Promethean Teacher Feature Video - Weymouth Public Schools

Promethean Teacher Feature Video

Weymouth Public Schools  

This is a video featuring Weymouth 4th 

grade teacher Jen Pelaggi showcasing her 

use of a Promethean interactive panel to 

engage students.

Promethean interactive panels are revolutionizing teaching and learning at Weymouth Public Schools! In a multi-year project to replace an aging fleet of projector technology, every school in Weymouth now has access to interactive panels which provide a tablet-like interactive experience. The Weymouth Educational Technology team has partnered with Promethean, Whalley computer, and Ockers to streamline this solution including comprehensive professional development. Promethean has offered numerous training sessions for teachers after school using certified educational consultants. We realized that teachers needed more dedicated and advanced training so we began scheduling training sessions in active classrooms. The most recent classroom training session was held at the Wessagusset elementary school where Promethean educational consultant Chelsea Thurlow worked with our 4th Grade teacher Jen Pelaggi. 

"For me, it was really easy to pick up the new technology 
because I was really excited about it" -Jen Pelaggi

Jen has set an

example of technology integration in her classroom using a variety of technologies including a newly installed Promethean interactive panel. Jen has proven that getting out of her comfort zone with new technology can make lessons more engaging and fun. She is able to deliver all traditional 4th-grade content with new tools like Promethean Classflow lesson delivery software, Google Classroom, and student Chromebooks. The real-time interactivity gives the students a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of subject matter which gives Jen immediate feedback. Jen has found it easy to learn new technologies because she is excited to make teaching and learning fun. Chelsea was so impressed with Jen's use of technology that she asked us to create a video to be showcased nationally on the Promethean website and social media. We are very proud to showcase the amazing integration skills Jen displays every day in her classroom.   

Brett Lindholm

Director of Educational Technology

Weymouth Public Schools

Technology​ ​in​ ​the​ ​WHS​ ​Library

The Weymouth High School Library experienced a transformation this summer that went well beyond the facelift of the new rug and the much needed paint job. With the help and support of the Weymouth Public Schools Technology Department, our library received some technology upgrades to support our students’ education. Along with new desktop computers and printers for the two library computer labs, a projector was added to the College and Career Readiness Center of the library where the WHS counselors provide workshops for students during the school year. A cart with thirty-two Chromebooks was also added allowing technology to be used in all areas of the library by individual students and small groups and in the​ ​library​ ​classroom.

The picture to the left shows ninth grade students participating in an information literacy lesson I taught this week where they learned to access the state research databases, find articles and download them to their Google Drive. They then accessed Google Classroom to complete an assignment. This lesson took place in the library classroom using our new Chromebook​ ​cart. 

To the right is a picture of a class using Chromebooks in our new small group study area. The new Chromebook cart opens up many more opportunities for students to use technology in the library. This new small group area is perfect for a small class or group working collaboratively especially when the computer lab​ ​is​ ​already​ ​occupied​ ​by​ ​a​ ​class​ ​as​ ​shown​ ​in​ ​the​ ​picture​ ​below. With the recent improvements in technology, our library is busier than ever as our students take advantage of the library and all that it has to offer. I look forward to working with many more classes this year as students learn how to use a 21st century library to the fullest extent possible. ​Thanks to the support of the district technology team, our library continues to move forward as a Learning Commons where students participate in a variety of activities involving research, collaboration​ ​and​ ​creativity.

Annmarie O'Neill

Library Teacher

annmarie.oneill@weymouthschools.org

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Collaborating with Google Drive

Collaborating with Google Drive

The Weymouth educational technology team finished a district wide Google Drive training this week with visits to the Johnson Early Childhood Center and Ralph Talbot Primary School. Although we have seen a wide range of skill levels using Google tools, we have seen the same passionate and

eager curiosity in all of you to learn how to use this new tool effectively. I’m sure you recognized our passion to help you collaborate in meaningful ways in your classroom and unify Weymouth in a common goal of improving teaching and learning. This has been a wonderful opportunity for our team to meet with you face-to-face to establish a partnership and foster lifetime learning in Weymouth Public Schools. We will be back next month to help you discover new ways to use technology. Happy Friday!

Brett Lindholm

Director of Educational Technology

Weymouth Public Schools

Please visit our training Portal: https://sites.google.com/weymouthps.org/edtech/home

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Google Drive training

Google Drive Training

We conducted our biggest Google Drive training yet at Weymouth High School and Chapman middle school staff meetings yesterday.

