Page 5 - TIME Newletter Winter 2017 Edition

Charter School Employees
to Use District Portal

The IT Division, along with the Charter Schools Department, recently completed a
project to give charter school employees access to the District Portal. The driving
force behind the project is that charter school employees will require easy access to
the coming Student Information System (SIS). The District Portal is a secure way to
prevent unauthorized access, provides one location for District software applications
that charter school employees use, and provides single-sign-on ability for several of
those applications. In addition to SIS, use of the Portal will streamline charter school
employee access to Mail, eForms, PeopleSoft, and mainframe / TERMS.

School District of Palm Beach County
Awarded $11,600,000 MSAP Grant

The School District of Palm Beach County won a $11,600,000 Magnet Schools
Assistance Program (MSAP) grant. The grant provides the opportunity to establish
the first schools in the District where all teachers and students have personal digital
devices (iPads), and all classrooms are transformed into connected, engaging,
effective, and authentic learning environments. Students will have personal digital
portfolios that will travel with them each year. This 1:1 Personal Digital Device initiative
(PDD), supports student attainment of the marketable technological skills needed for
both college and career.

The Department of Choice and Career Options has been working with the departments
of Educational Technology and Curriculum to implement all aspects of the MSAP
grant and the PDD initiative, which has begun with the roll-out of personal iPads for
all teachers at HL Watkins Middle School this month, and will continue with Congress
Middle School in February.

Teacher iPads pave the way for collaborative use of technology in the classroom. The
iPads come pre-loaded with apps, including Keynote and Google Drive. The iPads also
have a portable keyboard that converts the device into a make-shift laptop, and a smart
pen that turns the device into a digital canvas.

As a result of this initiative, students will have access to the most recent world news,
the most exciting learning tools, and the most rapid contact with students in other
countries. Students in kindergarten and grade 3 at Grove Park Elementary School and
Palmetto Elementary School will be using personal iPads by the close of this school
year; this also applies for students in grade 6 at Carver, Congress, and HL Watkins
Middle Schools.
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