Teacher Resource Center (TRC) A User's Guide Teacher Resource Center (TRC): A system developed by programmers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln used to aid teachers in the submission, management, and searching of lesson plans for the Mid-America Transportation Center/Children Youth Families and Schools annual program, the Summer Institute.

Overview How-To Use This Guide Registering for the Teacher Resource Center Logging into the Teacher Resource Center The "My Account" Page Creating A New Lesson Managing Lessons Searching for Lesson Plans State and Transportation Curriculum Standards Updating Your Information Contacting Staff Credits This slide describes the sections of this powerpoint, and what each section will briefly cover.

How-To Use This Guide The proceeding slides will most often contain only a title and images directing you towards certain portions of a page.  Information regarding what these slides are trying to portray can be found within the "Slide Notes" available in PowerPoint. Alongside the visual print-out of this presentation, the notes should have been made available to you.  If not, please contact a staff member of the Mid-America Transportation Center. At the beginning of the Speaker Notes for each slide will be a Universal Resource Locator (URL) that can be used to view the page that the slide is talking about. To use the URL, simply type it into your browser window.  Note that some URLs will only work once you have logged into the TRC!

Registering for the Teacher Resource Center http://tse.unl.edu/trc/teacher_application.php   Registering for the Teacher Resource Center is not the same as registering for other sites used by the Mid-America Transportation Center. In order to register, users must first apply for the Summer Institute Program.  Once accepted, their login will allow access to the features that all teachers enjoy, such as adding and managing lesson plans. If you have already been accepted for the Summer Institute, you do not have to undergo the registration process again. Otherwise, the page shown here contains all of the information that must be input before submitting your application.  Fill out all of the fields available, along with selecting appropriate Subject Areas and grades that you teach.  Also, be sure that when you select a password, you will easily remember it in order to make the login process more straightfoward. Once complete, an email will be sent to the one you supplied for your records.  The MATC/CYFS staff will also be notified of your application, and will take the appropriate actions.  At this point, there is nothing more a user can do until they are notified about the status of their application.

Logging into the Teacher Resource Center http://tse.unl.edu/trc/login.php After you have obtained a login and your application has been accepted, you are ready to enter the Teacher Resource Center. Enter the email and password you specified during registration, and click "Login to TRC".  If the credentials match those on record, you will be taken to the "My Account" page, which is explained on the next slide. If for some reason the credentials you supplied are not working, your next course of action would be to try the "Forgot Password" button available on the login page.  This button will take you to a page where you can enter your email address, and have a new password sent to you. Once you have logged in, you will be taken to the “My Account” page, which will be explained in the following slides.

My Account http://tse.unl.edu/trc/launch.php   This is the "My Account" page, which you are taken to after you login to the website. This page allows you to access all of the pertinent sections of the Teacher Resource Center.  You will notice that we have included, at a minimum, three different ways to navigate to the information you need, via the Left Navigation Bar (on the left-hand side), the Top Bar (the orange bar visible on the top of each page), and the Home Buttons.  Clicking these individual buttons will take you to specific areas of the website. If for some reason you are ever lost during an encounter with the Teacher Resource Center, please feel free to click the "My Account" button on any of the navigation methods to return you to this page. For a majority of users, lesson management is a key feature.  The next few slides describes this process.

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_add.php   This is the "New Lesson" page.  You can use this page to begin creating a new lesson plan. When filling this out there are a few things you need to know. The Lesson Title, Topics Introduced, and Brief Description fields must be completed before continuing. You must also select at least one Grade and Subject that the lesson deals with.  For the “Collaborating Teachers” Section: Because you are automatically the Primary Teacher on the lesson, you do not need to select any other teachers to collaborate with. If you would like to allow another teacher to access your lesson for editing, you may select up to four linked teachers on this page. Don’t worry about having to make this selection now – you can add collaborating teachers later on as well.

