Overview

Welcome back to Membean! This quick-start guide will help you restart on the right foot. Be sure to check out the Success Checklist attached to the bottom of this article. 

1. Delete Last Year's Classes

From your Teacher Dashboard, click on Delete All Classes.

Confirm deletion by typing DELETE and clicking Delete All Classes.

2. Create New Classes

Membean classes do not have to follow your roster. For example, you can create a class for your ELL or special needs students to monitor them more closely or assign them different goals. Classes should be no larger than 50 students.

Here are the steps for creating a class:

1. From the first page of your dashboard, click on the plus sign.
2. If you've just deleted all of your classes, you'll be taken through the set up wizard when you create your first class. After that, you'll be able to fill out the quick form to create the rest of your classes. Don't forget to click Save.

You can learn more about the different options for class creation here.

3. Training Cycles

Training Cycles are an important class function. Reports rely on Training Cycles to collate data. You can use reports to see which students are struggling, and who is excelling. You can always edit the Training Cycle during the school year.

4. Day One with Membean

It's important to give a verbal overview to explain what Membean is and what your expectations are. Students new to Membean will complete the calibration process first. Returning students will not recalibrate. 

You can find more tips and a helpful video in our Getting Your Students Started article.

5. Enroll Your Students

After you create your class, your students can self-enroll.

1. Find the Class Code by clicking on a class from your Teacher Dashboard. 
2. Give the Class Code to your students. We recommend posting the code on your class website or writing/projecting it on your board. You can also print enrollment cards, invite students via email, or manually create a student. 
3. Have your students visit http://membean.com/enroll and enter the class code. Students who have a Membean account already can also enroll with the class code from their dashboards. 

If you'd like students to skip the step of entering the class code, you can share the special URL with them instead. This prevents students from entering the code incorrectly or trying to sign up in the wrong place. 

6. Check Student Settings

Membean offers myriad ways to accommodate unique learners. Some of these settings, such as those that fulfill IEPs or 504s or provide support to ESL students, may need to remain active on a student's account when they enter their new class. Some settings, however, may have been enabled to help support students temporarily.

Once your students are enrolled, check the Special Settings column under the Students tab to see if there are any settings you need to add or remove. 

7. Password Reset

You can reset the password of any student in your school, even if they are not in your class.

1. From your Teacher Dashboard, scroll down to the Reset a Student's Password search box.
2. Type the first few letters of the student's name, or until you see their name in the drop-down list.
   
3. Click Reset Password.

8. Transfers and Drops

If you have roster changes, you can transfer a student into your class or drop them from your class. You have access to all of the students who have an account at your school.

1. From your Teacher Dashboard, scroll down until you see the Transfer/Drop a Student search box.
2. Type the first few letters of the student's name, or until you see their name in the drop-down list.
   
3. Click on either Transfer or Drop.

9. Recalibration

If students used Membean last school year, they do not need to recalibrate their accounts at the start of the new school year. Membean will reinforce review to make sure students remember last year's words. However, if you would like a student recalibrated, email [email protected] with the student name. We will recalibrate the account for you.

10. Check Student Preferences

Students' preferences travel with their accounts, even when they transfer classes. If your students used Membean last year, they could have preferences selected that were enabled by their previous teacher. Some of these preferences may be accommodations for IEPs or 504s; others may have been intended to provide temporary support. Therefore, we recommend checking your students' preferences and updating them according to each student's current needs.

To see your students' training preferences, click on the class tile and navigate to the Students tab. Any settings enabled that affect how the trainer works will be listed under the Special Settings column.

Here's our Student Training Preferences Breakdown, a guide to all available settings. Multiple students with a setting you'd like to change? Many of them can be updated in bulk.

11. Training

Now that your students are enrolled and calibrated, it's time to begin training! Membean's Adaptive Reinforcement Engine guides your students through word pages and questions.

12. Reports

Reports provide you with a detailed account of your students' training. Check out this video for a quick guide to using your report effectively. 

13. Assessments

You can issue or schedule assessments for your entire class in seconds. To issue an assessment immediately, navigate to your Class Dashboard, click on the Assessments tab, and click Create Assessment. 

Each student will receive a customized assessment based on their recent training.

Assessments are graded automatically, and results can be viewed and downloaded from the Assessments tab. Students who train regularly will have sufficient words deemed Quizzable in about one month.

Some guidelines for assessments:

• Start with 15-question assessments weekly or bimonthly, and gradually increase the number of questions over the course of the year.
• You can issue pop assessments instead of scheduling assessments. If students train diligently, they will do well!
• Students can study for assessments by training. Any "reasonably known" word is fair game for assessments.

To learn even more about assessments, check out our All About Assessments article.

14. Writing Assignments

Writing assignments help students build confidence in applying their Membean words. You can issue writing assignments for your class in just a few clicks. To do so, navigate to your Class Dashboard, click on the Writing tab, and click Create Writing Assignment.

Like assessments, writing assignments are based on each student's quizzable word list. Therefore, students should have about a month of training before you assign them.

Here are some recommendations for writing assignments:

• Issue writing assignments no more than once a month to avoid getting bogged down with grading. We make them easy to grade, but grading student writing takes time.
• Use cue sentences to jump-start student creativity and discourage plagiarism. 
• Only use literary cues for high school students and advanced middle schoolers. These are the most challenging cue sentence.
• Add your own instructions to connect Membean writing assignments to other topics your students are learning.

15. More Things You Can Do

Here are a few helpful things to consider when getting started with Membean:

• You can invite a colleague from your school to Membean.
• You can adjust student training preferences.

Membean is a fun, personalized, and interactive way to learn vocabulary. We have teachers who use Membean for class competitions, marathons, and writing assignments. If you'd like more examples, feel free to contact us at [email protected]. We'd be happy to brainstorm with you.

16. Best Practices

We've compiled all of our recommendations for you in our Best Practices article. 

17. Communicating with Parents

We have some awesome resources to help you introduce Membean to your students' parents. You'll especially want to share our Getting to Know Membean Parent Guide video.