TRC to the Rescue

“Able to save high stakes test in a single visit…”

The heart of technology for our school system is inarguably the Technology Resource Center (TRC); its staff fills many roles to ensure our students, teachers, staff and schools have their ever increasing technology needs met.  These people are often not as visible because they work behind the scenes safeguarding networks to assure that they are operational and seeing that computer hardware and software are operating as needed.  When all is running smoothly these people often don’t get the recognition or fanfare but when things fail (as they eventually will), they work tirelessly to get the systems up and running again.

This week I learned of a situation which is an example of the commitment these team members demonstrate working for our students and our district.  One of our high school students was taking an extremely important high school, high-stakes computer test which would have far- reaching academic implications.  As the student finished taking Part I of the test every student, teacher and parent’s worst nightmare occurred. The computer screen went blank and the system shut down!   The testing software system provides a backup but, since the computer itself appeared to have crashed, the entire test and results were likely lost.  The testing coordinator, Melissa Zaniewski, contacted the TRC and Instructional Technology Director, Dr. Mike Geddes, to get one of Citrus County School’s own “Geek Force” (a.k.a. Technology System Support Specialist) to look into the problem.

Technology System Support Specialist Craig Fischofer was assigned to diagnose the cause of the problem.  When Mr. Fischofer realized the critical nature of the situation and that a student’s test depended on the restoration of the computer he put his other tasks aside to work on the computer.  Mr. Fischofer took the system apart to determine what might have failed, while at the same time ensuring protection of the hard drive and data on the computer. This would also result in protecting the students’ tests.

What made this data restoration even more significant was that this high school test was another one of those necessary tests a student needs to graduate. The student was most discouraged, but Ms. Zaniewski continued to encourage the student and reminded him that all may not be lost and that TRC was working on it.  Ms. Zaniewski was optimistic as she offered him hope and support. The student continued to be even more discouraged and wanted to start all over.  If the student were to give up taking this test, there would be no chance for him to obtain a high school diploma.

Mr. Fischofer was determined to dismantle the system and resolve the problem as quickly as possible.  He discovered that the hard drive appeared to be working properly but that the motherboard was “fried”.  Mr. Fischofer carefully removed the hard drive from the fried computer and installed the hard drive into another desktop computer and…  Part I of the test was safe. Part I of the test was then submitted and the student was able to move to Part II and subsequently completed the test.

The student’s test was safe and the student’s graduation is now possible because of caring and dedicated people that beginning with the teacher, continuing with the testing coordinator, and ending with an often unrecognized and so valuable department and team, the TRC Technology Team– or as I affectionately and respectfully refer to them– “The Geeks”!

Thank you TRC for all those occasions when we  have  not  acknowledged or shown our appreciation to you when you are out there making sure that things operate correctly, especially at those critical times.

For those “Geeks” that read this I want to just share, “It takes one to know one!”

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School Board District Long Range Technology Plan

More Students getting iPad “One to One” tools for next school year

On Tuesday, while it might have seemed to be just another board meeting, something extremely important and vital took place. That “something” I believe is that someday we will be able to look back and recognize the Superintendent and Staff’s recommendations and the Board’s and approvals were actually a defining moment in public education in Citrus County.  The School Board approved two important recommendations. First was the District Long Range Technology Plan, and second was to fund next year’s implementation of the Technology Plan.

The plan among many aspects includes transitioning curriculum to digital and supply our students with a “one to one”, device (one computer device to one student) educational tool. The first phase will involve 50% of our students receiving a one to one device by the beginning of the 2015 school year, and by 2017 100% of the students will receive a one to one device.

Continuing the “iPad” transition initiative that began at Citrus Springs Middle School 7^th grade, ALL 7^th grade schools in Citrus will receive a take home, one to one, device (iPad) for next school year.  In addition, we will transition one elementary school grade level to the one to one iPad initiative, and one high school level will also be transitioned into having a one to one iPad.

It is important to understand that these one to one iPad transitions are being brought about by several requirements. First, this is part of the State Legislative Mandate that requires by school year 2015/2016, 50% of all textbooks, purchased by schools, must be digital for an individual student to take home. This will require that a one to one device be provided by the deadline to half of all students in Citrus County.

In addition, the transition from Next Generation Sunshine State Standards to the new Common Core State Standards requires imbedded teaching of subject areas with Technology and Research skills.  In addition the new PARCC assessment tests which are replacing the FCAT will be fully computerized for students in 2^nd through 12^th grade.  It will require 4^th graders to type approximately a full page of writings in a 60 minute session with the use of formatting tools such as bold, italic, indenting, bulleting, and font size to better convey the intended message.  The use of the formatting is part of the scoring.

If that were not enough Florida law now requires that all high school students’ must, in order to graduate, take a virtual online high school course.  Due to current high demands for computer labs for; required remediation courses, acceleration courses and computer base testing, we do not have enough computers or computer labs to accommodate this at present.

Lastly, the Citrus County Economic Development Council and Workforce Connection in a recent report “Addressing the Skills Gap”, report that local businesses and companies have challenges finding job applicants who possess the job skills required for employment. The local regional unemployment rate is approximately 10.1 percent, with approximately 21,000 individuals without jobs (August 2012). The report specifically expresses the importance to, “update, modify or develop curriculum and training programs to prepare the region’s workforce with skills that employers need”.  Our current iPad initiative at CSMS has demonstrated how these young 7^th grade students already have learned in less than one year technical computer job skills such as, Word-processing, Spreadsheet development, Presentations, multimedia video editing and much more.  These skills will empower them to be both successful in high school and post-secondary schools and well as the workforce.

These are all necessary and overlapping reasons why Citrus County School Board and Superintendent Sam Himmel and her Education and Curriculum Team, have been committed to continuing to provide our students, teachers and schools with the necessary technology tools that will be effective in meeting the needs of our students and community.

Funding technology needs for our schools is not new to Citrus County Schools. For a decade now Superintendent Himmel and the School Board have placed a priority on putting meaningful technology into every classroom in Citrus County Schools.  As a parent of two public school students during this time as well as a spouse who has taught for 22 years as a teacher in Citrus Schools, I can attest to the fact that I believe strongly that this has played an essential role in Citrus Schools success and is no coincidence that Citrus is ranked 1^st in Florida Districts ( Florida is ranked 6^th in the Nation in Education) with the highest number of Title 1 students (economically disadvantaged students); Citrus has the highest percentage of “A” schools of any Florida district; has been designated an “A”  district for 7 Years running; and has been designated by Florida Department of Education as an “Academically High Performing School District” for 6 years in a row.

I am looking forward to sharing more with you about this indicative as it moves forward.

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Good Luck On FCAT!

Citrus Students, we are proud of you everyday!

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