The following article was posted in the Technology Readiness Infrastructure Grant TRIG Weekly Update – December 10, 2014.

Gobles Elementary is participating in the Classroom Readiness Activity this year and Julie Boes, a 5th grade teacher,is taking the T3 Course with other educators in her building. Her students have been very excited to use their new Chromebooks purchased through another TRIG activity, Device Purchasing. So much so, that she shared with us some encouraging news about a student in her classroom: "His parents said he has never volunteered to write and share anything in school. They loved seeing him excited to write an article that wasn't an assignment but writing because he wanted to!!"

Below is the essay this student wrote:

5th GRADE IS FULL OF GUINEA PIGS

You may think that's a bad thing...but lately our class has been using new technology! This includes a
very large touch screen monitor for our teacher and laptops for every student. Last week we took
a quiz from the monitor and held up paperthat had barcodes on them (Plicker). Our teacher, Mrs. Boes
used her cell phone to scan our answers. Depending on which waywe held them, the monitor
could determine if our answer was right. Mrs. Boes could download the results into her grade book.
Taking a test this way seemed like FUN not work!

We have had Chromebooks for only a week now, AND IT HAS BEEN THE BEST WEEK OF SCHOOL EVER!
We visit different web pages and even sometimes take tests on them. It seems like everyone is
 paying closer attention in class, and the time seems to fly by so fast.

We go on many different web pages on our Chromebooks, which include Reflex, Sumdog 3
and Adapted Mind. On Reflex we do multiplication and division. One Adapted Mind and Sumdog we do
math problems to earn badges that tell you what level you are on. I think we are the luckiest class
in the whole elementary? We have the best teacher and the best technology.

I hope we get to keep learning this way. (The other teachers are good too!!)




Hunter Thrasher

5th Grade
Gobles Elementary

On Wednesday, October 29th, sixth graders from Mrs. Tubergan’s “technololgy skills” class met with their first grade technology buddies from Mrs. Stoneburner/Mrs. Klein’s class. They decided to take a different approach to their dialogue this week by using technology. They chose to discuss their learning from the Gobles Elementary Math and Science Week. The first graders were excited to share everything they learned and experienced last week, they did this using an online app called “google story builder”. The first graders, along with their sixth grade buddies were thrilled to use the brand new google chromebooks as well. They worked diligently and wrote several online stories through story builder focused on their learning from the math and science week. Story builder records their dialogue as an online story and allows students to watch the movie and share with their teachers. Student submitted their story to Mrs. Tubergan through another google app called “Google classroom”. The possibilities with google story builder are endless. Throughout the entire assignment students were smiling, laughing, sharing, learning, conversing, and collaborating.

Here are some examples of the story builders students created:

• http://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/BWnA76
• http://docsstorybuilder.appspot.com/BXBjeV

Gobles Public Schools now has the ability to send general or emergency messages via email, phone or text to the contact of your choice. Using the Gobles Parent Portal, you can update phone numbers, emails and contact information in real time, ensuring messages get to the right person, at the right time.  Messenger with Voice provides you with:

• Emergency Notifications – Receive emergency messages via email, phone or text. 
• Message Options – Receive general messages regarding attendance, behavior, assignments and more. 
• Preferred Communication – Set your preferences to indicate how you would like to receive messages (general, emergency, attendance, etc.). Choose from voice, text and email options.

See detailed instructions on how to make these changes in the Parent Portal.

If you have additional questions regarding Campus Messenger with Voice, please contact the school in which your child attends:

• Gobles Elementary: 269-628-2131
  
• Gobles Middle/High School: 269-628-2113

GOBLES, MI -- A $6-million proposal to improve facilities and technology in Gobles Public Schools moved ahead at the August 26 meeting of the Gobles Public Schools Board of Education.
The superintendent said officials are considering a putting a tax issue before district voters to fund the work, possibly in early 2014.

The school board named Kalamazoo-based TowerPinkster as architect and the Skillman Corporation, of Portage, as construction manager for a project that calls for $3.8 million in facility renovations and $2.2 million in technology upgrades. The board also designating bond counsel and other consultants.

Superintendent Jeff Rehlander said district officials are looking to repair and reconstruct roofs, electrical and mechanical systems and upgrade wireless technology system. Also proposed are safety-related improvements such as new entrances, doors and security cameras.

"We're also looking at one-to-one devices for our students," Rehlander said, including possibly equipping each student with a laptop or Ipad.

The proposal is part of a months-long information-gathering process and next goes to a steering committee for further consideration.

"They may take it down," Rehlander said. "They may keep it as is. We're going to ask them for input."

In order to sell bonds to fund the work, the district would need voter approval of a property tax to pay off the debt, the superintendent said. Currently, a levy of 2 mills would generate about $6.44 million.

"We're hoping for a February vote or a May vote," Rehlander said.

A mill is $1 of tax per $1,000 of taxable value of a property. A 2-mill levy on a property with a taxable value of $40,000 would cost the owner $80 a year.

Part of the reason for the proposed upgrade is to help attract more students to Gobles, according to Rehlander, in this time when parents have more options to send their children to districts outside their usual boundaries.

"What that's forced schools to do, we have to work on marketing, we have to work on branding ourselves," Rehlander said. "We have to work on making ourselves attractional."

 

Article by Rod Smith, Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette; article first featured on MLive.Com at the following link: http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2013/08/gobles_school_officials_advanc.html