All procedures and guidelines have been made with this tenet in mind:

Provide ALL Middle School students with the greatest possible access to laptop computers.

In order for the process to work well, all teachers and staff need to adhere to the guidelines listed below.

Please keep in mind that we do have a limited number of carts, so this system will rely on collegiality and flexibility. We will track the usage of the carts over the next few weeks to see if the system needs to be re-examined. If you have a long term project you would like to plan, please liaise with me so that I can help you ensure you have the laptops you need.

Location of Carts

The Middle School now has 16 laptop carts (15 PC, 1 Mac) available for booking. To make these carts accessible, they are stored by quad, as follows:

  • Carts 1 – 4: Room 325
  • Carts 5 – 8: Room 303 & 304
  • Carts 10 – 13: Room 316
  • Cart 14 – 16: Room 219 (Carts 14 – 15 to be moved to Room 208 later in the year when the room is ready)
  • Mac Cart: PE Office

Cart Booking

The bookings are done online through the calendar Outlook or Entourage. Logon to your email account, go to ‘Public Folders’>’All Public Folders’>MS Calendar. Khun Apple and Khun Eed will still be keeping track of the carts in both locations.

calendarbooking

All new laptop cart calendars have been created by Khun Apple. As in the past, she deleted last year’s calendars at the end of the school year (because they get too full) so you will need to find them in the Public Folders and re-subscribe to add them to your favorites. If you need help, please let me know.

  • ALL laptop carts are available for all MS teachers to book, regardless of what floor/quad they are stored on. Please do not book more than 1 week in advance.
  • Teachers in quads have priority over the laptop carts stored in their quad and can book them more than 1 week in advance. Please do not book laptops from another quad more than 1 week in advance.
  • When booking the carts, please use the simple format of: # of cart(s) – Name – # of students. Make sure you enter your room number in the location field and be precise with the times.
  • To avoid confusion, please try to be aware of the Synergy and early dismissal schedules which will be marked at the tops of the calendar days.

Transporting the Carts

  • For all carts, students may collect them from their stored location.
  • Students may transport the carts between classrooms during the day.
  • A printout of the day’s schedule for that cart (as of 2 pm the previous day) will always be placed on the cart.
  • Carts will be available for pick-up in the morning, starting at 7:00 am. If you would like to pick up the cart(s) earlier than that, a key can be retrieved from Jim or Moe in the office (they typically arrive around 6:30 am). As a courtesy, please leave a note explaining that you’ve collected the cart(s) so that the quad teachers don’t worry that they’ve been stolen overnight.
  • Keys for the carts will be available in the rooms in which they are stored.
  • The teacher who is the first user of the day is responsible for getting the cart(s) from the storage location.
  • The teacher using the cart is responsible for delivering it to the next location in a timely manner.
  • The last teacher user must return the cart before 3:00 pm, plug it in, and make sure the cart switch is turned on. Exception: if a teacher is the last user of the day AND the first user of the same cart(s) on the following day, the teacher may keep the cart(s) in his/her classroom. If this happens, that teacher must check the online schedule for whom to deliver the cart(s) to after they are finished. Otherwise, carts must be returned to the store room locations as a courtesy to the first user of the following day.

Teacher Laptop Cart Management Responsibility

  • The teacher is responsible for how laptops are treated when they are in his/her classroom. Keeping note of which laptop a student gets (or permanently assigning them a number) helps monitor issues as they arise. This also helps retrieve files that may have been saved incorrectly as we can track down which machine a student last used more quickly.
  • All laptops should be plugged in when placed in the cart.
  • The cables should be maintained in a tidy manner.
  • When the cart is not being used it should be plugged in (and the switch turned on) so that the laptops can be charged up.
  • If the individual chargers are removed because laptops need them during class (i.e. the batteries are dead when a class needs them) then, they should be put back in place and the cables Velcro-ed back in.
  • When moving the carts, make sure the cart doors are closed and preferably locked.
  • Please remind students to behave responsibly when transporting and using the laptops. They are a privilege for students to use, yet we use them so much that students begin to take them for granted. This is when silliness, damage, and vandalism occur.
  • Teachers will report any damage to the carts and laptops of which they are aware.

I.A. Laptop Cart Management Responsibility

  • The doors for the storage locations will be unlocked at 7:00 am.
  • The laptop carts will be checked between 2:50 and 3:00 pm that they are in their storage locations and charging the laptops.
  • After 2 pm, printouts of the cart schedules will be printed out and placed on the carts for the next day. If a teacher does not return the cart to its proper location, it is that teacher’s responsibility to look up the next user and deliver the cart.
  • Laptops and carts will be examined and maintained regularly.
  • Damage will be reported to Ed. Tech. for necessary repairs.
  • Instances of procedures not being followed will be shared with administration and Ed. Tech.