GEM
GEM School Software, Inc.
25 Summer Street, Kennebunk, Maine 04043
Telephone 207-985-9486
 Maine Survey
Home Documentation Resources Curriculum Tool Site Administration
 
Basic Skills
Using the Survey Maine Curriculum Database requires basic web browsing skills.

· Using a Web Browser
Internet Explorer and Netscape Communicator have been tested and both work well for viewing all content on the Survey Maine Curriculum Database website. Both browsers perform the same function and the choice of which to use is a personal preference to the end user. The browser you use determines how the Survey Maine Curriculum Database website will look and work. For example, the print button in Internet Explorer may print the document immediately but the print button in Netscape Communicator may open a print dialogue box - both however allow you to print. It is recommended that you use the latest browser version of your preferred choice. Features in both browsers have been improved as newer versions have been introduced allowing more security and ease of use.

Both Windows and Macintosh computers have been tested and work with the website.

A NOTE ABOUT OLDER BROWSERS: The curriculum tool is designed using some of the newest programming code available and therefore it is always recommended that the newest version of a browser be used. If using an older browser, the basic functions of the tool will work, but some of the features (such as the LOGOUT and HELP buttons) may not work correctly.

 
How This Site Works
 
Navigation Menu

The website has a horizontal navigation menu at the top of every screen. Click any tab in the menu to move to the selected location in the Healthy Maine Partnership website. The tabs are color coded to make navigation easier. The dark green tab indicates a selected page. Hover the mouse over a tab and it turns medium green. If the tab is light green with white text, the page is available but not selected. A light green tab with gray text means the page not available from your current location.

The navigation menu sometimes has a smaller bar beneath it with bulleted features. Clicking on a bulleted feature will take you to the indicated location.

Click on each tab in the Navigation Menu Bar to do the following:

  • Home -to view the website's public home page

  • Documentation -to view the website's documentation area

  • Resources - to view the website's project resources area

  • Curriculum - to view the Curriculum Tool Login Window, an area for assigned users to enter a login and password to gain access to the Curriculum Tool.

  • Site Administration - to view the Administration Tool Login Window, an area for the District Administrator to enter a login and password to gain access to setup and reporting features

Pop-Up Window

The pop-up window is a separate, smaller window in the foreground of your work containing useful information. The Web Assessment Tool utilizes pop-ups throughout the website, which are initiated with a single click on well-placed links. This allows the viewer to gain access to the information without losing their working website location.

The pop-up window can be closed by clicking the "X" in the top right corner or by clicking the "CLOSE" link at the bottom of the pop-up.

Printing

Printing pages from the website works just like printing any other page, and varies according to the browser being used. It is recommended to set your margins at ½" instead of the standard browser default of ¾". This can be changed in the browser's page setup area.
 
The Resource Area
The Resource Area contains:
  • Links to the Maine Learning Results
  • Links to Curriculum-related websites
The Curriculum Tool
The Coalition Tool displays Coalition demographic information and is password protected. The tool includes a standard navigation menu and a smaller bar beneath it with bulleted features. Clicking on a bulleted feature will take you to one of the following indicated locations:
  1. Create New Curriculum Record
  2. Edit Existing Curriculum Record
  3. View Reports
Access to the Curriculum Tool

Each School District has one login account permitting administration-level access to the Curriculum Tool. This login is given to the person in the School District who is responsible for maintaining the user accounts and reporting functions of the Tool and who at their discretion, can delegate responsibility for reporting tasks.

The person with administration-level access for the School District can create/maintain as many user accounts as necessary. The user accounts allow access to the Curriculum Tool and then allow the user to add/edit curriculum records and to view reports.

To login to the tool, enter your login in the box labeled "Login", enter your password in the box labeled "Password" then click the "Enter" button on the screen or on the keyboard.

Contact the person in the School District who is responsible for maintaining the user accounts to create or change a Curriculum Tool login.

Immediately after logging into the Curriculum Tool, notice the navigation buttons and information about your School District. To change information, such as mailing address or phone number, edit the text in the text boxes and click "Submit Information".

Using the Curriculum Tool

Use the Curriculum Tool to enter material into the Curriculum database or to edit existing material in the database.

