G Suite for Education
G Suite for Education is a suite of integrated cloud-based communication and collaboration tools that are hosted by Google and managed by Falmouth Public Schools. Students and staff are assigned secured accounts to the learning environment and are able to access their accounts through any mainstream web browser such as Chrome, Safari, Internet Explorer, or Firefox. No additional software is required, only a computer, or other device, that is connected to the Internet. G Suite provides the ability for FPS students, faculty and staff to communicate, store files, and collaborate on documents from anywhere, within a secure online environment.
1:1 Digital Classroom Initiative
Background:
During the 2014-2015 school year, Falmouth Public Schools established a 1:1 Chromebook pilot project at the Morse Pond School. By the end of the year, the project proved to be so successful, the decision was made to expand the project to include Grade 5.
While Morse Pond was finding success with it’s pilot program, several teachers were testing out classroom sets of Chromebooks at the Lawrence School, and with the district’s award of a Digital Connections Partnership Grant, allowing for the wireless infrastructure improvements to be made over the summer of 2015, this paved the way for a full 1:1 Chromebook implementation with the 2015-2016 school year.
Hour of Code (December)
We live in a world surrounded by technology. We know that whatever field our students choose to go into as adults, their ability to succeed will increasingly hinge on understanding how technology works. Unfortunately, only a tiny fraction of us are learning computer science, and less students are studying it than a decade ago.
That’s why Falmouth Public Schools continues to join in on the largest learning event in history: The Hour of Code, during Computer Science Education Week. Through annual participation, our students join more than 100 million students worldwide who try an Hour of Code.
The district’s Hour of Code activities are a statement that Falmouth Public Schools is ready to teach these foundational 21st century skills. For the past several years we have celebrated this event across all of our schools, including some evening events.
Some of the evening activities we have offered for students and their families have included:
- Coding on the computer
- Coding on the iPad
- Hands-on activities to learn computer science
- Robot demonstrations
- Local STEM expert discussions