OS+-+North+Star

Transition teachers from their own class websites to class pages and assignments in WhippleHill - Grace Woods


 * Successful Tips Shared in the Session**
 * Use Assignment Calendar Subscriptions and their abillity to push content to students' and parents' devices as a visual benefit when teachers invest extra time
 * Construct a plan, such as a 3-year plan, to give teachers the time to adjust
 * Incorporate updating with digital allowance programs for additional incentive
 * Get your Head of School on board and try to offer teachers time in their work day to incorporate technology
 * A faculty trainer position
 * Use one faculty member from every department as an ambassador for your technology and an "ear to the ground" to get feedback from other faculty members
 * provide scheduled short tips, in faculty meetings or constructed times with incentives (food, etc.) 15 to 20 minutes, focus on one point for each session and take questions at a later time
 * Don't show every feature of the module at once, focus on assignments first and then build from there
 * Utilize parents' and students' expectations as a monitoring device on whether faculty are meeting the agreed goals
 * Emphasize transparency in the process, no surprises if at all possible
 * Walk through a parent's experience to show how using WH's tools all in one place streamline the pproces

In attendance: Michelle Keniston (WH), Marqui, Alex Taft, Gregory Abel, Steve Uhr, Mark Sargent (WH), Deanna Ferrante/Tricia O'Neill (Peddie School) and others.....
 * Transition teachers from their own websites to WH - Grace Woods**

How to get teachers to transition - Make it a requirement.
 * Lower school uses assignments or news
 * Turn on assignment calendar subscriptions (web cal feed)
 * It may be a lot for the teacher, but huge benefit to parents and students (by showing the assignment calendar)
 * How do you get them to transition?
 * Newark Academy, need time resourses out to make change happen. Looked at all the teacher websites and ensured functionality same
 * Had to enter at least 1 assignment a week and is part of the contract
 * Give them a free period every week to work on it and learn
 * Hired a Faculty trainer to be available
 * Made it a three year plan
 * Faculty leadership team, they were doing internal workshops, but also given incentives (new laptop)
 * Use the faculty to push it
 * Faculty meeting Thursday, tech tip of the week. Can see tech person or other teacher for more information
 * Technology workshops throughout the year, once a week
 * Don't show them everything, just assignments to start (when initially training teachers)
 * Advertised to parents that assignments will be up by 3pm, if not on website kids are not accountable
 * Have to commit to it, need a buy in from head of school, needs to come from them
 * If not posting assignment for kids paying 34k to go here, not place for them (a response to teachers)
 * For communications department, marketing have to earn the customer. Every seat has to be earned beauty of having parent log in. It's a cool thing and reason to draw "customers"
 * Not going to be a perfect system but trying to get it all under one roof is beneficial
 * Key to have curriculum person involved, go in and check to see what is being posted. Makes more transparent may be able to assist teacher to enhance their curriculum
 * Let teachers know that they can still use other platforms for teaching "wikis, blogs" for example
 * Give presentation tell teachers to delete all extra Facebook pages, how it dilutes the brand
 * Have a reaffirming session about "who are we" and show all "crap" hanging around that is outdated. Then show the schools pages the schools nice uniform pages to see the difference
 * Use social media policy to address multiple fb pages
 * With patience, many of the problems go away on their own
 * Use rss channels in class page or pull in outside blog info
 * Emphasize utility and not design
 * Go through exercise to demonstrate how difficult to go to 25 different pages to see content (if parent has multiple children at the school)
 * Weighting schemes by department for assignments. By division for exams
 * Time, resources, support
 * Transparent on now you will move forward
 * Teachers need to understand the importance of the parents
 * Merit based lap top award
 * Let parents put pressure on teachers by letting them see ALL teacher pages
 * Use Comments module for "atta boy" or "discipline type" comments