Irving Independent School District Smart Solutions

Teacher material · Page · Unpublished in Canvas

Facilitator's Guide: Getting Started

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Unpublished

Facilitator's Guide: Before You Begin

Choose what your students and your room need before the first instructional unit.

Week 0 is a menu

Nothing in this module is required as a first-week script. Use the pieces that help you introduce yourself, establish how your room works, get students into the course, or learn how this particular group works together. Change them, replace them, or skip them. Nobody signs a lab contract.

Choose the job you need Week 0 to do

  • Welcome students: introduce yourself and explain what Smart Solutions is. The optional About Me + What Is VILS Canva template includes the reusable course overview; replace Elisha's photos and personal details before presenting it. If you want a written handout too, personalize the optional syllabus Canva template.
  • Establish routines: use your own materials, adapt Elisha Lucero's classroom slides, or build a social contract with students.
  • Learn the group: choose one community builder. One is enough.
  • Handle accounts and devices: use the Chromebook option or the Xello check-in when students actually have their devices and logins.

What is in the module

  1. Teacher references: this guide, the Year at a Glance, and the Program Scope + Sequence. Keep teacher pages unpublished.
  2. Student orientation: Student's Guide: Getting Started has the English and Spanish Canvas videos.
  3. Optional classroom setup: Class Jobs and the Welcome Week menu.
  4. Optional community builders: About Me Smartphone, Moon Landing Teamwork Challenge, and Partner Draw.
  5. Optional device day: Chromebook Rules GimKit Day.
  6. Xello: Log in to Xello only when ClassLink and student access are ready.

Use Elisha's rules only if they fit your room

The course file Classroom Rules and the CREATE System · Make a Google copy contains Elisha Lucero's own expectations. It is an example and an editable starting point, not the Smart Solutions program's required rule system.

The CREATE reminder is: Care for others; Read the TVB; Equipment must be respected; Act safely and responsibly; Tidy your work area; Engage in your learning.

Before students open anything

  • Choose the pages you will actually use and publish only those pages.
  • Replace teacher-specific rules, images, contact details, and device procedures.
  • Confirm ClassLink, Xello, Canvas, and Chromebook access before assigning a login task.
  • Set dates in your own course calendar. The master template cannot know your school calendar.
  • Open Student View and follow the same path students will follow.

A note about Gimkit

Students need their own devices for a normal Gimkit game. Run it after device setup, or project it and answer as a whole class. A large question bank does not need to become one long game; use a timed mode and stop when the review has done its job.

Grading

The routines and community builders are ungraded. The Xello check-in is the only scored Week 0 item in the template. Check its points and submission settings before you publish it in your local copy.