1. CONGRATULATIONS!! CONGRATULATIONS!! It’s been a year of change. Thanks to your creativity and flexibility, we’ve been able to accomplish the following this year: TECHNOLOGY ACQUISITION: We have successfully loaded software and prepared 500 handhelds for distribution to 12 classrooms, providing one to one computer access to nearly 1300 students.

2. TEACHER TRAINING: PAWS teachers have received both formal and onsite training from our program partners: ETS, Renaissance Learning, and K12 Handhelds and will continue to receive ongoing support. PARENT COMMUNICATION: Parent communication is an integral part of PAWS. We have held 2 separate parent evening meetings, held at each of the four school sites. We offered a comprehensive discount program to purchase Tungsten E2 handhelds, with choice of options, for any interested party. A parent blog site has been set up: www.pawsparents.blogspot.com.www.pawsparents.blogspot.com

3. End-of-Year Important Dates! Due by: JUNE 1 st 2007 Final Benchmark ESSAY “Wierdest Day Ever” End of year EdTech Profile for both Teachers & Students

4. Year 2 – ‘07-08 Dates August 2007: Baseline Essay EdTech Profiles for new Teachers and Students (late May 2008 for all teachers and students) Quarterly: 4 benchmarks are currently scheduled, as follows: November 2007 January 2008 March 2008 May 2008 Exact dates and topics of Benchmark Essays will be identified once District pacing plans are finalized.

5. Some items to keep in mind! Benchmark Essays: There are a very limited number of prepared essays that can be used for writing prompts. Baseline and Benchmark Essays are one-write assignments, mirroring the 7 th grade State Writing Test environment. Please use the Administrator Assignment. Here’s how to get that assignment! INSTRUCTIONS: Get from Administrate prompt Sign in Check the class to which you want to assign the essay On the left, under the MENU, choose Assignment Options Under ASSIGNMENTS OPTIONS, choose Get Administrator Assignment

6. Just a reminder! About every 3 weeks, our evaluator asks that you participate in a short 4- question survey (2 check box/2 short answer). This survey is vital to the program’s statistics. The program requires the use of this qualitative data—we need to provide information consistently or the evaluator will need to use alternate means to gather this information. Thank you for everything you’ve done to help make PAWS Year 1 a success. We have quite a bit to celebrate!