iPad Gang

8th Grade Students work collaboratively in the RMS lobby on ther iPads. Photo credit: Jodi Bates.

Chromebook Cafe

In anticipation of the arrival of 24 Chromebooks awarded to RMS via a Friends of Hanover grant, RMS Tech offered our first Tech Cafe. Members of staff familiar with Chromium OS set up shop in the RMS lobby Wednesday through Friday during lunch in hopes of providing staff with 5 minute tours of the device.

The Tech Cafe: Chromebook Tours was an overwhelming success! Thirty-eight staff members participated in the event.

Interested in learning about the Chromebooks & Chromium OS? Check out our Chromebook Tips & Tricks document.

Fit Bit Technology | Healthy Brown Bag Lunch Series

Catherine Patch, RMS Physical Education teacher, presented The FitBit today for the FIRST! Healthy Brown Bag Lunch series. To learn more about the Healthy Brown Bag Lunch series visit School Nurse, Abby Pelletier's  RMS Health Office blog.

The FitBit is a fancy pedometer. It is lightweight, durable, looks like a bracelet and costs about $100. It is able to track your steps throughout the day and can tell when you are running verses walking. This information automatically syncs with your computer or smartphone simplifying your life.  FitBit is compatible with other programs such as Run Keeper, My Fitness Pal and Loose It!

FitBit Highlights

• FitBit can track your food, fluids, weight and sleep and is able to produce graphs with the data. 
• The sleep feature is able to identify my restless nights based my movements.
• The alarm feature vibrates the bracelet rather than the typical annoying alarm clock buzzing  or beeping.
• The battery lasts for 5 days and you can receive an email notification when it's time for you to charge your FitBit.
• Use the quick view by double taping your FitBit to display a rough estimate of the number of steps you've taken. 
• Stay fashionable and fit! FitBit comes in a variety of colors and comes with a small and large wrist band. 

Most importantly, The FitBit is FUN because you can connect your stats with your FitBit friends. Compare to see who has the most steps in the past 7 days and -cheer- or -boo- them (I only cheer! haha). 

Cons- It doesn't track heart rate and doesn't give you steps or points for exercises other then walking or running. So if you are skiing, swimming, stretching, lifting, biking ... you get the idea, it won't give you steps. On some people, FitBit caused wearers to develop a skin irritation (allergy related) due to the nickel in the material. I have not had this concern. 

If you join FitBit, please let me know so we can become friends! 

Got questions? Looking for a friend to keep you motivated? 

email: catherinepatch@hanovernorwichschools.org 

Thanks! Catherine

Poetry - Grade 8

Poetry is the world distilled into essential words, tone, rhythm and rhyme. It is meant to be memorized and taken into the heart and soul. And then it is meant to be shared -- read aloud. 

My students each self-selected a poem of 25 lines or more, memorized it, and then created an iMovie on their iPad, of images that captured the poem and their recitation. The iMovies can be accessed here, or from QR codes they created and put on Poem Posters that are outside the RMS library media center. Bring your iPhone next time you visit and watch students' movies of William Blake, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Allan Poe, Tupak Chakur, Robert Frost, and Shel Silverstein to name a few. 

-Dorcas Wonsavage, English Teacher