I'd like to welcome all of you to the Superintendent's Blog where I will continue with Jeff Grantino's tradition of posting news and events as it develops in the district. I am very excited to be working closely with our district educators, parents/guardians and the students as the Interim Superintendent.
Although our students ended school just last week, many of our district programs and projects are off and running. Ed Amico has been busy registering last minute students for the Canton Academy, which is primarily housed this year at the Hansen Elementary School.
We have over 75 educators participating in the Summer Professional Development Courses, which this year include the following: Collaborative Problem Solving, Technology "Boot Camp", Race, Gender and Sexuality: Talking About What We are Afraid to Talk About and A Focus on the Critical Nature of Literacy in Social Studies and the Sciences. Our Technology "Boot Camp" was sold out and will feature hands on workshops related to Google Apps for Education, Google Drive and Google Classroom, Noodle Tools, digital citizenship, QR codes, Remind 101, Blogger, and Back Channeling using TodaysMeet, Discovery Education and enVisionMATH.
Our Technology Department, under the leadership of Mike Wentland, Technology Administrator, and April Goran, Technology Integration Administrator, will be working all summer on two major projects: replacement of many teacher computers and installation of the Interactive Projectors. Our goal, when the teachers return, is that classroom teacher will have a faster, newer desktop and many of our early childhood, elementary and middle school classrooms will be outfitted with Interactive Projectors. Teachers who received the first interactive projectors from our generous community, CAPT and CAPE donations have received professional development, and by the end of the year were doing some amazing work integrating technology to increase student engagement. The professional development on the many uses of the integrative projectors will continue as more are installed during the fall.
Reminder: Don't forget that the links for the Summer Reading Program for your child can be found at this link which will take you to your student's school Summer Reading Program link.
http://www.cantonma.org/pages/CantonPublicSchools/Departments/Curriculum/SummerReading
I would like to welcome all of the incoming kindergarten parents and guardians to the Superintendent's Blog and hope your are a regular reader.
Wishing all of you a wonderful Fourth!
Jen Henderson
Interim Superintendent of Schools