A lot can happen in a year, especially in the classroom. Take a look back with us on the features and enhancements we released in 2023 to help meet the changing needs of your classroom.
New Ways to Engage and Challenge Students
2023 was a year of engagement at TCI. We released new features to engage all students, including games played 2.1 million times and videos viewed 4.2 million times. Check out our favorite new features for student engagement this year:
- Biography Videos: Compelling videos let your students explore the lives of famous figures.
- Video Activities: We added new video activities for middle school and high school social studies programs. Peruse your program for more of these interactive, storyline-driven activities.
- Key Science Concept Videos: In middle school science programs, Key Science Concepts now include a slideshow, video, and interactive questions. Students can use these quick activities to preview or review content.
- Vocabulary Games: Review key terms and practice language arts skills with new vocabulary games.
- Free Lessons: TCI’s free lessons quickly engage students with videos, vibrant images, primary sources, and more. This year, we added 36 more free lessons and teaching resources connected with seasonal events.
More Features for Your Teacher Toolbox
We know that you are looking for more ways to customize TCI’s lessons to fit your classroom’s needs, so we developed features that expand the editing of our slideshows, vocabulary cards, and more.
- Slide Builder: In 2023, TCI teachers customized more than 14,200 slideshows. With the new slide builder, you can add images and videos, update slide templates, and edit the text to guide your students through a lesson.
- Customizable Vocabulary Cards: Images, examples, extra terms—the new cards can do so much to support vocabulary development.
- Assessment Library: With over 94,000 custom assessments, you’ve been hard at work editing TCI tests. The new Assessment Library makes finding, editing, and assigning assessments even easier. The power is in the new easy-to-use filters, which help you quickly sort through unit and lesson assessments, including pre-tests and post-tests.
- Gradable Reading Checks: The Reading Checks (formerly known as Checks for Understanding) have been updated to support grading! You can now assign Reading Checks along with the reading and notebook questions. The Reading Checks provide real-time feedback for students, and the answers are saved to the Grades page.
Comprehensive Professional Development
This year, TCI released a new flexible professional development experience. The in-app professional development provides self-paced courses that let you explore TCI’s program. Over 3,400 TCI teachers from 44 states have completed a course. Explore these series:
- 100 Series – TCI Basics: Start here if you are new to TCI. Learn the fundamentals so you can get up and running quickly. Courses in this series include: Getting Started with TCI and Managing Student Work.
- 200 Series – LMS Integrations: Learn how to use TCI with Google Classroom, Canvas, or Schoology, and stay connected with your students no matter where they are.
- 300 Series – Advanced Courses: Make the most of your TCI program with a course on Building a Cooperative Classroom.
In 2024, more features are coming! TCI is continuously building new tools to engage students and make teaching easier.
