WWPS Technology

Phase 1 Nearly Complete Now that we're almost finished getting 3,800 Acer 710 & 720 Chromebooks into production I can take a minute and reflect on the first 5 weeks of our 1:1 Chromebook  - One Classroom at a Time  Initiative . Our district made the switch to Google Apps for Education in the middle of the 2008-2009 school year during the winter holiday. We haven't looked back since, and that one singular move has allowed us to implement a 1:1 initiative today. In fact, moving to Google Apps for Education has made us (the leadership team) look a lot smarter than we actually are! Our district, like many school districts, has a small staff. We have one technician,  +Les Petrarca  , that handles all of our machine break/fix helpdesk tickets, and production rollouts. Lester had the help of many teachers, custodians, secretaries and administrators across the district that rolled up their sleeves and helped us get machines into production within the first two wee...

Week 5 - September 29 - October 3, 2014 I'd like to take the opportunity to update the WWPS community on what we've accomplished, and our plans for the next week. Week 5, is in the books. It's amazing that we're almost finished getting Chromebooks out to all of our students in grades K-12.  Towards the end of the post I've taken the opportunity answer some of the frequently asked questions submitted by administrators, teachers, students and parents. Chromebook Distribution Chromebooks have been distributed to all 1-12 graders across the district, and to kindergarten students at John F. Horgan Elementary School, and Greenbush Elementary School. We only have to distribute approximately 82 machines to kindergartners at Wakefield Hills Elementary School. Professional Development Update Teachers across the district have taken upon themselves to share tips and tools about their Chromebooks. I have spent a lot of time at Deering Middle School this week, and it...

Week 3 & 4 - September 8 - September 19, 2014 I'd like to take the opportunity to update the WWPS community on what we've accomplished, and our plans for the next week. Week 3, is in the books. It's amazing that we're almost finished getting Chromebooks out to all of our students in grades 1-12.  Towards the end of the post I've taken the opportunity answer some of the frequently asked questions submitted by administrators, teachers, students and parents. Chromebook Distribution Chromebooks have been distributed to nearly all 1-12 graders across the district, and to all first through 4th graders at Wakefield Hills Elementary School. In essence we have rolled out over 3200 Chromebooks to students across the district in 12 days. We have completed Wakefield Hills (except for K), Deering Middle School, West Warwick High School, and most of Quinn School. That's quite remarkable, and it has taken a collaborative effort between administrators, teachers, custo...

gScholar & Google Drive gScholar is a fantastic tool for the 1:1 classroom. It provides teachers and students and easy, convenient mechanism to share Google docs. gScholar is connected directly to Google Drive, and it's important that teachers and students learn how to maneuver in Google Drive. I find the new look in Google Drive the easiest way to manage documents in Google Drive & gScholar. The short video below explains how to switch Google Drive to the "New Drive". Once teachers and students switch over to the "New Drive" they can begin to make changes to their gScholar folders to better suit their needs. First let's take a look at gScholar and Google Drive from the teacher's perspective. The video clip below illustrates where teachers can find their gScholar folders, and how to change each folder to meet their needs. Teachers can make changes to ensure that gScholar is easier for them to use, and accessible in their Google...

Week 2 - September 2 - September 5, 2014 I'd like to take the opportunity to update the WWPS community on what we've accomplished, and our plans for the next week. Week 2, is in the books. It's amazing that we've almost equalled the output of machines into classrooms as our first week's push.  Towards the end of the post I've taken the opportunity answer some of the frequently asked questions submitted by administrators, teachers, students and parents. Chromebook Distribution Chromebooks have been distributed to nearly all 3-12 graders across the district, and to all first through 4th graders at Wakefield Hills Elementary School. In essence we have rolled out 2600 Chromebooks to students across the district in 8 days. That's quite remarkable, and it has taken a collaborative effort between administrators, teachers, custodial staff & my department. On behalf of the students I would like to take the opportunity to thank them all for their efforts. ...

Week 1 - August 26 - August 29, 2014 Well week 1, or at least the first 4 days of school are in the books. We've just finished with our first week of school. I'd like to take the opportunity to update the WWPS community on what we've accomplished, and our plans for next week. Before I go any further I want to thank the administrators, teachers and students across the district that have helped get over 1400 units into the hands of students in just 4 days! +Kenneth Townsend  , and his staff have been fabulous in transporting Chromebooks to each of the schools.  +Philip Solomon  &  +Rosemary Sanborn  have been incredible at WWHS getting Chromebooks into the hands of students.  +Jared Santurri  ,  +Giuseppe Lancellotta  ,  +Melissa Magiera  ,  +Nancy Lydon   have been phenomenal at Deering Middle School making sure that the 7th and 8th grade teams have their Chromebooks up and running. +Christopher Allen  &...

1:1 Chromebook Initiative: It is exciting that we've embarked on a 1:1 Chromebook initiative in our district. We ask teachers and students to be patient as we roll-out the Chromebooks into each of the schools. Our plans for distribution are listed by each school below. General Information Students will be issued their own Chromebook. Students will use their WWPS Google Apps account to log into the Chromebook. When students log in for the first time on a brand new Chromebook they should use Ctrl-Alt-E when they get to the email log-in page. This will connect the student's account to the serial number for their individual Chromebook. Each student's Chromebook will have two stickers placed on the Chromebook. Each sticker will contain the student's name, their Google account, and their student ID. One sticker will be placed to the right of the track pad, and one will be place on the outside lid. The third sticker will be placed on the AC adapter. Students should ge...

Our district has made a strong push to getting Chromebooks into the hands of our students this year by combining local, federal and grant funds to purchase a little over 1000 devices for 3,400 students. We have one school, Wakefield Hills Elementary, that is a 1:1 school and several 1:1 pilot programs in each of our four other schools.  +Christopher Allen  and I have been discussing how we could use the tools available for our students to help them with their student led conferences. Chris wants his students to be able to show what they know, and are able to do. It's important that his students are reflective about their learning. This blog showcases three applications, and how to use them to help students provide evidence of their learning. We're using gScholar (  +Ryan Schwartz  from Promevo ), ScreenCastify and Video Not.es  to help us and our students meet our goals for Student Led Conferences (SLC). We're using reading fluency in the example videos posted ...

Aspen - Did You Know About Aspen's Field Sets Opiton? Or As I like to say, "Field Sets: Seeing the Data the Way YOU Want to See It!" I thought I would use this space to provide additional information about some of the powerful, less well known features of Aspen, our SIS, from Follett School Solutions. One of the hidden gems that I use all of the time, but few people change is the "Field Sets" tool. This tool allows you to organize your data in a manner that makes sense to you, and meets your needs. It's really the tool that allows the end user to see the data in a spreadsheet view that makes the most sense for the specific job at hand. Field sets used in conjunction with queries, and quick charts are a powerful trio that will allow you to get a lot of use from Aspen. Users can find the Field Sets Menu tool whenever the access any of the data tables in Aspen. Once you click on a table heading (commonly known as a top tab in "Aspenspeak") severa...