Riley's Red Jeep Reads: Entry #2 Riley Grant

January 26, 2017

Day 2

I was very fortunate today to be able to sit in on a Parent Meeting about the 1:1 Chromebooks that have been distributed to all of the students at Mauldin Middle School. Our entire district is in the process of pushing out Chromebooks to all students in the district. This will, of course, become a part of my job in some way if I remain in Greenville County.

I thought the presenters did a very good job of trying to answer the majority of parent questions before they were even asked. They did their homework by talking with faculty members that are also parents of students with Chromebooks and asked what would be most beneficial for parents. There was a great video that introduced Chromebooks and a preview of the school web page dedicated to Chromebooks. (LOVED this video...just enough snark!)

Kim Wylie, the faculty member in charge of Chromebooks, said that Chromebooks are, “an opportunity and a tool.” The team went on to add that the technology was not the answer to all education problems, but a resource similar to a textbook. This also meant that abuse of the tool was a discipline issue just as it would be for any other situation.

Finally, one of the most popular pieces of information for the parents was the introduction of www.myactivity.google.com. This allows parents to view all of his/her child’s activity as long as the child’s username and password are available. Since this technology is a school tool, usernames and passwords should be available to parents at all times.

This was a great presentation for me to see! It definitely gave me some tips for the future as a School Librarian…and parent. I made notes and have put them in my Big Notebook!

I also met two teacher that I will do a little work with. One has asked that as my collaboration project I introduce her class to website evaluation and applying the CRAP test….apparently middle schools love to say “crap” and get away with it! I will help the other teacher by preparing resources for her and her students for an upcoming unit. Both were very willing to work with me and

I struggle a bit with wanting to jump in and help and not wanting to get in the way…I think time and some experience will help that! I worry that I will be too primary for middle schoolers…I will need some help making sure I don’t present in a “too elementary” way.

Here are some pictures J