District Administration - November/December 2010 - (Page 50)

DistrictAdministration 100 PRODUCTS TOP STUDENT INFORMATION SYSTEM Tyler Technologies, Pricing varies Tyler Technologies’ Student Information System suite is a comprehensive, full-featured product for managing nearly every aspect of a school district. Features include an attendance tracker, sophisticated gradebook, discipline management module, testing and assessment data program, ﬁnancial system, human resources module and many more. The online suite is continually enhanced by Tyler’s “perpetual upgrade process,” a steady stream of improvements made with minimal disruption to the user experience. www.tylertech.com EMPLOYEESAFE AND STUDENTWATCH SUITES PublicSchoolWORKS, Contact PublicSchoolWORKS for pricing PublicSchoolWORKS combines Web-based administrative tools, content and support to implement and maintain a district’s staff and student health, safety compliance, and behavior management plans. EmployeeSafe includes courses, plans, procedures, checklists and other tools to train school employees. StudentWatch includes a behavior management system to address and report discipline issues, bullying incidents or accidents involving students. www.publicschoolworks.com “These comprehensive modules have enabled us to streamline training and offer it on an anytime, anywhere basis.” Kathe Monroe, director of human resources in the West Linn-Wilsonville (Ore.) School District. KINDLE Amazon, $139, $189 and $379 The Kindle is a wireless reading device and supporting software platform from online retailer Amazon. Users can purchase, download and store up to 3,500 electronic books on the Kindle, and choose from over 700,000 titles in the Amazon store or from over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright titles, as well as read newspapers, magazines and blogs. Books download to the device in 60 seconds. It is available in Kindle Wi-Fi ($139) or Kindle Wi-Fi+3G ($189) models, each with a 6-inch screen, or as the larger Kindle DX ($379), which has a 9.7-inch screen. www.amazon.com/kindle 50 November/December 2010 District Administration 2 0 1 0 BLOSSOM LEARNING Blossom Learing, $95 Blossom Learning’s online professional development course provides teacher training on making the best use of SMART interactive whiteboards. The host avatar, “Mrs. Blossom,” guides users through the eight-chapter course, covering everything from the most basic operations to creating interactive and effective lessons using SMART’s Notebook user software. www.blossomlearning.com “The course is helpful and very easy to follow, plus the assessments help me figure out how much I know.” Nancy Garvey, technology specialist in the Coppell (Texas) Independent School District. SKY Learning.com, $2 per student annually Learning.com’s Sky platform provides a centralized, single sign-on resource for teachers to access all the digital learning resources in their districts. Users can ﬁnd and browse through curriculum resources by keyword, subject or standard, create interactive lessons, distribute and manage assignments and more with any of the digital online curriculum resources that their district uses. Reporting features enable administrators to see which digital resources are being used, and their effect on student achievement. www.learning.com/sky http://www.blossomlearning.com http://www.tylertech.com http://www.Learning.com http://www.publicschoolworks.com http://www.publicschoolworks.com http://www.learning.com/sky http://www.amazon.com/kindle

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - November/December 2010

District Administration - November/December 2010
Contents
From the Editor
News Update
Administrator Profile
District Profile
Black Children Still Left Behind
ARRA Funds Empower Schools to Power Down
A Call for Technology Leadership
Readers Pick Top 100 Products of the Year
Going Mobile
Superintendent’s Insights
Supervisor’s Opinion
Professional Opinion
Student Counsel

District Administration - November/December 2010