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  • The district-wide assessment calendar will be posted in the spring. If you have any questions about the schedule, please contact your child's school.

  • Simsbury Public Schools utilizes many online applications and web-based tools to foster student learning through personalization, collaboration, and exploration. Online or "cloud" based applications and services extend student learning beyond the school day and building and provide accessibility to useful learning tools.

    Considerations for approving an online service

    We use educational accounts for most of our online services in order to have more control of settings and ease of classroom setup. Prior to recommending a service for classroom use, we review the service's privacy and security policies and inform teachers of best practices for using them responsibly. We do not approve providers who use personally identifiable information outside of Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) standards. Since October 1, 2016, renewed or new online services that house student information, records and/or student work on their servers must also meet the minimum requirements of the  Connecticut Student Data Privacy Law; Public Act 16-189 (See Revision of Bill for update). See the Student Data Privacy resource tab for more information on the law and a complete listing of third party services utilized by the district for operational and educational purposes.

    These services include G Suite for Education, which is used extensively by our students and teachers in grades 3 through 12 for classroom and homework assignments. In keeping with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and our licensing agreement with Google, if you as the parent/guardian of a student under the age of 13 is concerned about this usage and would want to discuss opting out please contact Maggie Seidel for more information.

    District-approved online educational services

    Compiled below, by grade-level, are the most widely used online educational services presently recommended for classroom use that require students to log-in with a student account. For some of our online educational services we provide students with generic school log-ins that are not unique to a user and/or their directory information. For complete information on each app's terms of service, please click on the provided links below.

    For questions about the district's use of online educational services, please contact Maggie Seidel, Director of Instructional Technology, at (860) 658-3898 ext. 835 or mseidel@simsburyschools.net

  • Google added the option for parent/guardians to receive weekly or daily email summaries of assignments/ announcements/ questions posted through teacher Classrooms. This video provides an overview of the feature.

    Use these written directions on how to receive notifications and manage classroom settings.

    Please review this SlideShow for a set of question and answers about Google Classroom and Google Classroom Guardian Summaries.

  • Computer literacy has become a core element of K-12 education, with students now expected to master keyboarding skills before college. In fact, several of the Common Core Standards require keyboarding.

    TypingClub School Edition is designed to help your students meet and exceed the Common Core Standards within a semester’s worth of time. Our test templates are deeply customizable so you can alter settings to best prepare your students. Once your students learn proper keyboarding technique, they can practice to increase typing speed, improve accuracy, and develop stamina for typing.

    Grade

    Common Core Requirements in Keyboarding

    3

    “Use technology to produce and publish writing (using keyboarding skills) as well as to interact and collaborate with others.”

    ELA-Literacy/W/3/6

    4

    “Type ONE page in a single sitting."

    (Approximately 11 WPM)*

    ELA-Literacy/W/4/6

    5

    “Type TWO pages in a single sitting."

    (Approximately 22 WPM)*

    ELA-Literacy/W/5/6

    6

    “Type THREE pages in a single sitting.”

    (Approximately 33 WPM)*

    ELA-Literacy/W/6/6

    7

    “Interact and collaborate with others.”

    Fluently communicating with others via the internet, especially when instant messaging, requires keyboarding proficiency.

    ELA-Literacy/W/7/6

    8

    “Gather relevant information...and integrate the information while avoiding plagiarism.”

    Academic integrity is one of the most important values we can instill in young students. Keyboarding lessens the physical burden of typing, thus making students less likely to copy-and-paste entire paragraphs.

    ELA-Literacy/CCRA/W/8

    College Readiness

    “Write routinely over extended time frames (time for research, reflection, and revision) and shorter time frames (a single sitting or a day or two).”

    The only way to increase stamina is to practice typing passages of varying lengths. Our Typing Tests provide an excellent resource for this kind of practice.

    ELA-Literacy/CCRA/W/10

    *This calculation was made by assuming that a single sitting equals 30 minutes of continuous typing. The Common Core website is vague in its definition of “a single sitting,” so these benchmarks are estimates made by TypingClub. Tags: College Prep, Common Core

  • Bloomfield Magnet Schools

    Global Experience Magnet School (GEMS)

    The mission of the Global Experience Magnet School in Bloomfield is to create a learning community dedicated to educating one student at a time. This is accomplished by designing a personalized learning plan for each student, providing real-world opportunities to connect students to their learning, and expecting them to find authentic, meaningful ways to show what they have learned.

    Capitol Region Education Council (CREC)
    If you're interested in giving your child an extraordinary education, consider one of CREC's award-winning magnet schools. CREC magnet schools allow students to focus on specific talents or interests while studying a challenging core curriculum in a diverse environment.

    Vocational/Technical Schools:

  • The Connecticut Student Data Privacy (SDP) Law was enacted to provide transparency to the school community on the sharing of student data with third party service providers and to put in place minimum contractual requirements to safeguard student privacy (See Revision of Bill for update). This law does not apply to services that the district houses on our internal servers such as Powerschool and Destiny, or on district devices (computers/iPads) which includes many of our educational software and iPad apps. District prerequisite(s) for using these services safely with students are published for teachers to reference on our faculty portal.

    School district requirements set forth in this law include providing parents/guardians:

    • via our district website, a list of third party services that collects/maintains or uses student information with their signed SDP agreement (or link to online policy if in compliance); and the date of the signed agreement; how the service is used; information that may be collected by service;
    • notice of a breach within 2 days of notification from provider of service and what student information may have been involved. This notification will also be posted on the district website.

    Lists of third party services

    Please see the links below for the listing of approved third party services presently contracted with by Simsbury Public Schools that may collect/maintain/ use student information in the delivery of operational and educational services. The SDP agreement used by the district is based on the Terms of Service template provided by the state.

    Educational Online Services:

    App/Service

    		 Type Of Student
    Information Collected    		 Grade Level/
    Content Area    		 Privacy Policy Date/
    Link to Addendum or Online
    Bookshare.org Student Name, Grade, DOB, Disability Status K-12 Accessible Educational Material March 1, 2019
    Boardmaker Online Student Initials, Grade K-12 Teacher Created Accessible Educational Materials May 25, 2018
    Pearson Clinical Assessments Student name, DOB, Assessment Data K-12 Standardized Assessments January 18, 2018

    Informational forums will be held over the school year through PTO/ PTC meetings on this new law.

    • Family Education An excellent resource with extensive links
    • National PTA.org  National Parent-Teacher Organization website offers a story by one of the nation’s leading advocates for children.
    • The Positive Coach This site is the center of a national movement to encourage positive and supportive parent participation in youth sports.
    • Dr. J. Brien O'Callaghan Dr. Brien O’Callaghan provides an overview of Home/School Collaboration approach. Offers insights into children’s behavior and common sense approach for parents.
    • Positive Discipline Dr. Jane Nelson offers a wealth of resources for parents and teachers. Questions of the week provide strategies for dealing with common problems experienced by parents.

  • Information is available on our Healthy Schools/Healthy Students webpage. Click on the Elementary Health tab.

    Watch Lynn Lyons' video about supporting students with anxiety.