Enter New Curriculum Material to Database for Grades pre-K - 8

Choose this link to select content from the Maine State Learning Results for curriculum alignment. Once content is selected, add SAU curriculum data. This is the link to choose for setting up a pre-K - 8 curriculum record in your database.

Step 1 - Search Material from Maine State Learning Results
  1. Select a Content Area from the option list
  2. Select a Standard Label from the option list
    • A selection must be made
    • A wildcard % selection is permitted and will return all available results
  3. Select a Grade Level from the option list
    • A selection must be made
    • A wildcard % selection is permitted and will return all available results
  4. Enter all or part of the text from a Performance Indicator (this is optional)
  5. Click Search
Step 2 - Select Material from Maine State Learning Results
  1. Review search results
  2. Click Select for an SAU Learning Results Record to add the selected data to your district’s database
Step 3 - Add Local SAU Data to Database
  1. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Grade - choose from option list
  2. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Course Title - type in space provided (only high school)
  3. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - SAU Performance Indicator - type in space provided
  4. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Instructional Strategies - type in space provided
  5. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Instructional Materials/Units of Study - type in space provided
  6. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Assessment Tools - type in space provided
  7. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Cross Reference to Standards - type in space provided
  8. Enter SAU Curriculum Data - Benchmark - choose from option list
  9. Click Submit
· Formatting Text in the Tool
Edit SAU Curriculum Data in the Database

Step 1- Search the SAU Curriculum Data you wish to change
  1. Select a Content Area from the option list
  2. Select a Grade Level from the option list
    • A selection must be made
    • A wildcard % selection is permitted and will return all available results
  3. Enter all or part of the text from a Performance Indicator (this is optional)
  4. Click Search
Step 2 - Select the SAU Curriculum Data
  1. Review search results
  2. Click Select for an SAU Learning Results Record to edit the selected data in your district’s database
Step 3 - Edit the SAU Curriculum Data
  1. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Grade - reselect from option list
  2. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Course Title - add/remove text in space provided
  3. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - SAU Performance Indicator - add/remove text in space provided
  4. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Instructional Strategies - add/remove text in space provided
  5. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Instructional Materials/Units of Study - add/remove text in space provided
  6. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Assessment Tools - add/remove text in space provided
  7. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Cross Reference to Standards - add/remove text in space provided
  8. Edit SAU Curriculum Data - Benchmark - type "yes" to indicate benchmark, type "no" to turn off benchmark indicator
  9. Click Submit
Create Course for Grades 9 - 12

Choose this link to set up a course and select content from the Maine State Learning Results for curriculum alignment. Once content is selected, add SAU curriculum data. This is the link to choose for setting up a grade 9 - 12 curriculum record in your database.

Step 1 - Course Title - At the high school level a Course Title must be assigned/selected before adding any cuuriculum data.
  1. Select Course From Existing List - choose the title of the course from the option list for which to add curriculum data to, click Continue; or
  2. Add a New Course - Type the name of the course and select the grade level from the option list, click Continue
Step 2 - Instructional Units for Course
  1. Edit Course Name or Course Grade Level - make any changes to the course title or grade selection, click Edit Name and/or Grade
  2. Review List of Current Instructional Units - If instructional units have been assigned to this course, they will be listed here for review
  3. Add a New Instructional Unit - Type the instructional unit into the text box, click Add Instructional Unit
  4. If You Have No New Instructional Units to Add - click Continue to Assessments
Step 3 - Assessments for Course
  1. List of Current Assessments - If assessments have been assigned to this course, they will be listed here for review
  2. Add a New Assessment - Type the assessment into the text box, click Add Instructional Unit
  3. If You Have No New Assessments to Add - click Return to Courses and add another course or return to the Welcome Menu
Create New Curriculum Record for Grades 9 - 12

