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EdTech Show Daily 2 9 Tuesday, February 7, 2017 middle school students in 30 different schools with a Chromebook™ laptop. In 2015, grades 5, 9 and 10 were added. Plans are in place for the continued roll- out of digital devices to all grade levels up through 2018. Students at CMS do not take the take their laptops home. The students pick up the devices at the beginning of school day and return them for recharging at the end of the day. With such a large invest- ment in technology, the team at CMS decided to use charging carts to charge, store and secure the e-learning devices. After evaluating a wide array of options, CMS turned to Black Box, a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based supplier of technolo- gy product solutions, for a charging and storage solution. "We chose Black Box Charging Carts because of a combination of fac- tors: high quality, competitive pricing, lifetime warranty and the ability to deliv- er a large quantity of carts in a very short time – six weeks," said Cedrick Canty, Assistant Director in the Office of Information Systems and Support at CMS. "Black Box provided us with the best value: a high-quality, well-built charging cart that is extremely afford- Black Box (Cont'd. from p. 1) able. It meets our needs for storage, charging, security and safety." Black Box kept its commitment to CMS's quick turnaround schedule. Black Box worked hand-in-hand with Applied Data Technologies (ADT) for procure- ment management, configuration and deployment services for the carts. Black Box delivered 1,300 standard charging carts in June and July, and then another 500 carts during the school year. Since inception, Black Box has delivered more than 3,500 carts. "We consider Black Box a key ven- dor partner. They delivered more than 1,300 carts in less than six weeks with zero defects," said Will Howey, Deployment Manager at Applied Data Technologies. Canty added, "Every charging cart was delivered on time and in mint condition." The ADT team also prepared the charging carts to support CMS needs. "The cable management system on the carts allowed us to wire each cart in under 30 minutes," said Howey. "From my experience, that's two to three times faster than other cart manufacturers." For more information, visit booth #327, go to www.blackbox.com/tabletcarts or call 877.877.2269. When students take tests in Focus, there are a number of resources that teachers can activate, like scratch pads, calculators and time clocks. In addition, videos, images, audio recordings, tables and other multimedia files can be import- ed directly into the questions. The tests can be administered either online in Focus or printed and scanned back into Focus after completion. When the tests are taken online, the scores and grades automatically populate the Gradebook. Focus understands that there is sometimes a lack of quality resources available to teachers, so having the abil- ity to share these resources is important. Teachers often collaborate on lessons, activities and tests, within both school and district wide, to improve the quali- ty of their teaching, and easily create more thorough course instruction. With Focus, teachers and district-level administrators can share test questions and lessons with each other. This improves the quality of work in the Focus School Software (Cont'd. from p. 1) classroom, easily allows for more stan- dardized lessons, tests and assessments across schools and districts, and offers teachers a larger pool of test questions for faster test creation. Once the tests are created, taken and graded, teachers and school administra- tors need an assessment tool that allows them to make informed decisions based on accurate student performance data. Focus provides several tools and reports for teachers and administrators to ana- lyze student performance. Item analysis is available for individual test questions, and the Standard Test Report and Analyze Test features provide an overview of student performance on tests. Teachers and administrators can also analyze student proficiency in spe- cific standards. From test creation to student per- formance reporting, the Focus Assessment Component is the solution to meet your districts' needs. Visit Focus School Software at booth #235. For more information, go to www.focusschoolsoftware.com. support through PEG Writing Tools and Tips webinars. These short online ses- sions highlight specific features and tasks within PEG Writing. Texas schools are also encouraged to share their PEG Writing experiences, which are featured in regular blog posts. In 2016, Texas students were given the opportunity to enter PEG Writing's writing contest, which asked teachers to create a custom prompt for students related to Shel Silverstein's "Wild Strawberries" poem. Students responded to the prompt and revised their essays based on feedback from PEG Writing and their teachers. Class and individual winners were announced on our PEG Writing website. ESD: What are teachers and students saying about PEG Writing? KT: One of my favorite comments from students and teachers is how involved students get in the writing process