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_manage.php Note: This page is not directly accessible. You will need to access this page via the “My Lessons” listing.   After submitting the initial lesson information, you are now taken to the “checklist” Lesson Management page. To enter information for each section, simple click on the section title (e.g.: to enter information for “Learning Expectations”, find the appropriate title, and click the red link labeled “Learning Expectations”. This page exists for each lesson you create. It allows you to edit any part of your lesson and track the progress to completion.  Once all of the required areas are listed as "Complete“ (with a green checkmark), the Lesson Status option will be enabled. This is explained on a later slide. The next few slides will detail specific pages of this section.

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_manage_statestandards.php?lid=# Note: This page is not directly accessible. You will need to access this page via the “Lesson Management” page.   This is a sub-page of the "Lesson Management" page, that allows you to manage the Nebraska State Standards that are associated with your lesson plan. All lesson plans must accomplish at least one of the standards from the Nebraska Department of Education. To manage your standards, complete the following steps: Step 1: Use the drop-down menu to select a standard to view.  Step 2: Once you select a standard the page will automatically refresh and bring you to Step 3. Step 3: After selecting a standard, the standard’s information will be listed to you. If this is the standard you would like to link, simply press "Add Standard". If you do not want to add it you can either view another by selecting it from the drop-down below, or return to the "Lesson Management" page using the Left Navigation Bar. Step 4: After adding a standard, it will now be listed to you in red text (as will all proceeding standards you add). To view a description of an added standard, simply hover over the name of the standard (e.g.: Math 8.1.1) and a box will appear detailing you what the standard pertains to.

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_manage_tdlstandards.php?lid=# Note: This page is not directly accessible. You will need to access this page via the “Lesson Management” page.   This is a sub-page of the "Lesson Management" page that lets you link Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics Curriculum Framework Components to your Lesson Plan. Simply select which standards (if any) apply to your lesson and press the "Update Information“ button. Afterwards you will be returned to the "Lesson Management" page.

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_manage_smeti.php?lid=# Note: This page is not directly accessible. You will need to access this page via the “Lesson Management” page.   This is a sub-page of the "Lesson Management" page that allows you to enter specific information regarding your Lesson Plan. This page and all other "Lesson Management" sub-pages (except for ones already discussed in this powerpoint, and the “File Management” page) will function in the same way as this page. Simply type in the requested information and press "Update Information". If you leave the field blank and submit it, you will be returned to the "Lesson Management" page just the same and that specific sub-part will remain "Incomplete".

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_manage_files.php?lid=# Note: This page is not directly accessible. You will need to access this page via the “Lesson Management” page. This is a sub-page of the "Lesson Management" page, which allows you to upload the actual Lesson Plan file and any supporting documents. For each lesson we require at least one handout document and one evaluation document to be uploaded. When uploading a file you must give it a name and a short description. You may select to have the file listed as Public (publicly viewable) or Private (only viewable to other teachers). We recommend that items such as Worksheets and Reference Information be set as “Public”, whereas sensitive items such as Test Keys and Answer Sheets should be set to “Private”. There are very few limitations on the files you can upload, however, some types are still disallowed. If you need to upload one of the listed file types you may either contact the Website Administrators or compress the files into a compressed format (“.zip” or “.7z”) and submit that. Each file you uploaded will be displayed below under the appropriate section.

Creating A New Lesson http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_manage.php?lid=# Note: This page is not directly accessible. You will need to access this page via the “My Lessons” listing.   This is the Lesson Management page for a complete lesson. You will notice that all sections are marked as “Complete”, indicated by a green checkmark. Once all items have been completed, the final selection box, “Lesson Status”, will become available. To mark the lesson as “Complete”, select the appropriate item by clicking the dropdown box. It will then refresh the page, and the lesson will be marked complete. You can change this status as you wish, however, there are some stipulations: Once a lesson is marked “Complete”, it is available for search via our global “Search Lessons” page. Therefore, please do not mark a lesson “Complete” unless it is indeed completed, otherwise information will be missing, and users searching individual lessons may have troubles interpreting your lesson. Lessons marked “Incomplete” will not be searchable, but are available for modification at any time by the Primary and Collaborating teachers. This should only be used when working on a Lesson Plan. Please do not mark a completed lesson as “Incomplete”, otherwise the world will not be able to see your wonderful work!

