Dear 3rd Grade Families, The Howard County Public School System promptes next generation learning--collaboration, problem solving and creative thinking--with student using electronic text, online tools, and other resources. The school system has implemented a private workspace with Google Apps for Education (GAFE); available only to staff and students of the Howard County Public School System. This valuable tool is accessible to all HCPSS schools during the 2014-2015 school year. Materials can be accessed electronically by students and staff, both in school and at home. To access the GAFE please bookmark https://hcpss.me, and click on Private. The students will log in with their username and password for the HCPSS school system. The 3rd graders are currently using GAFE to research a famous person as part of a biography unit. After logging into GAFE, they will go to My Driveand open a document that they have already created in school. This document contains specific questions that will help guide their research. Students are to record answers to these questions in their GAFE document. The information they find will then be used to help them write a brief essay on their famous person. Our media specialist, Mrs. Petrilla, has been teaching the students how to use GAFE. If you have any questions, please email Amy [email protected] and she will help you. We're excited that our 3rd graders are learning to use this dynamic learning tool and are looking forward to reading their great biographies. Sincerely yours, Mrs. Heflin Mrs. Moore Mrs. Whittaker