ICTS Newsletter June 2018 · icts leadership team. Steve Smith. Chief Information Officer. Amy Short. Assistant Director of . Library Media Services. Ginny Berkowitz . Media Arts

Information, Communication, and Technology ServicesICTS

library media n educational technology n media arts n technical services n web services June 2018

CPSCambridge Public Schools

Google Expeditions visits Kennedy-Longfellow School Read story on page. 5.

CPS & Cyber Security

We have all been reading about the data breaches in the news. Almost every day there is a new story about Ransomware, data breaches, or inappropriate sharing of data. Recently K12 was found to be the most targeted industry for cyber attacks. This is most likely because many schools are not fully protected and considered “Soft Targets.”

In an effort to best position CPS against such attacks ICTS will be develop-ing a more formal Cyber Security program. An important part of any such program is employee training and awareness. We hope to be announcing Cyber Security training and awareness programs and resources in the near future. Keep an eye out for these very important pieces of information over the summer. In an age of cyber crime, it will take all of us to properly protect CPS’s digital resources.

Have a great summer!

Steve Smith

vision statement

The Information, Communica-tion, and Technology Services (ICTS) department is a collabo-ration among Library Media, Educational Technology, Media Arts, Web Services, and Technical Services divisions. This department strives to sup-port administration and teach-ers; inform parents; and prepare students for lifelong learning, informed decision-making, a love of reading, and the use of information and communication technologies.

icts leadership team

Steve Smith Chief Information Officer

Amy ShortAssistant Director of Library Media Services

Ginny Berkowitz Media Arts Manager

Kevin Keegan Technical Services Manager

Gina Roughton Assistant Director of Educational Technology

Lisa WatersWeb & Online Services Manager

459 BroadwayCambridge, MA 02138617.349.9360Fax: 617.349.6800www.cpsd.us

from the chief information officer Steve Smith

CPSCambridge Public Schools

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technical services Kevin Keegan, Manager 617.349.6814 n [email protected]

What is Phishing?Phishing is a cyber crime where someone tries to trick a user via email (telephone or text message as well) to give up their login credentials to various web sites or accounts. With these login credentials, the culprits can access your personal identifiable information, credit card accounts, and bank accounts.

Many of the attempts trick users to click a link in an email. The link takes you to a webpage that looks identical to the legit company’s web page, and the user enters their account information into the fields. The problem is that once you hit submit, your account in-formation is sent to the criminal’s database and not the company you thought you were connected to.

The first phishing lawsuit was filed in 2004 against a teenager from California.

In 2017, researchers at Proofpoint found that the top 10 Phishing lures were: Google Drive, Microsoft OWA, Apple Accounts, USAA, Paypal, Adobe Account, Dropbox, Blackboard, LinkedIn, and Capital One. Apple attempts leading the way.

HOW TO SPOT A PHISHING ATTEMPT

If you look at the email that you receive, the sender of the email, the email address is not from the company you are expecting. Looking at an email address, for example from a phishing attempt and it says it is from Apple regarding your account, and the email address is [email protected]. You will notice the company name (domain) portion of the email (everything after the @ symbol) says apple.i.com, it does not say apple.com. This would be the second red flag. The first red flag would be that they are asking you verify your ac-count information, no reputable website or company will ever ask you randomly to verify your account information.

Another way to see that a link in the email is errone-ous is to hover your mouse pointer over the link, you will see the actual link it is trying to take you in the lower left corner of your browser.

Other ways to distinguish a possible phishing attempt: the offer is too good to be true, there might be a sense of urgency, the sender of the email is very unusual, there is an attachment, they are demanding attention, as well as other scare tactics.

You can go to www.phishing.org to learn more about phishing.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU THINK YOU HAVE FALLEN VICTIM TO A PHISHING ATTEMPT

The first thing you need to do is change your password to the account that you were victimized on. If you have other accounts at other businesses with the same username and password, you should also change those passwords as well.

Cambridge Public Schools is looking into a possible training program to educate CPS users on how to spot different types of phishing attempts. Please keep an eye out for these trainings.

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Charles’ visit coincided with Character Day. Charles performed for us while we emulated our favorite turtles, pigeons, paper bag princesses, and Hogwarts students. It was a joyful and thought-provoking day we won’t soon forget!

Thanks to Friends of King Open, the CPS Library Department, and all of you Book Fair shoppers for funding Charles’ visit!

Haggerty: Poetry in the Garden with Sarah Grace Tuttle By: Sarah NovogrodskyFirst graders worked with local poet Sarah Grace Tuttle to hone their observational skills. It was a lovely way to use our CitySpouts garden to support writing. Thank you to the parents who helped with this visit!

