WWPS Technology

Using the MTSS Workflow in Aspen Initiate the MTSS Workflow The West Warwick Public Schools uses the MTSS Workflow in Aspen to help district staff keep track of the Multi-Tiered Support System for our struggling students. The process begins with an educator in the district initiating the workflow. You can review the process using the print directions or follow the video clip below. Locating an Initiated MTSS Workflow Aspen has added a great new feature to located an initiated workflow for a student. Simply locate the student, click on the Transactions side tab, and click on the Workflow submenu item. Locate the desired MTSS Workflow link. You can view the annotated image and/or the video clip below. Step-by-Step Detailed Directions The following annotated directions explain the detailed step-by-step process for each phase of the workflow. You can also review the print directions for the workflow phases. ...

Local Assessment Data in Aspen This blog post will explore the various facets of using Aspen to collect and analyze our local assessment data. This blog post will focus on the following concepts: How to access local help files for the assessment entry process. How to use the Local Assessment Names and Dates Google spreadsheet. How to enter local assessment data into Aspen. How to use the assessment history data in the Aspen school view. If you need any additional assistance you can try to jump into a Google Meeting to get just-in-time assistance. How to Enter Local Assessment Data in Aspen The process for entering local assessment data is an easy process as long as you have everything you need to enter the data. You'll need the local assessment name, the locally assigned date for the assessment, and your scores. We use the locally assigned date for filtering purposes during data entry. The locally assigned date will not correspond with the date when yo...

Using the Conduct & Bullying Referral Workflows in Aspen This blog post will focus on the following uses to guide conduct and student safety in Aspen. We'll explore the following: How to submit a conduct referral. How a conduct action is posted. How to fill-out a restraint form. How a bullying workflow is started. How a bullying workflow is processed. As always, if you need any assistance feel free to request a Google Hangout Meeting for just-in-time assistance. How to Submit a Conduct Referral in Aspen The short video clip below explains the process for filling out a conduct referral in the West Warwick Public Schools. The first form available to staff is the WWPS Conduct Referral form. This form should be completed by staff members and should only contain factual, evidenced-based statements.  If the student involved in the conduct referral was involved in a restraint the supervisory assistant, building level administrator or dean must post the conduc...

Using Aspen for Running Record Data The West Warwick Public Schools uses Aspen to store local assessment data. This data is important in helping educators plan for the next steps in a student's educational journey. In this blog post, we'll explore how to enter running record data from a teacher's perspective, a reading specialist's perspective, how to query, and analyze the data collected.  How to Enter Running Record Data From a Teacher's Perspective The short video below explains the process for entering Running Record data from a classroom teacher's perspective. Teachers can use the Assessment Entry option in Aspen from their Staff View in Aspen. This is the most efficient way for teachers to enter this data into Aspen. You can also review the print directions by clicking on the image below. How to Enter Running Record Data From a Reading Specilist's Perspective The short video below explains the process for entering Running Recor...

How to Access WWPS Technology Assistance There are several ways to access WWPS technology assistance. The district houses many help files in Google Drive, Follett Collections as well as many YouTube videos. You can access help files from this blog as well. The short video below explains the process for locating help files. Access the WWPS Technology Help Files Collection The WWPS also uses the Collections tool in Destiny from Follett. You can access the WWPS Technology Help Files Collection by clicking on the picture. Subscribe to Our YouTube Channel You can also subscribe to our Youtube Channel to access and view any of the YouTube videos that we create.  Submit a HelpDesk Ticket Via Aspen If you are a member of the WWPS you can also submit a HelpDesk ticket via Aspen. The video below illustrates the process for submitting a helpdesk ticket.

Using the 504 Plan in Aspen The West Warwick Public Schools uses Aspen for student 504 Ed Plans. The 504 Plan works a little differently than other tools such as the IEP Workflows or the MTSS Workflow. You can review the print directions that we've created for WWPS employees as well as review the additional videos illustrating the process. Getting to the 504 Plan via the Documents Side Tab The first step in getting to the 504 Ed Plan in Aspen is to work in the student details page. Once you've accessed a student's details page you can click on the Documents side tab. The Ed. Plans submenu is embedded within the Documents side tab menu. Review the two-minute video to see how to access and add a new 504 Ed Plan for a student. Create the Meeting Notices & Meeting Notes You can create multiple meeting notices and notes connected to the student's 504 Ed Plan in Aspen. Every time you meet regarding the 504 Plan there should be at the very least a meeting n...

Using the Journal Tool in Aspen The Journal Tool in Aspen is a great way to record interactions with guardians regarding their students. This tool allows us the opportunity to record specific details around the communication we've had with a guardian. We can also decide whether or not we want the interaction to remain as a private note or shared with other educators in our district. Review the video clip below on how to create a Journal record. You can also review the print-out directions.

How to Use Aspen for Staff Attendance & Substitute Replacement The West Warwick Public Schools partnered with Follett many years ago to use the power of Aspen for staff attendance and substitute replacement. We have three different workflows that staff members use for attendance and replacement purposes. Each one of the workflows will be explained below. How to Fill-out the Staff Absence Request Workflow in Aspen If a WWPS employee is going to be out for any reason that doesn't require approval they fill-out the Staff Absence Request Workflow. Sick, personal, bereavement, family illness, district sanctioned professional development, IEP meetings, and religious days are all examples of absences that do not need administrative approval. Staff members simply need to fill-out the Staff Absence Request Workflow. View the directions below for the one-step process. Once a staff member completes the Staff Absence Request Workflow an attendance record is created that al...

