<html><body bgcolor="#FFFFFF"><div><br><br>Sent from my iPhone<div>Caroline Meeks</div><div>617-395-7966</div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div><div><br>Begin forwarded message:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><b>From:</b> Kavita Venkatesh <<a href="mailto:venkatek@gmail.com">venkatek@gmail.com</a>><br><b>Date:</b> June 23, 2009 5:29:08 PM EDT<br><b>To:</b> Caroline Meeks <<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a>><br><b>Subject:</b> <b>Re: Quote from the GPA</b><br><br></div></blockquote><div></div><blockquote type="cite"><div>Caroline,<br>I hope its not too late, but here is a quote (unless someone else has brought one to you).  I ran this by Erica, hope it looks good.  Please feel free to tweak it if you need!<br><br>"By implementing <span class="il">Sugar</span> on a Stick in our daily instruction, we will be able to reach the needs of the diverse learners at our school through a variety of activities, games and programs.  The consistency of the platform will allow students to take home the <span class="il">Sugar</span> on a Stick and continue work at home, regardless of what computer technology they have at their house.  We realize the need to have a strong technological program at our school to set our students up for successes throughout their education and future professions and <span class="il">Sugar</span> on a Stick supports that goal."<br><br>Also, I will be taking my personal laptop (a dell) with me while I'm in out of town.  I am leaving my school laptop here.  I also might be taking a onelaptop laptop (the green one) because I have a 5 year old niece who I will be with and I'm curious to see how she will play around with it.  Also, I read through that score card - measurements and targets are so clear.  <br> <br>Talk to you soon - I'm getting more and more excited!<br>Kavita<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 1:56 PM, Caroline Meeks <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com"><a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a></a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 11:35 AM, Kavita Venkatesh <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:venkatek@gmail.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:venkatek@gmail.com">venkatek@gmail.com</a></a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Hi,<br><br>I am going to be out of town from June 30 - July 22nd and again from July 30th-August 12th.<br><br>I will have access to email and phone and skype June June 30th to about July 15th, after that I will be getting my wisdom teeth out and I have no idea what to expect!  After August 12th, though, I am in Boston taking a few professional developments and getting ready for the school year.  <br> <br>I do keep in touch frequently with many colleagues over the summer, so if I am not able to get a sense of what teachers are thinking by the end of the year, I'll talk to them over the summer and get that information for you.<br> <br>I have a couple questions for you (these may have been discussed earlier with Erica and Abby, so I apologize for the redundancy): <br><br>--What were you thinking as far as planning and rolling this out over the summer?  I was going to see if I could borrow a Sugar on a Stick to take with me over the summer to see where and when I can use it in my own curriculum and roll out lessons on how to use it.</blockquote> </div><div><br>We are in the process of creating the next release and will be doing bug fixes all summer. What computer will you be taking with you this summer? <br></div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <br> --When you mentioned in your previous email about the number of computers - what exactly did you mean?  Are we getting computers along with the sugar on a stick?  I was under the impression that we would be getting sugar on a stick (enough to pilot it at our school) and use it on the technology we already have.</blockquote> </div><div><br>Yes, we will be using existing computers but we will also be collecting donated computers from the community.  Thus we can put a few computers where ever you want them and have space.  If a teacher wants a computer corner with 2-6 computers we can work on setting that up. If you want to put a couple of computers down in the basement hallway, we could set that up.  We will almost certainly get more desktops then laptops.  Laptops often break before people replace them.<br> <br>Once we get as many computers as you want into the schools we'll start working on getting computers into all the kids houses. Many of them will already have computers so we'll work on getting the sticks to work on what they have and then getting donated computers into kids homes that need computers.  We do expect this to be challenging, but the only way to learn how to do this is to try it.<br> <br>Neither the school, nor my house, has much storage space so I've been reluctant to start collecting equipment too much ahead of having a place to put it. I have about 5 computers in my house now.  I don't know how fast we'll get equipment once we start pushing for it. <br> <br></div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br> --How many "sticks" were you thinking we would be using - or is this again something that teacher need and interest would dictate?</blockquote></div><div><br>Ideally one per student. We don't have a commitment to our funder or anyone else to get to the entire school by the end of next year, but that is our eventual goal and doing it next year would be great.  <br> <br>The goal is: Every student has access at home, school and their after school program.  Every teacher can feel confident giving homework requiring computer access.  <br><br>Clearly some teachers will use this more then others and it will take time to integrate it with your curriculum.  Our grant is low key so we don't have to pressure anyone who isn't ready.  I know there is a lot of interest.