Elementary School Teachers T1 Report Card Window

West Warwick Public Schools Office of Educational Reform, Compliance & IT Interoffice Memorandum

To: Elementary Teachers

From: James Monti, Director

Subject: Reporting Window Issue

Date: Wednesday, November 27, 2015

CC:

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The reporting window for elementary school teachers is now functioning properly. I neglected a step in the process to open the window in your schools. Your report cards should be accessible as of today. The appropriate NM's will be added to each column by Johnna on Monday of this week. If you have any issues accessing your Trimester 1 Progress Reports please submit a helpdesk ticket.

Trimester 1 Report Card Dates

West Warwick Public Schools Office of Educational Reform, Compliance & IT Interoffice Memorandum

To: K-8 Teachers

From: James Monti, Director

Subject: Trimester 1 Report Card Dates

Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2015

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Please review the information below regarding Trimester 1 report card information. If you have any questions or concerns please contact me or your principal.

Description	Date
Trimester 1 Closes	Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Grade Reporting Opens	Wednesday, November 25, 2015
Grade Reporting Closes	Sunday, December 13, 2015 - 11:59 PM
Report Card Post Verification	Monday, December 14, 2015
Report Card Printing	Tuesday, December 15, 2015
Report Card Distribution	Thursday, December 17, 2015

Google Hangouts and Chats Closed for Elementary Students

Google Chat and Google Hangouts for Elementary Aged Students

As of November 11, 2015 I have turned off the Google Chat options for elementary aged students. We've had a handful of elementary school aged students that have been participating in inappropriate behavior. I would like to put my head together with a small team of elementary teachers and administrators to discuss the best way to move forward.  I am planning a Google Hangout On Air meeting to discuss this in greater detail. This also turns off the chat option in Google Docs. Students can continue to use the Comments Tool within a document to collaborate with their peers.

Teachers and students can continue to use Google Classroom to engage in an online streaming discussion if that's necessary for your instructional goals.

I would like to provide teachers with a few lessons for digital citizenship before we consider turning on the chat feature again.  If this adversely affects your classroom please contact me at your earliest convenience to discuss alternative solutions.

Help Desk Chromebook Results since 09.01.2015

Chromebook Help Desk Tickets:

Please review the Helpdesk tickets associated with Chromebooks that have been submitted since 09.01.2015. Lester is working diligently to clear as many tickets as he can each day. This year Johnna has been logging a lot of the HelpDesk tickets, and providing processes for efficiency. This has been very helpful to Lester, and has allowed him to repair machines at a record pace. We have had 680 Chromebook issues reported during the first 53 days of school. The illustration below gives you a quick idea as to the most pressing issues that 

The illustration below illustrates the number of screens repaired in the first few months of the school year. The number of tickets in September and October were remarkably consistent. We are seeing a slight increase in the number of screen issues in the first week of November, and at this pace we may see a slight increase in screen repairs for the month of November. 

Please remind your child, or the students in your classroom to treat their Chromebook with care. This is also a good opportunity to remind students that we are charging them for Chromebook repairs. The memo that was distributed on our website can be viewed here.

How to Fill-Out the LRE fields in Aspen

It's almost that time again to be thinking about Least Restrictive Environment or LRE for our special education students, and next year's placement. You can access the directions to add this information in Aspen from the Special Education Page in Aspen. The directions are listed under the Special Education Forms folder, or you can access them directly from this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwS5YP8OmYhZLUVsbzBiZEtjQ2c/view?usp=sharing

Elementary Students & Extensions

I have blocked a lot of extensions on elementary school Chromebooks after a rash of hijacked extension bars at the elementary level. If you have an extension that you want your students to use please put in a helpdesk ticket, and we'll add it to each student's Chromebook via the Google Management Console. It is possible that students in your classes will see error messages warning them of removed extensions due to permissions issues. Please contact the Helpdesk if you have any issues or need an extension installed for your students. On another note I have added the "Share to Classroom" extension for all staff Chromebooks. I would like to get input from teachers and students regarding extensions and apps that all students should have on their Chromebooks. We may move to a more restrictive process due to the increased complaints of students and teachers that their browser is hijacked by an overload of poor behaving extensions.