Today is the start of the online ISTEP for grades 4-8. We will be in full testing mode from 4/30 to 5/11.
Please contact our HelpDesk for any widespread testing disruptions. If you have issues with only a couple of students, please double-check their login info with your building testing administrator and/or the CTB HelpDesk.
Bonne chance
We are very excited to announce that our new Digital Library system is now available for staff and student use. The initial content collection of about 900 titles is a mix of many types and a focus primarily on grades K-8. Staff and students can now login to the system and check out ebooks and audiobooks. This will be most useful currently for users who already have a device or want to use their home computer, all of which is allowed and highly encouraged.
The main webpage is: http://msdpt.lib.overdrive.com/
On mobile devices it works best to download the Overdrive app if available for your device.
Compatible Devices here: http://www.overdrive.com/resources/drc/
Getting Started here: http://help.overdrive.com/
Logins:
Staff card number is the same Numeric ID used for ArkBook, etc. with an initial PIN of “destiny”
Students will simply put in their Student ID as their card number
As move into an active afternoon and into the season, there are a number of great resources out on the Internet for weather information:
My personal favorite is the Weather Underground at: http://www.wunderground.com
Of course, there is always the Weather Channel at: http://www.weather.com
The National Weather Service (and Indianapolis office) are online at: http://weather.gov/
You can stream live local stations and TWC at our internal video on demand system: http://vod.msdpt.k12.in.us/
If you really want to delve deep into the science and models, check out: http://www.twisterdata.com/
From the Weather Underground you can also dig in more. I enjoy the convective outlook and discussion from the Storm Prediction Center and the Scientific Forecaster Discussion from our local NWS office.
On Android you can install the Scanner Radio app through the market which will give a live feed of W9NWS which is our Central Indiana Skywarn Network: http://www.w9nws.org/
You can follow live storm chasing online also. They might be in our neighborhood today: http://www.tornadovideos.net/
Neat event this weekend: http://www.imax.com/oo/imax-indiana-state-museum/theatre-info/news-and-events/media-advisory-photo-opportunity/
This weekend we will be having major electrical work done in our network center. This is going to require a complete shutdown of the system. We will begin at 3pm today (3/2/12) shutting down less used and power hungry systems. Saturday morning we will shutting down the whole system and bringing back up critical items. Systems that will remain up include:
Telephony
Web Services
Many of you have now been moved over to the new mail system…. You’ll know this if your Outlook Web Access has been updated to owa.msdpt.k12.in.us.
One of the great new features you have access to is Outlook Anywhere. You can use the full Microsoft Outlook client from home just like you were sitting at your work computer. Just fire up Outlook, give it your name and msdpt.k12.in.us e-mail address in a new account dialog and it will do the rest.
We are in the process of moving users over to an updated e-mail system. We are beginning this process in small groups to eventually include all users. The last group of users will be those who utilize Activesync for a mobile devices since it requires changes on your end.
Once moved over, users will receive some nice benefits:
- Increased storage limit.
- Increased send and receive message limit.
- Much improved Outlook Web Access that works in all browsers.
- Ability to use Outlook Anywhere.
As we transition we do not expect any oddities in user server. The most noticeable impact will be the web access system redirecting you to the new version if you have been moved.
We will be taking advantage of this Winter Break to upgrade a number of systems. In the process of doing so, there will likely be long periods of outages. Here are the planned items:
Computer labs: Virtual machines in labs are being rebuilt to a new version over the break. During that time, all labs will be offline.
Networking: Network upgrades will be occurring at AL, SE, and WV. There will be complete building outages.
Internet Access: We will be working with our new Internet filter over break. Expect sporadic outages.
IS Servers: We plan to migrate several Information Systems servers over the break. There will be outages with Ark, FMS, etc that will be planned accordingly.
Other: A number of items that are going on that could cause brief outages to remote e-mail access, etc.
Network Upgrades:
We have finally received word that funding is available under the Federal E-Rate program for our network upgrades. We will be starting with the wired and wireless networks at WV and SE. Following that early next year will be AL, CY, and HE. We are very excited to get these projects rolling.
Staff Wireless:
We now have a test system up at the Education Center and it is going very well. We plan to roll out a beta network to Perry High next. We had planned on SHS being the test however that system is still going to require more work.
Full-Roaming Wireless:
We are now a full-roaming wireless district in all instructional areas with the completion of the SHS wireless network.
Virtual Infrastructure:
We were able to add in additional resources to our virtual environment. The system now seems to be much more reliable overall. We have been under a bit of an attack the last couple days, however we believe we now have that isolated.
Webserver:
The new webserver is running behind schedule. We are working diligently to get it in place and end the occasional agonizing slowness.
Smartboards Everywhere:
The Smartboard project is moving along nicely. We will be going out to bid this month and getting our ducks in a row to start ordering in January once the funds are available.
1:1:
We are to begin receiving the new devices next week. After we work out some kinks, we will be rolling out devices in phases to PA teachers. Timeline still seems intact for a student rollout in early January. Very, very exciting 
Cloud-based Services:
We are continuing with our limited pilots of Google Apps services. Staff accounts are now in place and should be rolling to a world near you soon.
We are quite proud and excited in Perry Township to have access to a huge library of online resources. I wanted to take a moment and highlight a few of them…
Spend a few minutes perusing the Resource Portal for Staff and Students (which I highly recommend you do) and you’ll find some gems out there. Today we are going to take a look the Research tab.
Encyclopedia Britannica: We have an unlimited usage subscription to this great primary resource. You’ll find rich text articles along with multimedia resources like videos and image search.
iLibrary: We are very fortunate to have the support of both the Indianapolis Library Foundation and Project INSPIRE to provide you with access to tons upon tons of digital resources such as magazine and scientific journal searches. These is a vast and wonderful research resource that would be the envy of many a college.
INSPIRE: As mentioned above, you can also access the INSPIRE project directly and they have done wonderful things with making searching more friendly. Take a few moment to dive into their kids search and academic portals.
We also have specialized areas listed for News links, Primary Documents, Writing and Citing, and controlled Web Searching options. I am confident you will find some great items for your classroom if you have a few moments to dig.
These are just a few of the many electronic resources available to all of us. We are going to aggressively continue our pursuit of these resources and more. Please help us share word of the Resource Portal (click Staff and Students on our main page) and guiding use of these incredible tools.
We are also going to continue our support of making our IMC environments into 21st century learning environments. Keep an eye out for more technology (like eReaders and tablets) that will continue to make these tools more accessible and even quicker to use.
Short Video Introduction: IQnew_HQ
Take a quick peek at a great new resource in the township. This is open to all staff and students on any township machine.
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