Step 1 - Select Relevant Material from Maine State Learning Results
  1. Select Course Title from the option list
  2. Select a Content Area from the option list
  3. Select Standard Label from the option list
  4. Select Grade Level from the option list, Click Search
Step 2 - Select Performance Indicators from the Maine Leaning Results to be inserted into this curriculum record
  1. Click to add a checkmark for the appropriate selection(s) of S = Select for Course M = Master I = Introduce for Course beside the Performance Indicators for the values selected in Step 1
  2. Click to add a checkmark for the appropriate selection(s) of M = Master I = Introduce for Course beside blank text area for local performance indicator then type in the local performance indicator in the text area.
Step 3 - Enter District Curriculum Data
  1. Instructional Materials/Units of Study - select from the option list
  2. Assessment Tools - select from the option list
  3. Cross Reference to Standards - type data into the text box
  4. Link to National Standards - type the URL into the text box (i.e. www.url.com)
  5. Text Name for this link - type the name into the text box (i.e.the name of organization)
  6. Click Enter Data to submit/save information to the database.
Administration Tool
Access to the Administration Tool

To login to the tool, click in the field labeled Login and type your login in the box, then click in the field labeled Password and type your password in the box. Click Enter on the screen or on the keyboard.

To obtain a login and password contact Gem School Software at (207) 985-9486.

To Update SAU Information

Click in the text boxes, make the appropriate changes and click Update District Information.

Administer Accounts

The administrator has the ability to create, edit and delete user accounts. The user accounts grant access to the Curriculum Tool.

To Add A User
  1. Click User List
  2. Click Add User
  3. Type user’s last name in text space provided
  4. Type user’s first name in text space provided
  5. Type login in text space provided
  6. Type password in text space provided
  7. Type password in text space provided, to confirm correctness
  8. Click Add User

To Edit User Information or Password
  1. Click User List
  2. Click Edit User Info for the selected user
  3. Add/remove/change text in appropriate space(s)
  4. Click Submit Changes

To Delete a User
  1. Click User List
  2. Click Delete User for the selected user

Curriculum Record Deletion Tool

The administrator has the ability to delete curriculum records from the database. This feature should be used with extreme caution. Once a record is deleted, it cannot be restored.


To Delete a Record
  1. From the Administrative menu, click Delete Record
  2. Enter the SAU Performance Indicator Number for the record to be deleted
  3. Click Find Record (This will return one or more records.)
  4. Click Delete this SAU Learning Results Record for the selected record.
    NOTE: Clicking this button will delete the record permanently!
Curriculum Records Tool

The administrator has the ability to view all records that are stored in the database. They can be viewed all at once or by selecting more specific viewing criteria.

Viewing records will return a table with data for each record in the database. Some information in the table has been shorted to allow proper fit in the table. Clicking on Edit will allow the administrator to view/change complete data for each record. The information provided for each record in the table is:

  1. A button to click to Edit
  2. A button to click to Delete
  3. The ID #
  4. The Content Area
  5. The Standard Label
  6. The Standard (shortened)
  7. The grade
  8. The SAU Performance Indicator (shortened)
  9. Instructional Strategies (shortened)
  10. Assessment Tools (shortened)
  11. Reference Standards (shortened)
  12. Benchmark (yes or no)
To View All Records (Search Option #1)
  1. From the Administrative menu, click View Records
  2. Click View All Records
To View Selected Records (Search Option #2)
  1. From the Administrative menu, click View Records
  2. Select A Content Area by choosing from the option list
  3. Select A Standard Label by choosing from the option list
  4. Select A Grade Level by choosing from the option list
    NOTE: A wildcard "%" selection is permitted for category and/or grade level
  5. Type all or part of the text from a Performance Indicator
    NOTE: When doing a text search for a specific Performance Indicator be sure to select the correct content area, standard label (or %) and grade level (or %)
Report Tool
To access the report menu, Click Report Menu from the Curriculum Tool Welcome Page. The following reports are available:
  1. Continuum of Skills Report
  2. Curriculum Preview
  3. High School Course Report Form

Continuum of Skills Report
  1. From the Curriculum Report Menu click Continuum of Skills Report
  2. Select Content Area from the option list
  3. Select Standard Label from the option list
  4. Select Grade Level(s) by clicking to place a checkmark indicating the correct level(s)
  5. Select View Type from the option list
  6. Click Find Record
Curriculum Preview
  1. From the Curriculum Report Menu click Curriculum Preview
  2. Select Content Area from the option list
  3. Select Standard Label from the option list
  4. Select Grade Level(s) by clicking to place a checkmark indicating the correct level(s)
  5. Click Find Record
High School Course Report Form
  1. From the Curriculum Report Menu click High School Course Report Form
  2. Select a Course from the option list
  3. Click Create Report