• Who is EdGate? 
• What is a Community Education Gateway? 
• What are the benefits of having a Community Education Gateway? 
• Who are EdGate's partners? 

Navigation 

• What is on the Welcome page? 
• What is on the Educators channel? 
• What is on the Students channel? 
• What is on the Parents channel? 
• When the same content categories appear on different channels, is the information the same? 
• What will I find under Community Resources? 
• What will I find under Community Highlights? 
• What will I find under Project Gateways? 
• What will I find under Find Your School?
• What will I find under Find Your Class?
• What is in the "Features" section of the channel pages? 
• What is in the "Guide" section of the channel pages? 

• What are Urgent Messages? 
• What are Community Destinations?  
• What is Teachers' Toolbox? 
• What is SchoolNotes? 
• Where can I go for more questions and answers about SchoolNotes? 
• What is the Curriculum Matrix? 
• Where can I access a user's guide for the Curriculum Matrix? 
• What is e-Class? 
• What is Newsletter Center? 
• What is Parents' Toolbox? 
• What is Research Center? 
• What is on Current Events? 
• What is on Discovery Adventures? 
• What is Creative Zone? 
• What is School Athletics Center? 
• What is Music Hall? 

Enhancements 

• What changes have been made to the site? 
• Has my SchoolNotes account changed? 
• What improvements have been made to SchoolNotes? 

More Help 

• Where can I go for more help? 
• How can I reach EdGate? 

What is a Community Education Gateway? 
An EdGate Community Education Gateway is an Internet-based, customized network of online communities. These communities provide schools with the highest quality K-12 resources and tools from trusted sources. EdGate supports educators in achieving their goals, helps schools meet local academic expectations, and keeps families and communities involved in their children's learning. 

What are the benefits of becoming a Community Education Gateway? 
We populate your learning community with educational resources and content that is educationally sound, age-appropriate, subject-specific, and aligned with your local teaching standards. Better yet, with a Community Education Gateway, you can further customize the content on your site by deleting links, modifying descriptions, or adding favorite sites. 

Who are EdGate's partners? 
EdGate has established strategic partnerships with education associations and key corporations that demonstrate an unwavering commitment to education. These partnerships are a critical reason why EdGate can deliver the most current, highest quality educational materials to educators, families, and students. EdGate partners include CareerCorner TV, DECA, USA TODAY, Griffin Publishing, Language Learning Solutions, Smithsonian Institution, and the International Center for Leadership in Education.

What is on the Educators channel? 
The Educators channel contains content to support educators in their instructional and professional development goals. The content categories contained on the Educators channel include: Teachers' Toolbox, SchoolNotes, Curriculum Matrix, e-Class, Newsletter Center, Research Center, Current Events, Career and Technical Education Center, Discovery Adventures, Professional Development Center, School Athletics Center, World Language Center and Music Hall. 

What is on the Students channel? 
On the Students channel, students will find one-click access to resources that help them succeed in their studies. From the Students channel, students can access Research Center, SchoolNotes, Current Events, Discovery Adventures, School Athletics Center, and Music Hall. 

What is on the Parents channel? 
The Parents channel offers materials of interest to parents, including tools to help them stay involved in their children's classrooms. Parents channel content categories include SchoolNotes, Parents' Toolbox, Current Events, School Athletics Center, and Research Center. 

When the same content categories appear on different channels, is the information the same? 
Certain content categories, like Current Events, contain different content when presented in each of the EdGate channels. Content in Current Events on the Educators channel includes sections of particular interest to educators, such as "News in Education," which are omitted when Current Events appears on the Students channel. When appropriate, however, EdGate has included similar content on different channels to ensure important and useful information reaches everyone.

What will I find under Community Resources? 
Under Community Resources, you will find links to services and resources that make an educator's job easier, from both an instructional and administrative viewpoint. These links give you one-click access to: Register Here (SchoolNotes registration), Newsletter Center, Feedback, Help, and Site Contents pages. 

What will I find under Community Highlights? 
Community Highlights features specific content categories that are found in "The Guide" on each of the channel pages. 

What will I find under Project Gateways? 
Under the Project Gateways heading, you will find one-click access to subject-specific projects that offer complete online curriculum programs including lesson plans, activities, and more. 

What will I find under Find Your School?
The Find Your School icon appears on district-level Community Education Gateways. The Find Your School icon allows you one-click access from any district site to any associated school site within the district. 

What will I find under Find Your Class?
The Find Your Class icon is accessible from school-level Community Education Gateways. Use the Find Your Class icon to go directly from a school site to a teacher's SchoolNotes page in one click. 

What is in the "Features" section of the channel pages? 
In the "Features" section, you will find regularly updated EdGate-reviewed and recommended Web sites. Directly beneath these resources are "On the Web Today" links that lead to self-contained, instructional daily offerings such as "Word of the Day." 

