The month leading up to the start of the school year can be described as the calm before the storm. Each day, we worked through countless details to ensure that our 1:1 Rollout would be as seamless as possible. The month was spent training teachers, preparing over 3,000 devices, and communicating with our parent community. In the end, there was nothing we could do but bear down and weather the intensity of the storm, but now that we are officially 1:1 in 109, we see nothing but a gloriously bright horizon filled with endless possibilities for all of our students and teachers.

In preparation for the 1:1 Rollout, we hosted a Celebration and Information Night at each of our six schools to share our district’s history and vision for why we are going 1:1 . We also took the time to address some of the questions and concerns shared by our parent community. These events were very well-received, and we are already looking ahead to find a time to invite parents back for a follow-up event to share feedback and continue learning about our 1:1 initiative.

Deployment Day was held on August 28th, which was the first full day of the school year.  While every student may not have taken their device home (the iPads were taking a little longer to set up than the Chromebooks), we were proud that all of our students heard the same Deployment Day message. All classroom teachers taught their students about proper care of their 1:1 device as well as the expectations for acceptable use of the devices during the school year.

Now that school has begun and the devices have been deployed, we look forward to transforming the learning environment in all classrooms. On Opening Day, our teachers were provided with three tips for success:

1. Start Small

2. Learn from your Students

3. Commit to Trying Something New

We feel confident that many teachers will take those three tips to heart and bring exciting, innovative learning experiences into their classrooms. This blog will highlight some of the exceptional teaching and learning taking place around our district, so please check back to see the impact of 1:1 Learning on our students this year!