Letter+to+Students

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Dear 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th Grade Students,

Welcome to the middle school 1:1 laptop program!

I’m sure you are very excited (as we are) to have the laptop program begin. We have been making preparations for this program for some time and we look forward to your continued support and your suggestions for how we can improve.

At first, laptops will be used in school only. Once students have successfully completed a "laptop driver's license" program, students may obtain permission to use their laptop outside of school. At that time, it will be important to remember that just as you need enough sleep every night, your laptop needs to be charged every night. We will have a limited supply of power outlets, so the expectation is that you will bring your laptop charged and in its case. Please be sure that the identifying labels are kept in place. You are welcome to decorate the case, but please do not put stickers, etc. on the computer.

Our security settings prevent users from making permanent changes (other than saving files to a protected area). This means that making permanent network connections (with cached passwords), installing printers whose drivers are not already on the system, and some other chores will require home/school cooperation. You should know that files saved outside your My Documents folder may be lost if your laptop needs major repair or maintenance.

While we have done testing on other networks, we know that everyone’s home network and personal printer is different. We want you to have home Internet and printer access. Because of our security settings, and the variation in printer and network setups, it may take some time to work these issues through. We are willing to help overcome any problems.

The Student Laptop Crash Team will be a trained group of students that can assist with daily troubleshooting needs while in school ...

Backing up non-academic and academic files is up to you. You have a folder on a school server for backing up your academic work. You may want to have a copy of personal files on another home computer, an external drive, or some other alternative. If you are not sure how to make backup copies of your academic work, please see.

Tell your parents about the rules. We want to be certain that middle school students still exercise and interact as they always have, so in school laptop use is definitely limited. Do not expect that your laptop will be used in school in every class, or even every day. We added this element to our program to extend our teaching options, not to replace the wonderful teachers and activities that we already have.

For further information, please check the Laptop Program FAQs. Or feel free to contact ___

Thank you again,