Update on CCAMS Creek Squad

Hello all,

Below is a letter that shares information about our middle school Creek Squad. I thought I would share the information with everyone! :)

December 10, 2010

Dear Parent(s) of Creek Squad Member,

As you are probably aware our Clear Creek Amana Middle School Creek Squad has been very busy this school year! The Creek Squad is under the guidance of Mrs. Sandi Zimmerman, 8^th grade teacher, Mr. Joe Francis, district technology coordinator, Mrs. Ruth Cooper, librarian, and Ms. Stacy Behmer, technology consultant from GWAEA. So far this year the Creek Squad has taught many of our staff (including me) a lot about how to use technology in our school. They also have trained the district secretaries and many of our middle school students and teachers. Much of the Creek Squad focus this year has been on training themselves and others how to use the Google tools.

I wanted to take a couple of minutes to update everyone on some upcoming training sessions and work that the Creek Squad will be performing in the months ahead.

Training Students at Cedar Rapids Prairie

Next week, on December 15^th, the Creek Squad will be taking their show on the road. They will spend the day at Cedar Rapids Prairie in which they will be training the 8^th graders at their middle school. The students there will be trained on the Google applications. The group will leave at 8:30 and return to the middle school around 3:30. Mrs. Zimmerman and Mr. Francis will accompany the students to Prairie. Lunch will be provided by the folks at Prairie. Mr. Francis and Mrs. Zimmerman will drop the students off at their homes following the training.

Cleaning and Servicing the Laptops at CCAMS

Between now and Winter Break the Creek Squad members will be cleaning and inventorying all of the new laptops in our middle school. This isn’t the glamorous work, but it’s much appreciated. We have to keep our machines in good order so we can continue to use them for years to come.

Training Teachers at our 3 Elementary Schools

Probably in late January or early February we are going to start sending small groups of our Creek Squad members out to our elementary schools to help train their teachers on the Google applications. The middle school teachers (thanks to the Creek Squad) are ahead of the curve district wide in their use of the Google applications. With the help of the Creek Squad we will spread this knowledge and use.

Mentoring our “Next Generation” of CCAMS Creek Squad Members

Unfortunately for us, our Creek Squad members will be moving on to the high school next year. Therefore we need our Creek Squad members to mentor and train 10-15 of our current 7^th graders so they can take over next year. The 7^th graders will have to apply for these positions. Mrs. Zimmerman, Mr. Francis, a Creek Squad member, and I will interview the potential candidates and choose the members for next year. Once the new members have been selected the Creek Squad will then train the new members.

Getting our 5^th Graders “Up to Speed”

Since using the Google applications has become the way we do a lot of our business at our middle school the Creek Squad will need to spend some time training our current 5^th grade students. This work will likely occur after Spring Break. The Creek Squad will spend some time at all three of our elementary schools training our 5^th graders on how to use the Google applications. This will help the 5^th graders be better prepared when they start middle school next fall.

As you can see, the Creek Squad is doing, and will do, some great things at our middle school. I’m thankful and appreciative of their work! If you have any questions about the Creek Squad, please contact me.

Respectfully,

Brad L. Fox

Principal

Clear Creek Amana Middle School