We have been visiting all schools in Weymouth to provide training since we became a Google school this September! These large schools required us to break into departments and ask teachers to help us present. We thank all the teachers and staff members who presented this Google Drive training along with members of our educational technology team. Since there is such a broad diversity of skill levels, we have been breaking into beginner and expert groups at smaller schools to make the training as relevant as possible. We are working on the best format for larger schools to give staff choices and gear the training toward tools they can readily implement in their classrooms. 

If you have had a chance to attend a Google Drive training, please fill our our survey so we can make our training as relevant as possible!

I presented to the foreign language and special education teachers at the High School who were eager to learn this new collaborative platform. They had many great questions ranging from converting Word documents to Google Docs, sharing documents with colleagues, and advanced Google Apps Add-ons. They also had some questions about Gmail so be sure to review our Gmail Onboarding presentation if you still have questions. All training material is conveniently located on our training portal.

Other sessions were able to introduce Google Classroom which "streamlines assignments, boosts collaboration, and fosters seamless communication to make teaching more productive and meaningful." Following the training, we received numerous requests from teachers wanting to start their own classroom. All teachers can request Google classroom access by going to
classroom.google.com or contacting our edtech team.

We are looking forward to providing more training on the Google platform to improve teaching and learning.

Brett Lindholm

Director of Educational Technology

Weymouth Public Schools

1 Wildcat Way, South Weymouth, MA 02190

O: 7813377500 x25181

C: 5087287966 

METAA Chief Technology Officer Certificate holder

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Please visit our training Portal: https://sites.google.com/weymouthps.org/edtech/home

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G Suite Training at Pingree Elementary School

G Suite Training at Pingree Elementary School

The Weymouth Public Schools Educational Technology Team continued their G Suite training series at Weymouth Public Schools with a stop at the

Lawrence W. Pingree Primary School

We are visiting all schools in Weymouth to provide training following our migration to Gmail at the start of the school year. Many of the staff at Pingree are seasoned pro's on G Suite at this point thanks to Principal Kathy Guilfoy's enthusiastic promotion of the platform to foster collaboration and paperless workflow in her school.

Integration Technology specialists Mike Miller and Paula Fuller were ready to dive in and help teachers get the most out of G Suite. Although our goal in this training series is to get staff comfortable using the Gmail platform, Pingree staff were eager to learn about sharing with Google Drive and Google Classroom. But every training session is different and there are always new recruits who need the basics to get up and running on G Suite. It is a distinct challenge to accommodate the diversity of technical skill levels in a school district this large. Many sessions need to be divided into beginner and novice to give the staff the individual attention needed to create the collaborative culture Weymouth Public School desires to improve teaching and learning. 

We conducted this training on our latest interactive LCD panels by InFocus. These amazing devices offer many advantages over a traditional interactive projector. They are brighter, higher resolution, and offer seamless finger touch with no calibration challenges. We are installing one at every school in an equity program to find the best and most cost effective display tool for teaching and learning.

Weymouth Public Schools Educational Technology Blog

Visit the WPSEDTECH Training Portal

G Suite Training at Nash Elementary School

G Suite Training at Nash Elementary School

The Weymouth Public Schools Educational Technology Team kicked off their G Suite training tour last week by visiting our smallest primary school

Thomas V. Nash Jr. Primary School

Principal Rebecca Kelly was excited to invite us into their staff meeting for an engaging session of learning the G Suite platform. This is our first stop on a training rotation to help all 12 Weymouth Public Schools make the best use of the Google platform since we migrated to Gmail on the 28th. WPS Integration Technology specialist Paula Fuller made the staff feel comfortable addressing all their questions about Gmail and other G Suite tools.

Nash staff had all the basic Gmail questions like setting up Email signatures and toggling conversation view but the conversation always migrates to questions about the innovative storage and productivity platform Google Drive. Weymouth has been using the G Suite for several years but remained on the Exchange Email platform up until two weeks ago. Many teachers chose to use the many wonderful Google tools like Drive and Classroom to improve teaching and learning years ago while others continued to use traditional network drives and desktop applications. Education has rapidly expanded 21st century learning initiatives in recent years where mobile devices like Chromebooks and iPads have become increasingly popular. These devices offer enormous benefit with access to free resources and flexibility in classroom environments. Mobile devices require a cloud platform with G Suite the dominant platform being offered free to education.

Weymouth Public Schools Educational Technology Blog

Visit the WPSEDTECH Training Portal