How I Use Collections as A Central Office Administrator As the Director of Educational Reform, Compliance and IT in my district I get to interact with parents, administrators, educators, support personnel and students in many different fora. On a weekly basis, I am often interacting with educators as we build curricula together. Almost as often I find myself, working with both educators, parents and legal representation on policy matters. As we became more and more comfortable using Collections for curricula purposes I've noticed a million and one ways I could use Collections as an administrator. It's almost become a joke in my district because I don't think a day goes by without me uttering, "Ya know, you can use Collections for that." Since August I've... As the summer months began to wind down the opportunities for collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders increased dramatically. I found myself using Collections to do the following: Respon...

Using Collections for Curriculum Curation Follett's Early Adopter Program We have been using Collections since the spring of 2017 when our district served as an Early Adopter participant in Follett's newest addition to Destiny Discover. Educators started using Collections immediately during our curriculum development process. It was the easiest access point for administrators, teachers and support personnel.  Educators in our district easily saw how Collections fit into our well established Lab Classroom model. Teachers and administrators loved how they could add the "Add to Collections" bookmarklet to their Chrome browser to add resources simply and efficiently to a shared Collection. Collections & Our Curriculum Development Process Our district has a strong process for developing collaborative lessons using synchronous (face-to-face) and asynchronous tools. A Learning Coach will work with a classroom educator during an entire unit of study to develop the...

It's so Much More than Just a Curation Tool Jason See, Follett's Director of Classroom Solutions, gave educators at ISTE 2017 a sneak peek of Collections, a new addition to the Destiny Discover suite of tools. There was a buzz in the air, and I'm sure many educators looked at it as an answer to their curation woes. Collections delivers exactly as advertised. Nader Qaimari, President of Follett School Solutions, June 29, 2017, in a press release said, "Collections is the first step toward making Destiny a content discovery and resource collection tool designed for use in the classroom, the library and at home." In previous blog posts, I've shared how Collections allows educators a singular place to curate Open Educational Resources (OER), web pages, videos, images, educator created resources and documents. In just a few short months of widespread use in our district, we've found it to be so much more! We've used Collections in the following ways:...

How to Access Collections... In a previous blog I spoke about Destiny Discover's newest addition Collections. In this post I'll discuss the various ways to access Collections. As with most applications now a days, there are a variety of ways to access Collections. You can access Collections in the following ways: Via the Destiny Discover Chrome Extension or the Destiny Discover Homepage Via the Bookmarklet App Via the Collections URL Via Rhode Island's RICAT site (Only applicable to RI school districts) Destiny Discover Chrome Extension In our district we have added the Destiny Discover Chrome extension to all of our district's Chromebooks via the Google Management Console. This allows our users to access their school's Destiny Discover catalog once they do a simple Google Search.  Searching for Ecosystems using the Chrome Extension In the image above you can see that you can access resources directly from our school's catalog. End user...

What is Follett's Destiny Discover Collection Tool? Follett School Solutions describes their newest addition to the Destiny Discover suite of tools, Collections, as “A group of carefully selected resources. Think of a Collection like a digital scrapbook with audio, video, slideshows, along with documents and photos .” Simply stated, Collections, allows educators to curate all of their resources for a lesson or a unit of study in one simple place. Click this Link to Learn More About Follett's Collections The Anatomy of a Collection We have already started to use Collections to curate all of the t eacher-created documents, web pages, video clips, Open Educational Resources (OER), and paid content necessary to instruct our students day to day. The "Anatomy of a Collection" image below illustrates how resources within a Collection are displayed. The details of a Collection are located along the top-left panel of the Collection. Owners and editors of...

Reflections on the Aspen Institute 2015 It's been a little over a week since the conclusion of the Aspen Institute that brought Aspen users to Providence, Rhode Island. The theme of this year's conference was "Unlock the Superhero Within: Saving the World One Student at a Time". I love the theme, and the important message that it conveys. The message that we're all superheroes, and it really is our job to ensure that we protect our students and staff "one person at a time". I think that's what attracted our district to using Aspen over five years ago. Of course it came down to the capabilities of the student information system, but it was more than it being a robust SIS. Aspen allowed us to customize the system so we could collect the data that we valued, and could tell our own story as a school district. Ultimately that meant that we could tell the individual stories of our students, and our staff. In today's education reform environmen...

The Aspen Institute It's the weekend before the Aspen Institute in Providence, Rhode Island, and I'm looking forward to one of the best SIS/IMS two day conventions around. Each year the conference grows, and participants travel from districts nearby and far away.  I'm excited about this year's theme, "Unlock the Super Hero Within". It really is the perfect metaphor for everyone connected with implementing Aspen in their district. Our district chose Aspen a little more than 5 years ago, because of its out of the box power as well as its ability to be customized. My department consists of both curriculum and traditional IT staff. We are involved in professional development, curriculum development, educator evaluation, and traditional IT functions. I know the people in my department understand the incredible responsibility we have in protecting our students and the adults that serve them.  When I talk with my staff about protection they know that  I...

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...

Aspen - Did You Know About the "Quick Chart Menu" Option? I thought I would use this space to provide additional information about some of the cool, 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 use is the "Quick Chart Menu" tool. This tool allows you to take a quick look at the data in a visual manner. It amazes me that I get the same response whenever I'm sitting down with our teachers and administrators and I click on the Quick Chart menu. Whenever a beautiful bar chart, line chart or pie chart appears I get the following reaction. First they respond with, "Wait, what did you just do?" Inevitably their incredulity is followed by, "How did you get that?" Once I show them how simple it is to find and use the tool they all respond sheepishly that they can't believe such a powerful little tool was always sitting right under the nose. Users ca...