This is a copy of the email that is sent out to new teachers - just in case you misplaced or didn't receive your email.
Welcome to Lizard Point
You recently set up a Teacher Account and we've put together the following information and tips for you. You can get additional help with your Teacher Account from our Teacher Quick Start Guide.
If you have any questions or suggestions, don't hesitate to email me (Lyndsey) at hello@lizardpoint.com. We are always working on ways to improve the Lizard Point site, especially to meet the needs of teachers.
Understanding the student point of view
If you've used the site and tried the quizzes then you might not need this section, but run your eye over it in case you've missed something that might be useful. Geography Quizzes are at the heart of the site. We have about 200 quizzes that feature continents, countries, states/provinces, cities, major bodies of water and rivers and various geophysical features. These are sorted within continents from the top level navigation. Some of the features that help students learn:
- Labels on (to study) and off (to test yourself), show me hints in practice mode, and testing modes. Watch this 4 minute video for details.
- Study Mode on the countries quizzes which provide detailed information about each country (cities, population, language, history and more). Watch this 1 minute video for details.
- Personalized quiz tracker is a way for students to track their own progress and earn stamps for completing quizzes. It also tracks their best scores for every quiz they've completed. Watch this 3 minute video for details.
Also note that students can utilize definitions to study geographical terms, weekly trivia, world leaders and flags. They can even create their own custom quizzes to help them focus on problem areas.
The teacher perspective
Your students can use either Child Student accounts (which you generate) or Mature Student accounts which they sign up for themselves. This section deals primarily with the Child Student accounts, which are intended for use by children 12 and under (US/Canada; age varies according to your country's laws).
After you have decided to use Lizard Point Quizzes as a classroom aid, the first thing to do is to go to your Teacher Dashboard and set up your class accounts. Some things to think about as you set up your classes:
- How many? You may request up to 5 classes of 40 students each (or up to 8 classes with a Teacher Plus account). If you need more student accounts later, you can always go into your Teacher Dashboard and add more students to a class.
- Class names. These have to be unique, so your name or school initials are better than 'geography' for instance.
- Aliases. Students are assigned sequential ids based on the class name. If you need a way to associate their ids with their real names, we've added an optional 'alias' for this. You can use this to input a partial student name or number for instance. Aliases are only visible to you when you are viewing student results. Students do not use these names to sign in. For optimal security, we recommend you don't input the full name of a student.
- If your students are 13 or over and have access to an email account that can send mail outside of the school domain, you can have your students sign up for their own accounts, and then "join a class" to connect to your Teacher account. There is more information about this: Types of student accounts and Join a class.
The Teacher Quick Start Guide will also show you how you can review your class activity on your dashboard and how you make necessary changes such as: adding students, adding classes, deleting classes at end of term and more.
Common sign-in errors with Child Student Accounts
If you set up a class with class name of MsJones, for example, with 20 students, then the student names will be generated as s.MsJones01, s.MsJones02, s.MsJones03... s.MsJones20. The most common mistakes when students try to sign in are:
- Forgetting or not realizing that the s and the period are part of the name they sign in with.
Correct: s.MsJones01
Incorrect: MsJones01 - Some students think they need to create an account or register themselves. If you're using generated accounts, they don't - they just need to enter their assigned id and class password on the sign in screen.
- If the number on the end of the student name is less than 10, some students miss the 0. Make sure to use 01, for example, and not 1.
Correct: s.MsJones01
Incorrect: s.MsJones1 - Don't put in extra spaces or underscores in the name when signing in!
One more thing you and your students should know:
- When students sign in, their session is NOT kept open forever - unless they use the "keep my signed in" feature. After a few hours of inactivity, it is possible that you or your students will get signed out. If doing a quiz where they need their results saved, students should always check first that they are signed in ... look for the "Hello, (student name)" on the top right above the green navigation bar to be sure you are signed in. If you've been on the same quiz page for quite a while, reload or refresh the page to check if you're still signed in.
Using Lizard Point
- Teachers can either assign existing quizzes or create their own custom quizzes. In either case, student results can be easily viewed in the dashboard.
- If you are using a Teacher Plus account, you can assign or share quizzes with your students using the Blackboard. Students will have a link to My Class Blackboard in their account menu.
- If you are using a Teacher Basic account, you can share custom quizzes with your students: Custom quizzes are essentially subsets of existing quizzes that can be adjusted to focus in on your particular class objectives. When published, these quizzes can be accessed by your students in their My Account section - look for "My Teacher's quizzes". Watch this 5 minute video for details.
Again, please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or suggestions.
Regards,
Lyndsey