NEWSLETTER
INDIANAPOLIS — Certell, the creator behind the potential free social studies course bundles, announced a significant update to its curriculum and digital platform designed to help students better understand the principles that have shaped American history while providing Teachers tools to better manage your classroom and improve learning.
Potential course packages have been updated to incorporate “American Principles” designed to foster a greater understanding of American civic life and improve critical thinking skills among students. Additionally, Certell introduced a powerful new dashboard for teachers called Engauge, which helps instructors understand student engagement with Poptential eBooks in real time.
The integration of American Principles into Poptential’s social studies courses is an important milestone. These principles are fundamental ideas that have shaped American history, culture, and identity and serve as the foundation of American civic life. The goal is to ensure that students not only understand these principles but also understand why the nation’s founders considered them essential.
Julie Smitherman, former social studies teacher and content director at Certell, expressed the importance of this update, stating, “Understanding American principles is as relevant today as it was at the founding of our country. It prepares students to critically analyze history and think independently when addressing current issues, preparing them to become engaged citizens.”
The seven American principles seamlessly integrated into Poptential are civic engagement, egalitarianism, entrepreneurship, governance, individualism, freedom, and commerce.
In addition to American Principles, Poptential eBooks now include Pop! Exercises designed to cultivate students’ passion, original thinking, and power to change the world. These exercises allow Poptential students to gain a deep understanding of the world and how they can positively impact society.
Used with Poptential eBooks, Engauge captures real-time data on student engagement with online materials and assignments. The free dashboard provides teachers with a variety of insights, including:
● The ability to track completed, partially completed, and unfinished work.
● Class-level data that shows how students interact with e-books.
● Comparative data to evaluate individual student performance against class averages and other benchmarks.
“Many data-driven tools provide formal student assessments, but Engauge is different because it provides evidence of student engagement in the tools used for learning,” said Andy Wiggins, social studies teacher at North Central High School in Indianapolis. , IN. “This behind-the-scenes look at student learning activity can help teachers prepare students for success when it comes time to give more formal assessments.”
Engauge also serves as a useful professional development tool for teachers. Since data-driven decision making is at the core of professional learning communities (PLCs), Engauge can help teachers analyze student learning data to identify areas of strength and areas for improvement.
Poptential courses offer comprehensive content for instructors, including lessons, e-books, bell ringers, quizzes, tests, and pop culture media to make learning engaging and relatable. Poptential offers course bundles in American History, World History, US Government/Civics, and Economics, all available for free at www.poptential.org.
About Certell, Inc.
Certell is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to fostering a generation of independent thinkers. With more than 100,000 users across the United States, Certell’s Poptential family of free social studies courses has earned numerous awards, including recognition from edtech Digest Awards, tech&Learning, tech Edvocate Awards, National Association of Economics Educators and the Civvys awards. To learn more about Poptential and Certell’s mission, visit www.poptential.org.
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