Lavender FlowerLong, wet and purpleLooks pretty, bunches of leavesI feel awesome about what I noticed-- By Devon

TreeRough barkLichen on the outsideA little pollenLots of branches and leavesShapes and twists make a tree-- By Lucy

By: Jen Mason Stott

On April 26, poet/photographer Charles R. Smith, Jr. wowed King Open with his words, his world travel - and his handstands! Charles gave three high-energy presentations about writing, traveling, physical fit-ness, and “getting comfortable being uncomfortable.” Charles first visited King Open in 2009 and has since published biographies, poetry, and books on little-known Black History. His new fan club followed him to the library for photos!

library media services Amy Short, Assistant Director 617.349.6492 n [email protected]

Charles R. Smith Visits King Open for National Poetry Month

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Jewell Parker Rhodes @ CSUSBy: Keegan Charlier

Cambridge Street Upper School was thrilled to welcome best-selling author of adult and children’s books, Jewell Parker Rhodes, as a guest speaker. Dr. Rhodes has received many awards, including a Coretta Scott King Honor Award for her novel, Ninth Ward.

This inspiring author gave a presenta-tion to the eighth grade students about her newest novel, Ghost Boys, in which a twelve-year-old boy is shot by a police officer because he is playing with a toy gun. Gathered in an intimate conversa-tion with the students, Dr. Rhodes spoke about historical and contemporary racial injustices, and the power our students have to change the world. The students were entranced by her words and her call for action.

During a question and answer period, the students were eager to learn about her writing process and her emotional connection to her work. Dr. Rhodes shared that this book took her two-and-a-half years to write because of the difficult subject matter. She spoke about her research process and the close relationship she has with her various characters.

Each eighth grade student received a copy of Ghost Boys, thanks to the Porter Square Book Foundation, and Dr. Rhodes signed every single one of them. Many of the students have already started or finished her book! We are honored that Dr. Rhodes shared her time with us and we look forward to the stories she will tell next.

Summer Reading Bookmark 2018

Charles R. Smith Visits King Open for National Poetry Month

By: Sarah Novogrodsky

On Wednesday, April 25th, poet, author, and photographer Charles Smith, Jr. visited with the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th graders of our school. He started the presentation with a school photo of himself in the 8th grade, and went on to describe how he became who he is today - after aspiring to be an astronaut!

Today, Mr. Smith is a very accom-plished children’s author, photogra-pher, and athlete. He uses his love of sports and music, as well as his photography to provide inspira-tional texts geared toward children. One of his major themes is how the lessons learned while playing sports are readily applied to every-day life. His most recent accom-plishment in the athletic realm was competing on the show “American Ninja Warrior!”

During his presentation Mr. Smith masterfully conveyed the power of words. He also showed examples where he uses the formatting of the text to relay meaning. In his book Rimshots, the poem is printed to look like the path of a basketball to the hoop.

Our students have begun their own “I am…” poems, modeled after his two books I am America and I am the World. The Haggerty Library has many of the books he has writ-ten, so please check them out! April is Poetry Month and because of Friends of Haggerty we were able to celebrate poetry in a big way with this visit by Charles Smith, Jr.!

Charles R. Smith Jr.’s visit was unlike any other visit I’ve experienced at Haggerty. He grabbed our atten-tion at the beginning and you were hooked for the rest. He told us about how he became a poet and he came to write his first book, Rimshots. He has traveled to 43 out of 50 states and Hawaii is his favorite. He told us about how he was on American Ninja Warriors and about his pho-tography career. He has done books about NBA and WNBA stars and a lot about Black History. I really liked how fun he was. Thank you for hav-ing him come to Haggerty! By Hazel M. (4th grade).

Author Charles Smith, Jr. Visits the Haggerty Library

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Featured Booklist: 50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should KnowFrom CPS Library Online Database, TeachingBooks.net:This classic booklist from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center reminds us that every child should have the opportunity to see themselves, their families and their communities in the books they read. An engaging way to provide windows and mirrors to children, teens and families in your school or library community.

Explore resources for all the titles from the 50 Multicultural Books Every Child Should Know booklist.

Visit CPS Online Library Resources for access to TeachingBooks.net (book, author and literacy resources) and other online databases and resources! If required, TeachingBooks.net password: CPSD and username: CPSD

Our First RAUC Summer Reading Book Fair was a Success!By: Sam Musher

More than 90 students took books home, and I heard over and over from students and parents, “Wow, you have a lot of good books here!” Even those who didn’t buy books enjoyed making lists of titles to check out of the library. I look for-ward to spending 10% of the sales on a stack of new books for our school library.

