now is where youexplore how to use CPS in daily activities. You make lesson plans for every lessonyou teach, so why not use CPS to help you meet your objective. You may alreadyuse powerpoint to teach your lessons which works hand in hand with CPS. Copy andpaste your text into CPS in multiple choice format and now you have activelyengaged the students into your lesson. If you have an interactive board in yourclassroom (Interwrite, Smart, Promethean ) you can copy and paste text from themas well. Many people don’t realize this, but the CPS response pads work with anyand all IWBs(Interactive Whiteboards) on the market. You will find that yourstudents will be more focused on your lesson when they have them offer input toquestions you have posted.
 
Month Three- Now you are ready for some more advanced features that CPS offers.Learn to export your grades to your electronic gradebook. Your particular gradebookwill determine the steps you have to take. However, CPS also works with any of thegradebook software’s in use around the country, with Integrade Pro being the mostcommonly used. There are help files specifically for Intergrade Pro. Here is a link toone such help file on using Intergrade Pro and CPS together:http://www.scribd.com/doc/15338434/Using-Inter-Grade-Pro-With-CPS Taking advantage of the compatibility of CPS with your grading software. saves timethat you can use to create more effective lessons. Now you are ready to use CPS tomake you a more effective teacher. Using several reports will allow you see whatthe students are getting from you lesson. Student response report tells you whatpercentage of students are getting the answers correct and how some answered thequestion. I use this to determine if I did my job as a teacher in presenting thismaterial to the students. My rule is that 85% of the students have to get thequestion correct for me to determine if the students have mastered this objective.Now your asking are all my questions standards based? Yes, I use Examview tocreate my assessments, which are standards based according to the state youteach in. eInstruction also provides standards for all 50 states that reside in theCPS software, so if you create any new questions in CPS, you can assign SCstandards to any specific questions. CPS will also generate reports that show thestandards met, question by question, in any CPS lesson or assessment you use.As with any task in life, the longest journey begins with a single step. If you beginby indentifying some areas in your teaching that CPS will help to address, andmuster the skills to accomplish that goal, you can build on that intitial learning. Also, as time goes on , you will be building not only skills, but curriculum materials youcan use over and over. When I am asked to present on CPS , and I tell teachers thatI have not taken home a paper to grade in 5 years, and that my 9 week gradereports are available at the press of a button, I have their complete attention andamazement. While that didn’t happen overnight for me, the benefits of using CPS,for me and for my students, have completely compensated for the time and effortthat was invested. I close every presentation about CPS that I am asked to do withthe following advice : “Want a better life ? Get CPS!”
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