Category: General Articles
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New Sapphire Parent Portal, Goodbye Paper Report Cards
I am thrilled to announce the release of a new version of Penn Manor’s Sapphire Parent Portal. The new site, now called the Community Web Portal, will be available the evening of May 9th. Existing parent/student usernames, passwords, and PIN numbers will not change as we migrate to the new Web Portal. During the 2012-2013…
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PM School News on Android
I’m pleased to announce the availability of our brand new Comet News app for Android phones. The app makes it easy to follow district and building website news feeds. Android phone owners will find the free app in the Google Play store: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pmsd.cometnews. Penn Points and PM Techblog news is included as well. A big thank…
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Goodbye White Macbook
Visit any Penn Manor school building and you can’t help but notice Apple Macbook laptops in the hands of teachers and in scores of classrooms. As part of the PA Classrooms For the Future grant, Penn Manor has purchased nearly a thousand of these workhorse laptops. During the summer of 2011, Apple ceased offering the white 13″ Macbook…
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Winter 2012 Technology News Roundup
Happy New Year to PM Technology Blog readers! I recently emailed district staff a summary of recent technology happenings and news articles. Here are the highlights:Penn Manor School District was named a 2011 School of Excellence in Technology by the PA School Boards Association. The award recognizes the collective work of our teachers, staff, students and IT initiatives…
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Welcome Tom
I am pleased to announce that Tom Swartz has joined my staff as the building technology specialist for Conestoga Elementary, Eshleman Elementary and Manor Middle School. Tom was previously employed in the IT Department at Mahanoy Area School District. He was selected from a competitive pool of over 90 highly qualified candidates. Tom will spend…
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Is Your Password on The List?
We’ve all been taught never to use “password” as a personal password, right? Though it may seem obvious that such a password is easy to guess, “password” is a frequently used, and easily hacked, password according to a recent study preformed by SplashData. The mobile software company recently published their annual list of the worst…