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educational technologyGina Roughton, Assistant Director 617.349.6478 n [email protected]

By: Kathy Malone, Kennedy-Longfellow Instructional Technology Specialist

Recently, Kennedy-Longfellow students had a truly unique opportunity when Google visited our school to share it’s Pioneer Program with our students and staff. Google’s Pioneer Program has been traveling through select areas of the US and Europe. This was an all day school event which took place in the school’s maker-space and library with back-to-back concurrent sessions. Students participated in hands-on/eyes-on Augmented Reality experience that brought 3D objects, like animals and insects, in the makerspace and library, so that everyone could examine these objects together at the same time, accessing content that would not be humanly possible for students to normally do during a “traditional” school day. These AR experiences were a first for many of us!

Google Expeditions Visits Kennedy-Longfellow!

The excitement was palpable while students participated in these immersive AR learning experiences. KLO teachers thoughtfully choose the Expedition tour to share with their students that would best tie in and scaffold the curriculum that students were learning. During this event, the learning experiences were launched by each classroom teacher introducing the experience with a teacher device that was then accessed by student teams holding a selfie stick with an android tablet that immersed the students into the content. The tours included many augmented reality objects that were designed to allow students access to many learning experiences that are not physically accessible to learners in every-day life. These AR experiences/tours made learning more engaging to students by bringing lesson plan subjects to life!

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Some of the tours students took included African Animals, Dinosaurs, Ecosystem of a Coral Reef, Insects, The Ocean Floor, Forces of Nature, and many more. It was an exciting learning day for all partici-pants. Be sure to ask your child what their experience was if you haven’t already. So far, we were the only school in Cambridge that had a chance to participate in this special sneak peek of Expeditions AR which been released.

Given the level of student engagement, in the future, KLO hopes attain funding to purchase a kit that would allow the Kennedy-Longfellow teachers to regularly plan these immersive experiences to scaffold instruction here at KLO.

Visit https://bit.ly/2sHPrH1/ to learn more!

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CPS successfully held its first annual Scratch Day event on May 10th. Hosted at CRLS, the event, which coincided with the world-wide Scratch Day, welcomed CPS students and families of all ages to participate in coding activities. Scratch, developed by MIT, is a free, block-based computer science programming language that aims to teach computer science to people of all ages.

About 100 students and family members got hands-on experience with making animations, games, stories, and more! Activities were run by 23 CRLS computer sci-ence students, who volunteered at the event. Partners from HGSE, ScratchEd Foundation, Lesley University, as well as CPS parents, also volunteered.

Stomachs were filled with the cu-linary wonders of RSTA students, who baked cookies and arranged

fresh fruit and veggie platters.(Make some shout out to RSTA culinary for making food).

The evening ended with a group-wide share out of projects, which ranged from a soccer game, to an animation with a flying wizard, to remixes of classic Pong games.

Said one young CPS student, “I love Scratch and I really hope we get to do this again next year!”

A parent stated, “My daughter wasn’t thinking she would partici-pate. We got here and she changed her mind. Now she is saying: it was great, so fun, I never want to leave.”

If you’d like to be involved with next year’s Scratch Day planning, please contact Jen Lavalle at [email protected] or Nicole Hart at [email protected].

CRLS Principal Damon Smith and his two sons play Scratch Jr. Games at CPS Scratch Day.

Scratch Day 2018

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Sixth graders across the district have had the oppor-tunity to participate in the first (hopefully annual) Computer Science Playground over the last two weeks. In an effort to increase Computer Science learning for ALL, the playground engaged students in a variety of computer science related activities to provide expo-sure to computational thinking, spark interest in high school courses and careers, and create community connections, all while having fun. Much like a typical playground, we encouraged socialization, curiosity, and hands-on learning with elements of choice.

Students watched an introductory video that relayed the impact of computer science in our lives, as well as, outlined the schedule for the Playground. They then spent 30 minutes in one of four classrooms with the following activities - take apart a computer, CRLS con-nections, create a musical instrument, and community partners. Students rotated through the classrooms and provided feedback through a Playground Map that they brought with them to each room. Students

Computer Science Playgroundused micro screwdrivers to disassemble old laptops to find the hard drive and other parts, created paper circuits to light an LED on the MIT Dome, built key-boards and guitars out of cardboard and programmed through Scratch and MakeyMakeys to make music, and were able to ask all their burning questions about CS courses and RSTA offerings.

Based on the smiles and hum of excitement they had an engaging and exciting time. Community part-ners included ScratchEd @ Harvard, Lemelson-MIT and Lesley University. Next week PAUS, CSUS and Amigos will get a chance to engage with community partners from the Audible, Accenture, Broad Institute, Cambridge Public Library, MIT Museum, Microsoft Garage, Owl Labs and The Puzzle School. We look forward to designing more opportunities for students across the district to experience Computer Science.

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media arts Ginny Berkowitz, Manager 617.349.6744 n [email protected]

The Media Arts Studio is proud to showcase all 2017-2018 final projects from RSTA Media Technology and Media Arts Studio classes, and our after school programs. This year we present work from ten courses, many CRLS collabora-tions, and the after school work study production crew and clubs. The more than 40 hours of origi-nally produced student-work can be seen for viewing on-demand on the MediaCAST portal. Or you can find these programs on the Channel 98 cable and streaming schedule.