<br>  </div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br>--Since this is a grant, what are the outcomes and expectations that we need to show by the end of the year?  Or is that something we set on our own?</blockquote> </div><div><br>Here is our current balanced score card. Its still a work in progress so feel free to give me input.  <a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=px5yPvIlUlLtsrYpZdVG_EQ&output=html" target="_blank"><a href="http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=px5yPvIlUlLtsrYpZdVG_EQ&output=html">http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=px5yPvIlUlLtsrYpZdVG_EQ&output=html</a></a><br> </div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><br> <br>I'm sure more questions will come out as I keep thinking about this.  At the very least, I hope we can communicate over email for the next few weeks so that we can roll this out immediately next year!</blockquote> </div><div><br>Our goal is to shake out bugs this summer so things go smoothly in the fall.  <br></div><div class="im"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <br><br>I'll write up a quick quote, run it by Erica, and forward it to you.<br> <br>Thanks - I hope my email wasn't too long!</blockquote></div><div><br>not at all! I'm a big email person. Thanks for communicating!<br><font color="#888888"><br>Caroline<br><br> <br></font></div><div><div></div> <div class="h5"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <br><font color="#888888">Kavita</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 9:27 AM, Caroline Meeks <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a></a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Thanks!<br><br>Have a great end of year! Are you around at all over the summer?<br><font color="#888888"><br> Caroline</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jun 20, 2009 at 2:28 PM, Kavita Venkatesh <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:venkatek@gmail.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:venkatek@gmail.com">venkatek@gmail.com</a></a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">Hi Caroline,<br><br>It is really nice to meet you over email :)  I haven't yet talked with Jahaira, so I'm not sure what she is thinking.  I am a fourth grade teacher and I know that my fourth grade team is VERY interested in this.  Jahaira and I will talk with other teachers in the building (along with Abby) and get a sense of computers back to you.<br> <br>It may take a few days since its the end of the year and things are a bit crazy - but I will get back to you as soon as I can.<br><br>I am so excited for this project in our school.<br><br>Kavita<div><div></div><div> <br><br><div class="gmail_quote"> On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 4:00 PM, Caroline Meeks <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a></a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> Congrats Erica! No I hadn't heard.<br><br>Kavita and Jahaira, nice to meet you. Let us know when a good time to meet is.<br><br>We have a lot to do and most of it is moving along well. We have time set up to meet with the Summer staff of June 30 and July 1st.<br> <br>There are two things I'd love to get some input on before then.<br><br>1. A short quote from someone from GPA for our press release.<br><br>2. A sense of how many computers you would like to put into the building and when you'd be ready to have us start phasing them in.  I expect this will be a classroom by classroom decision and that each teacher will have their own priorities.  But some overall sense would be helpful. We are ready to start talking to companies about donations, but I'm wary of having a garage full of computers so I don't want to get dontations too much in advance of when you are ready to have them in the school.<br> <br>Thanks!<br><font color="#888888">Caroline</font><div><div></div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 19, 2009 at 3:15 PM, Herman, Erica M. <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:eherman@boston.k12.ma.us" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:eherman@boston.k12.ma.us">eherman@boston.k12.ma.us</a></a>></span> wrote:<br> <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div link="blue" vlink="blue" lang="EN-US"> <div> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">I also want to be sure that I connect you to Kavita and Jahaira who will be overseeing a great deal of this work next year.  As you know, I am going on maternity leave starting next week and will not be available this summer.  In addition, Julie Bott, our assistant principal is also copied as well.</span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"><br> Thanks and we are very excited about this new initiative </span></font><font size="2" color="navy" face="Wingdings"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Wingdings; color: navy;">J</span></font><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"></span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;"> </span></font></p> <div> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Erica Herman</span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Principal<br> Gardner Pilot Academy</span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Boston Public Schools</span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">30 Athol Street</span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">Allston</span></font><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">, MA 02134</span></font><font color="navy"><span style="color: navy;"></span></font></p> <p><font size="2" color="navy" face="Arial"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial; color: navy;">617-635-8365</span></font></p> </div> <div> <div style="text-align: center;" align="center"><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <hr size="2" width="100%" align="center"> </span></font></div> <p><b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma; font-weight: bold;">From:</span></font></b><font size="2" face="Tahoma"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Tahoma;"> <a href="mailto:solutiongrove@gmail.