DPVILS Blog

Monday, 8/15/2016

Mondays at Hoover are minimum day, so the academic schedule ends at 12:50 PM. Students attend all of the regular classes for 25 minutes. This opening week our students attended only their Homeroom classes in order to review the guidelines for the year, receive advisory materials and paperwork to take home, etc. During this time I moved into The Garage, Room B16. Paul Vignaux and I had time to discuss best use potential for the space and established a plan to design and construct a fully functional TV studio in the Garage (Hoover Studios).

Tuesday, 8/16/2016

Today I met with Hoover Principal, Carline Sinkler, to discuss details of iPad Rollout. We locked down the dates for the event: Sept. 29, Oct. 4, and Oct. 6, for the 8th, 7th, and 6th grades, respectively. This resulted in a map of the events at Hoover Middle (see below). At 2:00PM Patrick Ng, DP Storyteller from Roosevelt MS came by for scheduled meeting to discuss all things VILS! Met from 2:15 PM to 4:00PM and conducted video conference with Mark Aquino at Denman MS. As part of our need to stay calibrated, it was decided we would assist each other at school sites for roll out.

Wednesday, 8/17/2016

Setting up the classroom for the Hoover DPVILS central hub, Which at Hoover we call "The Garage" is an exciting and overwhelming proposition! We are planning to install a fully functional broadcast studio and production studio, which will also house the post-production and editing equipment as well.

Friday, 8/19/2016

Off-site meeting with Michael Bloemsma, Mark Aquino, and Patrick Ng at Denman MS. Checked in on storyteller actions for first week back to school. Michael Bloemsma took notes on Victories, Lessons Learned, and Needs and Concerns.

Planning for iPad rollout continued, as well as logistics around managing storytelling workflow at each site.

Monday, 8/22/2016

Planning for the Hoover Studio continues with designs for the Hawk Studios broadcast set at KHWK! New set includes anchor desk, lighting rigging, green screen, etc. Paul Vignaux and I are setting the stage, literally! All of this will exist in the Hoover maker's space (The garage).

As Monday's at Hoover are always early release, we held a coaching session in the Garage as part of our EdCamp training series. I led the "Google 101" introduction to using google apps with 15 teachers in attendance. It was wonderful to see how our teachers gained insight into the versatility and possibilities available through these online and connected resources.

Friday, 8/26/2016

Video interviews and story leads.

Continuing to gather interviews from individual teachers and students. As of today, I have interviewed Chanmony Prak, Nathan Steller, Zulai Jesus, and Lynda Zhou. Each interview focuses on the questions around how computer tech has changed learning and communication in and out of the classroom.

Monday 8/29/2016

Big day at Hoover! After school we presented the staff with DPVILS "Leverage vs. Integrate" introduction as we gear up for the iPad AAA Roll-out. Mostly well received by teachers, the learning experience allowed for discussion around the opportunities afforded by Always Available Access when teachers build learning around one app used to leverage specific concepts. Through the discussion it was decided that "leveraging" could also be called "harnessing" or "employing".

The meeting was concluded with departments diving into Common Sense Media by grade level. Special attention was given to the NearPod lessons available for teachers to use.

Tuesday 8/30/2016 Continuing the saga...

Wrapping up the post-production and editing on "Leveraging Language" interviews. This video features Zulay Jesus and Lynda Zhou as they share their thoughts on how to involve parents of Spanish and Chinese speaking families in the greater Hoover learning community.

Wednesday 8/31/2016

Rolling out Common Sense Media's Digital Citizenship curriculum with the 7th and 8th grade classes. The students received their first lessons in digital citizenship in a theater setting where myself, Allison Rothman (Learning Commons) and Hoover's principal, Carline Sinkler guided them through a limited-interactive assembly style presentation.

Monday, 9/12/2016

In prep for the upcoming SFUSD iPad Rollout, I attended a principals/Coaches meeting at Roosevelt MS. In this meeting the item of the rollout were discussed and decided on in more "granualr" detail, which included mapping, event stations, and Verizon branding. It was determined that staff would NOT wear Verizon branded t-shirts as we are not wanting to be mistakenly identified as Verizon employees with new families at our school sites.

Tuesday, 9/13/ 2016

Continuing to assemble Hawk Squad student tech team for Hoover. An official Hawk Squad t-shirt design has been completed on CustomInk.com and can be viewed below. The Hawk Squad Google Classroom is also up and running and can be viewed/joined here.

Above are some candid shots of our new Hawk Squad student tech team at the very first meeting of Hawks in "The Nest". (Room B16, also known as the Hoover Family Garage).

Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016

The build-up to DPVILS Rollout week is ramping up! Lots of meetings with local and greater communities as we share rollout plans and strategies. Forming up the Hoover Hawk Squad student tech team has been great. Our core team of 15 students form a vanguard of tech experts and support professionals that are eager to go out into their classes to lead and support our school throughout this digital revolution. Check out the images to follow!

We also have a brand new iMac workstation dedicated to our Hawk Studio editing lab. So awesome.

Wednesday, Sept 28, 2016

T-minus 27 hours, 30 minutes to launch of Hoover iPad Rollout Event Day one! Shifting into high gear for preparations of day one of the Big Rollout event. As we gather completed (and incomplete!) paperwork from the students and families, we see most students are serious about getting through the process and beginning their journey with Anytime Anywhere Access!

Thursday, Sept. 29, 2016

So, 8th Grade rollout operations happened and , with very few disclaimers, things went very well. It was wonderful to witness so many of our amazing Hoover staf and volunteers from DoT, not to mention the wonderful parents and families who turned out to lend a hand! Within about an hour we had already processed and delivered nearly 300 iPads! As things died down and families continued to trickle in, our dedicated volunteers and Hawk Squad persevered through to after 6:30 PM to ensure that all families and students were served.

Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016

Round 2 of the Hoover iPad Rollout was a smashing success for the seventh graders. It was quite a rush of activity with over 300 iPads processed and released to our seventh grade AND make-up 8th grade students! Check out the images...

Oct. 27, 2016

Since my last entry many things have moved forward in the Hoover AAA community. All students and classes are now equipped with iPads and are actively engaged in working through the SAMR levels of digital learning. Along with this come the challenges of sustaining and maintaining the tech that we are leveraging 24/7. We are also busy getting the Hawk Squad to work, both in the Garage and throughout the school, to support and enhance the "leverage-ability" of AAA. Currently, we are working on producing a promotional video that will be "broadcast" to the Hoover community. This video will promote and advertise the Hawk Squad's services throughout the school year.