This year’s work includes stories about CRLS and stories about our community, MAS series such as Falcon Sports World, Spot On, Youth View Cambridge, and The Word, documentaries and narrative pieces, exciting sports events, live performances, music videos, and more!

End-of-year guest visitors and our annual Media Fair rounded out the year and touched on the many ways in which students connected to media making this school year:

Robin Young, host of NPR’s Here and Now, joined Sound Design, Digital Film & TV, and Sports Journalism students here at the Me-dia Arts Studio for an afternoon of stories and techniques. Ms. Young was gracious enough to share many stories from her broadcast career which spans more than 25 years, mostly here in the Boston/Cam-bridge area. Her lecture came as the classes prepared to undertake their own podcasts and documenta-ries; projects which require strong interview and technical skills which Robin offered in great measure.

The Media Arts Studio was proud to host Grammy award-recipient Austen Jux-Chandler, a recent import from the U.K.’s music production scene. Austen spoke to our students about life in the entertainment industry; sharing stories about his own personal journey to the professional studio, what it’s like to work with indus-try legends like Drake, Adele and

The Weeknd, and some great tips on how one might transition from high school hobbyist to working studio artist or engineer. After the lecture Austen hung around the studio and worked with CRLS Music Video and Music Composi-tion & Production students to craft their own music; giving individual-ized tips and feedback to help push some of CRLS’s own up and coming talent.

In June, CRLS Media Journal-ism students producing a podcast about sexual harassment held a Zoom conference call with Adam Moore, National Director EEO & Diversity for SAG-AFTRA, the union representing 160,000 actors and radio personalities. Their goal was to understand how the union was trying to change the culture in Hollywood with a new ban on hotel room and private residence audi-tions. Looking into SAG/AFTRA’s New York Boardroom was a treat. Moore candidly explained the

Special Guest Visits!

continued on next page >>

Media Arts Studio hosts Austen Jux-Chandler

For channel schedule and streaming: www.cpsd.us/departments/media_arts/ channel_98_99

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More Information

https://mediacast.cpsd.us/mediaportal/

Watch Our Channels! Access the Student Media Portal!

kinds of situations that necessitated this common sense ban, referring not only to the headlines about Harvey Weinstein and others, but the entrenched practices that made actors vulnerable to harassment. Adam Moore also gave students a broad understanding of the role of unions in production as well as his own path from actor to advocate. He says we are at a turning point where diversity in storytelling and casting is not only the right thing, but proven good business. Pointing to new media distribution plat-forms, Moore encouraged students to create their own stories.

Media Fair 2018! The Media Fair was held on May 24th as we celebrated our 11th year of after school student work at the Media Arts Studio (MAS). Students and staff gathered for pizza and oreos (a long standing CEATV Crew staple) and to enjoy a look back on the amazing videog-raphy of the 2017-2018 school year.

The compilation reel (http://mediacast.cpsd.us/url/101357) was dedicated to our after school crew and highlighted the work of Youth View Cambridge, a semi monthly news magazine produced by our work-study Production As-sistants with support from audio and animation club members. The

reel includes a YVC retrospective; YVC anchor and excerpt sampler; FY18 CRLS sports and VPA high-lights of the year as recorded by the crew; independent creative projects including three senior projects, and three music videos.

Thanks to all our MAS staff, students, and collaborators for another exceptional and fun year of media making!

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We’d Love YOUR HelpIf you take any fab photos around the district, please send them to Amy Spencer for possible inclusion on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook (don’t forget about media releases). Big thanks!

web services Lisa Waters, Web & Online Services Manager 617.349.3056 n [email protected]

Have you downloaded the Mobile App Yet?

Receive school closing and emergency notifications in the palm of your hand

Have quick access to important links on the district website

Read up-to-date news

Browse the district calendar for upcoming events and meetings

And more....

aWith this app you can:

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aaa

http://bit.ly/cps_mobile_app

The first time you open the App, it will ask you if you would like to receive push notifications. Select “YES” if you would like to receive emergency closing an-nouncements and other urgent messages without having to open or check the App.

CPS Rebranding ProjectCPS is starting a rebranding project this summer and needs your help! The CPS district and school websites will be redesigned and we need your feedback.

We want to make sure the websites meet your expectations and more. By filling out the following short survey, we will be able to understand the experience families have when visiting CPS websites and how it can be improved. We also will examine communication efforts collectively at CPS. Thank you in advance for your participation.

Take the Survey >>www.surveymonkey.com/r/cps_rebranding_survey

Where is CPS on Social Media?

See all of our social media accounts:

www.cpsd.us/news/socialmedia

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www.cpsd.us