Parent’s Guide to

Agile Mind

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools Mathematics Department 202 Chesterfield Avenue Centreville, MD 21617 410-758-2403 www.qacps.org qacps.schoolwires.net/math

http://www.qacps.org/file:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/qacps.schoolwires.net/math

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind

Welcome to Agile Mind! Agile Mind is an online resource that supports the Maryland College and Career Readiness Standards.

For more information regarding the Maryland College and Career Readiness Standards go to www.mdk12.org

Information regarding the instruction of mathematics can be found on the Queen Anne’s County Public School website at:

qacps.schoolwires.net/math

This information guide can help you support your child in learning mathematics. Access to the online resource is available for parents and students through the student account. Through this access you will find the online textbook, extra practice problems, math vocabulary support, and re-teaching tools.

Log in to Agile Mind

The Agile Mind website for Queen Anne’s County is: qacps.agilemind.com. (Note that there is no “www.” in the web address and that there is not an “s” at the end of

agilemind). Your child can access this website by using their chrome book, laptop, tablet, or home computer. Each student’s access to Agile Mind is their school issued “Student ID Number” and associated Password. If this information is needed, please contact child’s Teacher or the school’s Math Specialist.

Access to the textbook Your child will need to click on the ‘My Courses’ tab to access their textbook. The specific ‘Topic’ and ‘Exploring’ can be accessed from the left hand side of the screen. Your child’s teacher will provide the topic number and exploring title for the current content. The content your child will see on the screen is the same slides that were shown in class during the teacher instruction. Please encourage your child to review the content each day by clicking on the slides and interacting with the text. More information regarding navigation through the Agile Mind program can be found in the “Meet Agile Mind” section.

file:///C:/Users/User/Desktop/www.mdk12.orghttp://qacps.schoolwires.net/mathfile:///C:/Users/User/Downloads/qacps.agilemind.com

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

Immediate Feedback on Practice Problems All students benefit from high quality feedback after completing math problems. Practice problems are found in both the Guided Assessment and More Practice sections, located in the online textbook. Students are provided immediate feedback once they submit their answer. This can help students assess their knowledge of the content. Teachers create assignments, progress assessments, and practice sessions with the use of these problems.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

Vocabulary Support A glossary is available in both English and Spanish for key math vocabulary terms and concepts. The glossary can be found under the Course Materials tab at the bottom left hand corner of each page.

Online technology support Should you or your child needs technology support, you can contact Agile Mind directly 7 days a week at 866-284-4655 or support@agilemind.com. In addition, online support is available through the help menu. If additional support is needed, contact your child’s Teacher or the school’s Math Specialist.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

Meet Agile Mind When you sign into Agile Mind, you will see the My Agile Mind window. From here, you can access all of Agile Mind’s courses and services available to your child. To access your child’s course(s), click on VIEW from the navigation at the top left and select COURSE from the menu.

Once you select the course, the service will take you to the Topic 1 Overview, as illustrated below. You will notice that the left-side navigation window contains your entire course syllabus.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

You can access any topic in the course by scrolling to the desired title in the left-side navigation window and clicking on the + (plus) icon next to the topic number and name to expand the topic components.

Every Agile Mind topic contains these components:

Overview: The overview engages students by drawing on their prior knowledge, capturing their interest, and introducing concepts with visualizations and real-world contexts.

Exploring: Each Exploring develops concepts fully and suggests hands-on activities. The Explorings contain opportunities to check for understanding in a group setting, allowing for continual, informal assessment during lessons.

Summary: The summary reviews and solidifies students’ understanding of concepts and new academic language.

Assessments: Two types of assessments (Guided Assessments and More Practice) and two types of tests (Multiple Choice and Constructed Response) provide sufficient opportunities for students to work through problems on their own and for both students and teachers to assess students’ progress and understanding. Testing: This simulates a medium-or high-stakes exam, preparing students for standardized tests.

Activity Sheets: Teachers and students can access PDF files of Student Activity Sheets. These sheets support a topic’s lesson activities. Students use the activity sheets to record their work and to capture notes, observations, and justifications, as well as for distributed practice.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

Many of the Agile Mind page views have interactive activities and animations designed to engage the user. These interactive activities are available to be projected for whole-class presentations or accessed individually by students both inside and outside the classroom.

To expand the content window, simply click the window icon on the top right-hand side of the screen to view the text, animation images, and informative captions without the need to scroll up or down.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

To play an animation, click the play arrow in the lower left. To go directly to a specific animation panel, you can also click on the panel numbers below the image.

Queen Anne’s County Public Schools - Parent’s Guide to Agile Mind Revised: 10/2015 Adapted from Agile Mind’s “Quick Start Guide from Educators: An Overview and Introduction”

Navigate to the different pages within an Exploring by using the tools at the top of each page. Some pages have checks for understanding. To view the correct responses and additional information, simply click on the button provided.