Seattle Schools Updates

I am trying to get an update on the Cleveland students involved in that two-car crash yesterday on I-5S.  The Times is reporting that two of the six are in critical condition and the other four are in satisfactory condition.

Director Betty Patu has a Community meeting tomorrow from 10 am to 11:30 am at Cafe Vita.

From SPS Technology:

Seattle Public Schools will begin changing to a new website at 10 p.m., Sunday, May 31. The new site will look slightly different. Thank you for your patience during the transition. Should you experience any concerns, please email webmaster@seattleschools.org. More information can be found here: webinfo.www.seattleschools.org.

 Please note that it can take several hours for the changes to take place so you may still see the old site depending on your location. If you receive errors in attempting to navigate to seattleschools.org or MySPS, please refresh your browser.

School and district online calendars will not be migrated. To help assure your families have access to information on events during the rest of school, each school website administrator should email webmaster@seattleschools.org with a list of events you’d like listed on your new website. We will post the list as the top story on your school’s website. Once your website administrators have had the opportunity to complete SharpSchool training, they will be able to populate school calendars.

What information will not be moved to the new website?
Here is a list of content that will not be moved to the new website:
  • Calendars
  • News items before school year 2014-2015
  • Teacher class pages
I am a student. How can I turn in homework to my teacher for the last 2 weeks of school?
Several alternatives exist to help students turn in homework, including:
  • Email completed assignments directly to the teacher’s SPS email account
  • Use a USB storage device (i.e. thumb drive)
  • Submit paper assignments
  • Use turnitin.com (for schools that have a license)
Starting next school year, Schoology will be replacing teacher class pages. Schoology offers powerful new technology at all grade levels to organize content, engage students, and connect to families. Instructional Technology will be offering three hours of paid Schoology workshops over the summer to certificated teaching staff. Teachers who attend these workshops will also have the added benefit of early access to Schoology. 

The class pages being replaced by Schoology, will be available at the start of the 2015-2016 school year. 

Comments

Jon said…
It's obviously hugely disrupting and a serious mistake for the district administration to be shutting this down May 31, before the school year ends. But every communication I've seen from administration is of the "mistakes were made" variety, like the administrators are helpless victims to cruel fate.

What I'd like to know is: Who was responsible for getting this right? What error did that person make that caused this to happen? What is being done to prevent it from happening in the future?

This is the opposite of administration helping the schools, teachers, and students. It is getting in the way of learning. It is the opposite of what good administration is supposed to do.

I don't want a witch hunt, but can we at least have an acknowledgement that this was a huge mistake, is damaging to the teachers and students, someone screwed up, and that the superintendent expects it to never happen again? Without that, how can administration improve?
5/29/15, 12:52 PM
Anonymous said…
"This is the opposite of administration helping the schools, teachers, and students. It is getting in the way of learning. It is the opposite of what good administration is supposed to do."

Well stated Jon!

-Parent
5/29/15, 1:06 PM
Melissa Westbrook said…
That would be Carmen Rahm, the head of Technology for the district, for one.

I cannot say for sure who made the original vendor so unhappy that they would not even see their product thru to the end of SPS' school year. There was evidence that there were issues between the original vendor and SPS for awhile and I believe this is the result.
5/29/15, 1:22 PM
TheGoodFight said…
Why do some board members refuse to hold regular community meetings. It seems disrespectful.
5/29/15, 2:28 PM
mirmac1 said…
I'm happy to see the board intro to rename WP to Robert Eaglestaff Middle School! : )
5/30/15, 11:52 AM
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