One of our customers, ACLD Tillotson School, is participating in the Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Walk for a Healthy Community on Saturday, May 18th. This annual fundraiser helps local, nonprofit health and human service agencies by giving 100% of the money raised back to the participating organizations. Tillotson will be raising money to purchase interactive whiteboards for every homeroom at their school.
At Questeq, we believe in giving back to the communities and customers we serve through sponsorships and scholarships. We are happy to partner with Tillotson as a Gold Sponsor for the Highmark Walk this year. For more information about ACLD Tillotson School visit their website at www.acldonline.org.
The 1-to-1 Essentials Program recently released by Common Sense Media aims to provide a proactive plan for implementing a successful 1-to-1 program in your school or district. To use the resources you must create a username and password but all of the resources appear to be free of charge.
The program introduces three phases towards a successful implementation: Envision, Communicate, Implement. Each phase provides a downloadable action plan and many downloadable tools and resources for your use. In addition, helpful videos appear for each phase to support the ideas being discussed.
This program is very new so expect new features and resources to be added as they develop and refine the offering. One interesting feature that is “coming soon” is an online compass which will allow you to survey and monitor your stakeholders on their comfort level with the 1-to-1 implementation.
To learn more about this program visit
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/1to1.
Zane Toth has been with Questeq since November 2012 and has been working as a Desktop Engineer for Chartiers Valley School District in the greater Pittsburgh, PA area. He received his Associates Degree in Information Technology with a concentration in Network Administration from the Pittsburgh Technical Institute in October 2010.
Jessica Azur, HR Manager for Questeq shares, "Zane's position was a difficult one because this was a new customer and it would be the first Questeq staff at a school with over five district staff. Zane was up for the challenge and has done a remarkable job adjusting to the environment and giving his 100%. We are lucky to have Zane on the Questeq team!"
Chartiers Valley School District has implemented a one to one student laptop program in the high school. Many of Zane’s daily tasks focus on repairing, imaging and maintaining the laptops available to students through the program. A typical day consists of collecting student laptops that need repaired, troubleshooting, repairing and re-imaging them so the laptops are ready for students in a timely fashion. If a laptop needs warranty work done, Zane is responsible for packaging and sending each back to HP for repairs. Through the one to one program, students are using the laptops during the school day and at home to complete coursework.
Regarding the one to one program Zane adds, “They (the students) are allowed to take them home and that gives some of the children here who don't have a computer at home a better chance to achieve at school and life.”
When Zane first arrived at Chartiers Valley a large amount of repairs were needed on the student laptops in the district. He notes a recent success was his ability to quickly complete the repairs and get the laptops back into the hands of the students.
When asked about his favorite Questeq memory Zane shares, “Every memory I've had with Questeq has been great so far. I just love the family vibe and how they treat everyone. It is the best company I have ever worked for by far!”
Are you interested in implementing Project-Based Learning in your classroom, school or district? The following video gives a good introduction to Project-Based Learning and how a school in Texas has successfully implemented PBL into their culture for learning.
Visit the Edutopia website for more information about PBL and Manor New Technology High School in Texas: http://www.edutopia.org/stw-project-based-learning-best-practices-new-tech-video.