Managing Lessons http://tse.unl.edu/trc/my_lessons.php   This is the "My Lessons" page, which you can access from the “My Account” page. This page lists all of your lesson plans, both complete and incomplete, along with lesson plans you’ve been marked as a collaborating teacher on. To edit or view a specific lesson, simply click on the appropriate link listed below each Lesson Plan title.

Searching Lesson Plans http://tse.unl.edu/trc/lesson_plans.php   To search lessons, you will use the “Search Lesson Plans” page, accessible from the “My Account” page (along with all other navigational resources). In order to find a lesson, follow the steps below: Step 1: Enter the keywords you wish to search for. Note that if you do not apply keywords, the search function will search all plans with the appropriate filter options you select! Step 2: If keywords are entered, select which option you would like to search the keywords for, by selecting the “In Category” dropdown box. There are two options available, “Lesson Title” and “Description” – these should be self-explanatory. Step 3: On the right hand side are the filter options. To filter by a Primary Teacher (ie: only lesson plans created by that teacher will appear), select their name in the dropdown box. To filter by grade and subjects, check the appropriate boxes next to the various criterions. Note: You can filter by as many or as few grades and subjects as you wish. Feel free to combine filter options to narrow your search. Step 4: Click “Search” From this point, below the search options, the “Search Results:” area will supply you with lessons that matched your search criteria. To view a lesson that it has returned, simply click “Click to view lesson” next to the Lesson Plan’s title. If no results are returned, try clearing your filter options (by clicking the “Clear Filter Options” link above) and searching again. Note that the more search options you enter, the less likely it is you will return a result.

State Standards http://tse.unl.edu/trc/standards_search.php   This page allows you to look up the Nebraska Board of Education state standards. To view a standard, first select the standard type by clicking the appropriate subject link above (eg. “Math State Standards” or “Science State Standards”). Then, select a standard from the dropdown box that appears. To view that standard’s information, click “View Details”. Note that you can switch between Science and Math standards at any time.

Transportation Standards http://tse.unl.edu/trc/standards_transportation.php   This is the "Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics Curriculum" page. This page lets you view “TDL” standards and what they pertain to. Each lesson can be linked to these standards.

Updating Your Information http://tse.unl.edu/trc/my_account.php   On the Left Navigation on the “My Account” page, you will notice a section appropriately labeled “My Account” (highlighted with a red box on this slide). Below the label, you will notice the links “Update Contact Information”, “Update Teaching Information”, and “Change Password”. Clicking on each of this will take you to the respective page, where you will be able to update and submit new information regarding your Teacher Resource Center Account.

Updating Your Information http://tse.unl.edu/trc/update_contact.php   This is the "Update Contact Information" page. Using this page you can edit your contact information. If you would like to make changes, simply change the values in the text boxes to their respective values and click the "Update My Information“ button. Upon a successful change you will be returned directly to this page. To return to the "My Account" page you can use either the Left Navigation or Top Bar.

Updating Your Information http://tse.unl.edu/trc/update_teaching.php   This is the "Update Teaching Information" page. Using this page you can edit your teaching information. If you would like to make changes, simply change the values in the text boxes (or check boxes) to their appropriate values and click "Update My Information". Upon a successful change you will be returned directly to this page so you can verify the change.  To return to the "My Account" page you can use either the left-side navigation or the Top Bar navigation.

Contacting TRC Staff http://tse.unl.edu/contact.php   This is the "Contact Us" page. If for any reason you may need to contact a member of MATC or CYFS, you may use this page to send a direct email to a number of parties, including the MATC Program Coordinator, the CYFS Contact, and the Website Administrators. To send an e-mail: First select who you would like to email, then enter your name, email address (so we can contact you back!), and your question. Enter the text seen in the red box and click “Submit”.

All of the teachers who have submitted lesson plans! Credits Geoffrey Priester - Project Design, Programming Paul Klopping - Database Design, Programming Janel Cayer - User Guide Review and Publication And of course… All of the teachers who have submitted lesson plans!

© 2009 – Mid-America Transportation Center