Wednesday, November 22, 2017

11/22/17


Hello Doolittle Families,

This Thanksgiving I wish you time with family and time to relax. Thanksgiving is the perfect opportunity to pause and reflect on all the good things in our lives. Taking time to talk about things you, and your family are grateful for, is good for kids. Helping them focus on the positive and be mindful of the good in their lives builds on kids’ natural resilience and perseverance.

Superintendent Solan shared the video below. If you haven’t had a moment to watch it yet it is worth it.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!


Friday, November 17, 2017

11/17/17

Hello Doolittle Families,

Happy American Education Week! This week has been busy at Doolittle School. The Book Fair has been a huge success thanks to our many volunteers. On Monday night at Dodd School the district recognized students who had earned the Superintendent’s Award. From Doolittle School we honored Ava Wilson and Katie Bizzaro. Tuesday through Thursday we were happy to host a number of parents who came to visit their children’s classrooms.  I truly enjoyed our Ice Cream Social on Tuesday. Many families turned out for this event.  I’m always amazed at the number of toppings available! On Thursday night, Mrs. Granahan was awarded the Doolittle School Partnership award for all her work on our excellent “Trunk or Treat” the last few years. All in all I believe our American Education week was a big success.

How did American Education Week Start?
Distressed that 25 percent of the country's World War I draftees were illiterate and 9 percent were physically unfit, representatives of the NEA and the American Legion met in 1919 to seek ways to generate public support for education.
The conventions of both organizations subsequently adopted resolutions of support for a national effort to raise public awareness of the importance of education. In 1921, the NEA Representative Assembly in Des Moines, Iowa, called  for designation of one week each year to spotlight education. In its resolution, the NEA called for: "An educational week ... observed in all communities annually for the purpose of informing the public of the accomplishments and needs of the public schools and to secure the cooperation and support of the public in meeting those needs."
- The above information is from the NEA website


Pictures of the Week:
At the Book Fair

Friday, November 10, 2017

11/10/17

Hello Doolittle Families,


Internet Safety is very important to us at Doolittle School.  Teachers speak with students about internet safety and expectations throughout the year.


Here is a list of just a few ways to help students search more safely on the internet:
  • SafeYoutube.net (creates a new link of youtube videos and makes them the only thing students see; no links at the end of the video; at the end it simply replays)
  • Viewpure is another way to see Youtube videos without ads or other links.
  • Common Sense Media (commonsensemedia.com) - great resources for teaching in the digital age
  • Type “simple” before a wikipedia site for simpler language
  • Type any topic in the search bar and then type “for kids”


The Electronic Information Access Agreements for students outlines expectations and requires students to take responsibility for their online behavior.
Responsible Use Policy 3-12

In addition to our Firewall and AdBlocker software Cheshire Public Schools will begin using GoGuardian for our sixth graders to ensure that students are safe while on line. See the information from Mr. Solan below:

As part of our consistent effort to engage students in personalized learning experiences and to support our inclusion of digital learning, Cheshire Public Schools continually seeks tools that will assist in the learning process. To this end, the District has made GoGuardian software available for our teachers in grades 6-9.  WithGoGuarian, teachers can control and monitor student Chromebook screens during class enabling them to efficiently keep students focused on specific tasks, lock student screens to specific documents or websites for instructional purposes, share screens as needed, and redirect students if necessary.  These capabilities will help our teachers maximize classroom instructional time in our 1‐to­‐1 technology environment.


GoGuardian is being used by more than 2,300 school districts and 4,000,000 students to help teachers better engage with their students, provide educators with more control over how Chromebooks are used in the classroom and keep students safer when they're online.  A demo is available at this link - https://goguardian.wistia.com/medias/fln6ndzp2o

As with any digital service, protecting student privacy is paramount.  GoGuardian features are limited to school hours only and the school issued device must be on the district network in order for the program to work.  This simply means that after school hours and/or outside of our school network, GoGuardian is inoperable.


Please let me know if you have questions about internet safety at Doolittle.


Picture of the week:
Mr. Pierce and Doolittle Students created the banner below last week.
All Doolittle students signed their first name during lunch waves.
The banner has been hanging in the West Haven VA all this week.
IMG_1718.JPEG