This past year, our 6th and 7th grade math classrooms served as “home base” for many of the Chromebooks we purchased last year, and the math teachers put that technology to good use as part of their blended-model approach to math instruction.
However, with the district’s purchase of Math-in-Focus, these Chromebooks are now available to serve as a shared resource for our teams. Since we purchased 150 last year – deployed in 6 carts of 25 each – each team in grades 6 and 7 will receive a Chromebook cart for their dedicated use and, in fifth grade, each floor will receive a dedicated Chromebook cart. It is the responsibility of the team / floor to maintain their Chromebook cart and keep it in good working order – all Chromebooks should be returned to their charging slots at the end of each day and plugged in, and any damage to keyboards or screens should be promptly reported to Kathy Coyne. Kathy Coyne is presently upgrading / reconditioning a set of laptops to create another COW and, when that work is done, that COW will be dedicated to our UA teachers / classes as their “UA” cart.
To start the year, the Chromebook carts will be located in our Science classrooms – where they go from there is up to each team / floor to decide.
As was the case this year, we will need to use just about every Chromebook in the building for PARCC and MAP testing – I will get the testing windows / schedules out to you in the not-too-distant future so you will know when the Chromebooks are unavailable.
The computer lab in the library will still be available as a “sign-up” lab, and there is one other COW in the building that will continue to serve as a “sign-up” lab.
I will also try to purchase one more Chromebook cart / set of 25 Chromebooks this year if possible.
As you plan your upcoming lessons, I hope knowing that a Chromebook cart is readily available to your team will encourage everyone to try on some new instructional strategies, and the availability of the Chromebook carts should help us “put into practice” the professional development on Google Classroom / technology-based instruction that we shall be receiving over the course of the year!
Best,
Mark Wilson, Principal
Monomoy Regional Middle School