What is in the "Guide" section of channel pages? 
Under "The Guide" heading, you'll see a listing of the content categories included within the channel. Here is where you can access resources such as the Research Center and Discovery Adventures. 
 

What are Community Destinations?
Community Destinations are quick jumps to your community's relevant district- or school-related Web links. 

What is Teachers' Toolbox?
Teachers' Toolbox gives you access to teacher-specific material on the Web including resources focused on lesson planning, professional development, education news, special needs or gifted student instruction, and more. Teachers' Toolbox is on the Educators channel. 

What is SchoolNotes? 
SchoolNotes lets educators post announcements, homework assignments, flash cards, and Web links, and allows them to communicate directly with students and parents on the Web. SchoolNotes is accessible from the Educators, Students, and Parents channels.  The enhanced version included in a Community Education Gateway has a calendar tool, a Text Editing Tool and the ability to store more files and graphics. There is a free Basic Version available on the Web.

Where can I go for more question and answers about SchoolNotes? 
For more information about SchoolNotes, please see the SchoolNotes FAQ.

What is the Curriculum Matrix? 
Each Community Education Gateway has access to the Curriculum Matrix. The Curriculum Matrix houses one of the largest databases of lesson plans and resources aligned with state academic standards. You can use the Curriculum Matrix to search for materials correlated to local educational standards, or submit a winning lesson plan to the database and share it with other members of your EdGate community. The Matrix makes it possible for you to continually add value to your Matrix by populating it with your community's best resources and lesson plans. The Curriculum Matrix is located on the Educators channel. 

Where can I access a User's Guide for the Curriculum Matrix? 
For more information about the Matrix, click on the Help button on the login screen for the Curriculum Matrix.

What is e-Class? 
The BlackBoard Course Development tool is available at an additional charge for users of a Community Education Gateway. Called e"-Class", educators can use EdGate's distance-learning tool, to create online courses, quizzes, bulletin boards, chats, and more. In addition, educators can stay actively involved in their students' online work by tracking their progress and analyzing results online. This is located on the Educators channel. 

What is Newsletter Center? 
Newsletter Center allows you to subscribe to one of the Community Education Gateway's newsletters. Each newsletter provides educators with focused, relevant information targeted to the needs of K-12 educators. Each month, you'll receive highlights of hot Web sites, curriculum ideas, and timely topics in education news. 

What is Parents' Toolbox?
Formerly called Parents' Place, Parents' Toolbox contains information and resources on parenting-related issues. 

What is Research Center? 
Research Center provides quick access to Web-based research tools such as education search engines, online dictionaries, encyclopedias, museums, libraries, and other reference materials. Look for Research Center on the Educators, Students, and Parents channels, and enjoy special sections tailored to each group. 

What is Current Events? 
Current Events puts you in touch with news you can use in the classroom and features special joint projects co-produced by EdGate and USA TODAY Education. Current Events appears on each channel in order to deliver resources of interest to all educators, students, and parents. 

What is Discovery Adventures? 
Discovery Adventures offers unique and exciting Web explorations that allow students to immerse themselves in subjects as diverse as science, geography, history, and social studies using interactive, real-time, and multimedia tools. 

What is Creative Zone? 
Creative Zone gets the creative juices flowing with interactive drawing and other activities in the fields of dance, theater, art, and creative writing sites. Creative Zone is offered on all channels. 

What is the School Athletics Center? 
The School Athletics Center is a one-stop location where educators, coaches, students, and parents can find athlete profiles, site reviews, and high-quality articles and information about coaching, building character, and athletics. Access School Athletics Center from all channels. 

What is Music Hall? 
Enter the Music Hall to read interviews with musicians and music industry professionals or to access hundreds of reviewed Web sites organized in categories created to complement the National Arts Standards for music education. 

• A new stream-lined and updated banner; 
• The addition of C*TEC - the Career and Technical Education Center
• The addition of the Professional Development Center and a complete on-line course that helps the subscriber better utilize all the features  of a Community Education Gateway; it has been developed in short units to accommodate teacher's time constraints and is available for teaching credit; and 
• Exciting features and enhancements to already-popular learning tools. 

Has my SchoolNotes account changed? 
No. Your SchoolNotes account has not changed. 

What improvements have been made to SchoolNotes? 
SchoolNotes has been improved to include several terrific enhancements. These include: 

• A new Calendar Tool for posting your important events, homework assignments and other school activities; 
• A Text Tool that gives you easy editing and formatting without knowing any html; and 
• Updated Prentice-Hall textbook links

How can I reach EdGate? 
You can reach EdGate via email at info@edgate.com or by mail/phone at:

Edgate, Inc.
3214 50th St Ct NW
Suite D-200
Gig Harbor,WA 98335
253.853.7133 phone
253.853.7355 fax
877.705.1084 corporate line