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:solutiongrove@gmail.com">solutiongrove@gmail.com</a></a> [mailto:<a href="mailto:solutiongrove@gmail.com" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:solutiongrove@gmail.com">solutiongrove@gmail.com</a></a>] <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">On Behalf Of </span></b>Caroline Meeks<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Sent:</span></b> Thursday, June 18, 2009 8:16 PM<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">To:</span></b> Herman, Erica M.; Walter Bender; Abby Brown<br> <b><span style="font-weight: bold;">Subject:</span></b> Quote from the GPA</span></font></p> </div><div><div></div><div> <p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></font></p> <p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Hi,<br> <br> We are working on a press release annouceing our work and grant.  Please let us know if you have any comments or corrections.  It would be great to get a quote.<br> <br> <br> Thanks<br> Caroline<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> DRAFT<br> DRAFT [SugarLabsPR-en] Sugar Labs Announces Immediate Availability of Sugar on a Stick; Learning Platform Runs on Any PC or Netbook In The Classroom<br> DRAFT<br> <br> Berlin, June 24, 2009: Sugar Labs, nonprofit provider of the Sugar Learning Platform to over one-million children worldwide, announces the immediate availability of Sugar on a Stick v1 Strawberry. Available free for download at <URL>, Sugar on a Stick can be loaded onto an ordinary USB stick and used to reboot any PC or netbook directly into the award-winning Sugar environment. Identifiable by the red Sugar logo at startup, Sugar on a Stick Strawberry is meant for classroom testing and feedback (<a href="mailto:feedback@sugarlabs.org" target="_blank"><a href="mailto:feedback@sugarlabs.org">feedback@sugarlabs.org</a></a>); the next version will be available towards the end of the year.<br> <br> "One year after its founding, Sugar Labs is delivering on its education promise for its second million learners," commented Walter Bender, founder and executive director. "Governments prefer Sugar because of its superior learning experience for young children. Sugar on a Stick is a great way to try Sugar without touching your computer's hard disk. It is well suited to slower PCs and low-powered netbooks. We have a version for the OLPC XO-1 as well."<br> <br> As part of an ongoing effort to make Sugar on a Stick classroom-ready, Sugar Labs has been awarded a $20,000 grant from the Gould Charitable Foundation to implement Sugar at the Gardner Pilot Academy, a public elementary school located in one of the most culturally and linguistically diverse sections of Boston, Massachusetts.  <Gould and/or GPA quote><br> <br> Learning Activities are at the heart of Sugar. Sugar on a Stick includes a dozen Activities interesting for the classroom: <X, Y, Z>. Dozens more Activities are available free for download at <ASLO>. Most "Sugarized" Activities have student collaboration built-in; students work, play, and learn on the same Activities together. The Sugar Learning Platform is open, so by leveraging the work of other free open source developers, existing software for children can be integrated. The GCompris suite of 100 Activities developed over the past five years was recently added to Sugar, bringing chess, geography and <xxx> Activities to the platform. In another recent development, teachers and parents interested in Sugar's Activities and its modern interface for children can watch films on the Sugar Labs Dailymotion channel <URL><br> <br> Sugar is the core software of the One Laptop per Child project, a worldwide effort to provide every child with an equal opportunity to a quality education. Over 1.2 million distinctive, green and white XO-1 laptops have been distributed to children in 40 developing countries speaking 26 languages. New XO-1s are being produced at a rate of 50,000 per month. An updated version of the OLPC laptop, the XO-1.5, will arrive in the fall. It will ship with the 0.84 version of Sugar (released in March). Sugar on a Stick brings Sugar's Activities to teachers and parents who already have access to a computer. Sugar can even run on recent Macs using virtualization.<br> <br> Sugar Labs is a community of volunteers passionate about giving children tools to learn and celebrates the founding of the first Local Labs structures in Colombia and Washington, DC; others are starting to take form. Local Labs will provide valuable relays between Sugar Labs deployers and schools evaluating and using Sugar.<br> <br clear="all"> <br> -- <br> Caroline Meeks<br> Solution Grove<br> <a href="mailto:Caroline@SolutionGrove.com"><a href="mailto:Caroline@SolutionGrove.com">Caroline@SolutionGrove.com</a></a><br> <br> 617-500-3488 - Office<br> 505-213-3268 - Fax</span></font></p> </div></div></div> </div> </blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br><a href="mailto:Caroline@SolutionGrove.com">Caroline@SolutionGrove.com</a><br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br></div></div><font color="#888888">-- <br>Kavita Venkatesh<br>Gardner Pilot Academy<br>Grade Four Learning Specialist<br>614-893-6913<br> </font></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br><a href="mailto:Caroline@SolutionGrove.com">Caroline@SolutionGrove.com</a><br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Kavita Venkatesh<br>Gardner Pilot Academy<br>Grade Four Learning Specialist<br>614-893-6913<br> </div></div></blockquote></div></div></div><div><div></div><div class="h5"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Caroline Meeks<br>Solution Grove<br><a href="mailto:Caroline@SolutionGrove.com">Caroline@SolutionGrove.com</a><br><br>617-500-3488 - Office<br>505-213-3268 - Fax<br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Kavita Venkatesh<br>Gardner Pilot Academy<br>Grade Four Learning Specialist<br>614-893-6913<br> </div></blockquote></body></html>