Welcome to volume two of the monthly Tract digest, where I'll be sharing what’s new at Tract and what is upcoming in the next month! Enjoy :)
-Ari, Tract Cofounder + CEO
Rockstar-Worthy Projects
We announced our biggest contest yet! Now through the end of the year your school can win a pizza party and a classroom creator studio kit by earning the most Rock Star Awards. I’ve been so impressed by all the student creations that have earned the recognition.
Gisborne Intermediate is at the top of the leaderboard with 30 awards, but Kapakapanui and Forest Park Middle schools are in striking distance as of November 30. TomatoConstrictor from Kari Spurlock’s class at Sonora Elementary was the first to earn 2 awards for a single project! Here’s a clip from her incredible stop-motion video👇
Tractify Your Lessons
We released a new content discovery experience that allows teachers and students to easily filter and search our growing 750+ learning path library through keyword search, filters, and tags. Our 100+ Creators around the world are posting new lessons every day that strike the perfect balance of what teachers and students want. That’s the magic of Tract. Letting teachers crowdsource instruction to students. When empowered, students are infinitely creative. They can teach English, Science, Math or History concepts through Minecraft. They can find the links and stories to make academic topics appealing.
If you’re looking for something that we don’t quite have yet -- just let us know! We can help your students create the lesson or tap into our community of Creators to create a lesson that exactly fits your curriculum needs while ensuring that it engages students.
The First "Chromebook" Creator Academy
For all the negatives of this pandemic, one clear positive in my mind is the rapid expansion of connected devices at school. This access to technology has the potential to help us narrow the achievement gap. At the same time it's scary to let kids explore the internet unsupervised. You need training wheels first. That’s why I think it’s so important we channel our students' desire to learn, create, share, and teach each other in a purpose-built, safe environment like Tract. Kids will settle for just good enough when sharing with their teacher, but if the their peers can see it they will strive for perfection.
We released 16 new learning paths in our revised #CreatorAcademy that are a starting point for any student who wishes to up-level their content creation skills using just a Chromebook. There is a lot of Adult Creator content and how-to’s, but none are hosted in kid-safe communities or fully understand the device, resource, school, and age constraints. That’s why we felt it was so important to build the support and structure for all students of varying abilities and resource access as they apply these universal creative and technology skills toward any and all subjects.
Y0ur_L0caL_D0ra from Jack Adam’s 5th Grade class at Gisborne Central School has been hard at work in the #CreatorAcademy, earned Creator status, and published 4 Art-themed classes. As an aspiring artist, she now has an authentic audience to share her passion and skills with! Read more about her story here.
Students Give Back
This month across Tract, students made 100+ donations. Most students chose to donate meals (82 in total were gifted), which was especially fitting since we were able to provide Thanksgiving meals to those most in need! The biggest donors were BrandonF and Arl0_W_CRICKeTb0Y from Olivia Manson’s class.
What's On Deck For Next Month?
If you thought November was FUN, wait until you hear about what’s in store for next month:
- Improved Classroom Management
- Curated Learning Path Collections & Playlists
- Enhanced Submission Feedback and Revisions
Not yet started on Tract? Get started in under 5 min by signing up and then following the #TractForTeachers videos.