with PEG Writing. Many teachers have com- mented how their students take it as a personal challenge. They want to 'beat' PEG (the automated scoring engine). The only way to 'beat' the scoring engine is to apply the recommended feedback and revise. What teacher wouldn't want that? Recently, a Brownsville ISD administra- tor was observing a group of ELL stu- dents and told me, 'Your developers need to come and hear what these students are saying! They are actually excited about writing.' That's when I know we're accomplishing what we set out to do. PEG Writing (Cont'd. from p. 1) ESD: Why would you encourage teach- ers to use a product like PEG Writing in their classroom? KT: It works! PEG Writing does what good formative assessment should do. It identifies at-risk students, giving them immediate feedback, lessons and opportu- nities to practice and grow as writers. Research has shown that with PEG Writing, proficient writers improve and struggling writers are moved to proficiency. ESD: Can you share any plans for the future? KT: In an effort to make informed deci- sions that are best for students and teach- ers in Texas, we are in close contact with the TEA regarding usage, obstacles, suc- cesses and product updates. We continue to improve the program, not only for our Texas users, but for everyone. I can't comment on specific contract issues, but we do hope to continue growing our rela- tionship with the students, teachers, writ- ing coaches and TEA staff who have made this an easy and successful imple- mentation so far! ESD: Where can teachers learn more about PEG Writing? KT: Visit www.pegwriting.com, or stop by booth #1552 to speak with me and get a personal demonstration of PEG Writing. Learn more about PEG Writing at booth #1552. Education Code 44.031, which states that an interlocal agreement with a purchas- ing cooperative (such as TIPS) satisfies the purchasing requirements for the dis- trict. 3. How much does it cost to be a mem- ber of TIPS? Membership in The Interlocal Purchasing System is free with no purchasing obliga- tion. 4. How does an organization benefit from using a purchasing cooperative like TIPS? Membership in a purchasing cooperative offers the following benefits: access to competitively procured contracts with quality vendors; savings of time and financial resources necessary to fulfill bid requirements; assistance with the purchasing process by qualified TIPS staff; and access to pricing based on "national" high-profile contracts. 5. Where are TIPS solicitations adver- tised? TIPS solicitations (RFPs/RFQs) are advertised for two consecutive weeks in the Pittsburg Gazette in Pittsburg, Texas TIPS (Cont'd. from p. 1) as well as on a national scope in the USA Today. Copies of these advertisements are also available to view on the TIPS website. 6. How does an organization become a member of TIPS? The TIPS website offers step-by-step instructions on how to become a member. The process is fast, and it's free. It is, however, specific to the state of Texas. Visit www.tips-usa.com/texasentities.cfm to access the membership instructions and documents. 7. How can a business become an Awarded Vendor to sell products or services through TIPS? The only way a vendor can sell products or services through the TIPS cooperative is to be awarded a contract by TIPS. This can only happen when a vendor responds to a TIPS solicitation (RFP/RFQ) for its specific product or service and meets the scoring requirements to receive an awarded contract from the Region 8 ESC Board of Directors (which serves as the governing board of TIPS). For further information, visit www.tips- usa.com/becomebidder.cfm. Visit TIPS at booth #123. The mBot is Makeblock's bestseller. This is an entry-level robot that not only looks great, but also comes with sensors, lights, motors and an option of Bluetooth or 2.4GHz wireless communication. It comes with a program pre-loaded on it, which allows users to play with three dif- ferent modes right out of the box. The mBot Ranger is targeted at mid- dle school students. This is a three-in-one robot: users can build the robot in Land Raider, Nervous Bird or Dashing Raptor forms, each with its own special charac- teristics. Users can change the form of the robot as their mood suits them to enjoy all the special features. The Ultimate 2.0 is the ultimate robot. It comes with many parts, includ- ing sensors and motors, and Makeblock has suggested 10 different building Makeblock (Cont'd. from p. 25) forms. But with the Ultimate 2.0, which is aimed at high school students and above, it really encourages users to delve into their creative minds and see what fantastic robot creations they can design themselves. As Makeblock likes to say, the only limit is your imagina- tion. But Makeblock doesn't just produce the robots. Once you have your robot built, you need some software to get that robot moving. Makeblock provides on this front too. Entry-level users looking to learn some programming can do just that through drag-and-drop programming software on their smartphone, tablet or computer. Those ready to take it to the next level can write code in C/C++ or Python. For more information, go to www .makeblock.com.