LIBRARY MISSION: December 2012

To ensure that students and staff are effective users of information and have the skills to be life-long learners.

READ IT @The School of the

Arts Library

Library Statistics

1705 Students used the library in November 283 Books were circulated in November 911 Overdue library books need to be returned!

Overdue Library and Text Books

We have a goal of drastically reducing the number of overdue materials the students owe. Letters to parents of 12th and 11th graders were sent out last week. The other grades will follow after the break. Please help by returning to the library any “loose” books you find in your classrooms and around the school and by encouraging the students to bring back all overdue books. Thank-you!

We Are Winners!

The SOTA Library was the happy recipient of 20 books from the Rochester Education Foundation! We were voted the “Favorite City School” at the Rochester Jazz Festival this summer. Thanks to all who voted for SOTA! The books are on display in the library and students can check them out.

Databases and PasswordsInformation on the databases available to RCSD staff and students is available in the library. The databases are linked on the Destiny home page (http://destiny.rcsdk12.org ) and bookmarks with the passwords are available in the library. Check out the Destiny homepage for links to other great resources for teachers and students.

What the SOTA Staff is Reading:

Life of PiThe Life of Pi, by Yann Martel is an amazing novel that tells the story of how young Piscine Patel overcame adversity after losing his family. After leaving behind their lives in India, Pi, his family, and some of the animals from the zoo that they owned, boarded a ship to Canada to begin a new life. After the ship sank, due to a horrible storm, Pi found himself alone in a lifeboat with a Bengal Tiger, a Hyena, Orangutan, and a Zebra. Pi delves deep within himself and his faith in order to survive the dangers that await him in the lifeboat as well as those in the surrounding waters. This novel leaves the reader questioning their own beliefs and ideas about life, faith, and fantasy.

~ Latoya Manon

Student Book ReviewsWe have many really voracious readers here at SOTA. I would like to encourage the students to think about the books they have read by putting their reviews of books on Destiny (the library catalog) so that other students can read their reviews when choosing a book. If you would like a demonstration of how to put a book review on Destiny for your classes, please see me and we can sign up for the computer lab for the lesson.

UPCOMING EVENTS:PTSA Parent/Student Book Club

The PTSA and the library will host a parent/student book club again this year. The books we are reading this spring will be: A Long Walk to Water and Catching Fire. Stay tuned for more information .

Story TellingThe RCSD Story Telling Festival will be held in late March this year. If there are any students in 7th and 8th grade who want to participate, please let me know. We will have a general meeting about it in December.

Contact informationJoyce.Kowba@rcsdk12.org

School of the Arts45 Prince St.

Rochester, NY 14607

Here are some notes and information from the Secondary Contacts Technology Meetings. This

is a district-wide meeting through the IT department. I am the representative from SOTA.

Data Dashboard Project Also known as SPA- Student Performance Analysis or Student 360. It will have alink to it off ‘My site”It is cumulative student data from schools, Chancery, medical, assessments, daily attendance, APPR. Currently administrators, TCOSE, Clerical have access. Feb 1st is date for access for all teachers. It will be updated nightly. You can print reports and it goes back 7 years.One nice feature is that teachers will be able to see how many parents logged into Teacher Connect for their students.The best way to learn it is to go in and click around.

Student e-mail accountsEvery student has an account. This is a free Microsoft project – student e-mails for free with access to Microsoft web apps (Excel, Word, OneNote, etc.) in scaled down forms. It is compatible with full forms of Word, etc. • Students have 7 gigs of storage in the “Skydrive” (cloud-like storage from Microsoft) and can purchase additional storage• Students can upload any work done on school computers to “Skydrive” and visa versa and all formats will work together • Log-in is: <student id>@stu.rcsdk12.org When students change their passwords, their e-mail account will be changed also.• Students can search for teachers but cannot search for other students using the address book.• This follows students after they graduate, so because it won’t go away, it is a good place for them to store resume’s and college info.Information on how to set up accounts is available in the library and has been e-mailed to staff.

Sharepoint updates

• New Sharepoint is icon based, simpler, more social-media like with ability to upload pictures, blogs, and twitter-like messages. There will be training classes and on-line videos to help staff adjust. The old environment will eventually become available under a different URL. You will still need Citrix to log in at home.IM&T or Secondary Tech contact can train staff on Sharepoint• Permissions and links are not working well right now, so be patient except if it is something big (like missing data)• Open ticket with the Help Desk if it is something you need right away • Works well with MS Office• Does not work on iPad or Mac – page doesn’t paint correctly, not all buttons will work• Firefox browser is most compatible with Sharepoint• Can’t save .exe’s to Sharepoint due to virus concerns • Need MS Silverlight plug-in and Firefox browser to interact with Sharepoint correctly on a Mac (NOTE: During demo, people on Macs had trouble even with this plug-in) • Alerts are not working – if someone updates one of your documents or calendars, you will not get notified• You can access Help videos through the Portal Home

Connect 2 Compete – Annmarie Lehner (Division Chief presented)• Low cost internet services for our families. 42 of RCSD schools have been chosen to utilize this service (of 1000 schools chosen across the country) I don’t believe SOTA was one of the chosen schools

IM&T website updates• For info dissemination go to: www.rcsdk12.org/IMandT or /IT (for IT only)• Under Instructional Technology you will find course hand-outs, troubleshooting guides, smart resources, Core curriculum k-5 ELA, laptop initiative.• New school website URL ex: www.rcsdk12.org/SOTA . Teachers may need to update links to reflect this. Classes are still available for people designing and working on their school website (on Avatar).

Technology Tidbits

• Teacher websites have also changed and staff may want to re-sign up to take classes. The new design is more app based and easier for staff and students to use. Again, sign up through Avatar. Schools can arrange for school-based instruction.

Smartboard and equipment updates• SmartBoard repairs are the school’s responsibility to pay for. Tech will repair it, but will charge the school.• Schools are responsible for bulb replacement for projectors.• Info is on the IT website for proper care of bulbs to make them last.

LapTop Initiative • 2,400 laptops given out. Classes are still available on Avatar.• No laptops for subs, and none for people less than .5 • If someone goes on leave and has a contract sub, that teacher should bring the laptop to the HELPdesk and the Helpdesk staff will give it to the sub.• Theft/breakage – call police first or theft, then Helpdesk. Breakage – teachers are encouraged to use the cases for their laptops and take proper care of it.• WiFi – working on installing wifi in each building with secondary buildings first

Xerox • Copier and printer ink cartridges are now provided through Xerox. You must have the serial#, location and printer name when calling.

Credit Recovery and e-learning • Aventa is out and we are creating our own learning Management System (LMS) called Brain Honey currently (but it may change to RCSD E-Learning) RCSD can add courses and make it our own. Common core etc. will all be taken into account and eventually the whole year will be mapped out. It will be accessible from home and school. The Rochester eLearning (Learning Management System or “LMS”) includes:• AP courses • Initial credit classes• Credit Recovery• Regents preparation material There is training available through Avatar for E-Learning facilitators (ELFs).• If there are log-in issues such as a student ‘s log in expired, the ELF (!) should contact Glen VanDerwater directly.

Power Teacher / Parent Connect Support• Parent help – Parents should call Parent Connect help desk for support• Student help – RCSD employee should call the help desk• No students should be calling the help desk for support.

Lastly, Teachers can take Element K classes, but they have to be approved through SBPT.