Tandem Friends School Technology

About Tandem Friends School

Tandem Friends School offers a rigorous college preparatory curriculum in an environment built on Quaker values. We are a coeducational day school serving students in grades 5 through 12. Our students receive an education in which intellectual, ethical, artistic, and athletic ideals are pursued. We foster capable students who: value a spiritual, egalitarian, kind, and creative community; thrive on independent, imaginative thought; are fully engaged in learning; and, seek the best from themselves and their community.

Academics

Learning is a cooperative venture at Tandem Friends; the intellectual curiosity of students is paired with an academically distinguished faculty. Our strong college preparatory curriculum meets or exceeds admission requirements of all major institutions of higher learning. But there is a difference. Learning at Tandem Friends is a dynamic process of questioning and dialogue. Teachers invite a sense of authorship in their students. Classroom discussions encourage active thinking, listening, and articulation. Teachers constantly challenge students to realize their intellectual potential.

Arts at Tandem Friends

Tandem Friends has a long tradition of commitment to and accomplishment in the arts. All students are encouraged to develop and explore their unique potential in all aspects of the creative arts. In the Middle School, fifth through eighth graders take one semester of drama and one semester of art each year. Fifth and sixth graders take a music class; there is an eighth grade rock band. In the Upper School, arts electives abound in digital film, visual arts, drama, and music. Upper School drama productions (three a year) rehearse after school.

Student Life

Every school offers academic classes, dedicated teachers, classrooms and computers, sports fields, gyms and locker rooms. Tandem Friends is no different. What sets us apart is the amazing sense of community that exists between faculty and students, faculty and parents, faculty coworkers, the school and the many organizations our community service projects touch. You can feel it the minute you set foot on campus - a sense of caring kindness and connections to one another.

Support Tandem Friends

Since 1970, Tandem Friends School has educated the young people of the Charlottesville area to truly "let their lives speak." And, just as we teach our students to value mankind and all that each of us has to offer, we ask you to express your support for the teaching and learning that happens here daily through the generous gifts you give.

List of 7 items.

Acceptable Use Agreement

You can find our Acceptable Use Agreement here which details internet and technology use at school.
Portal

Teachers, students and parents use the community portal to customize their communications from the school. Portal users can access customized calendars, news feeds, slideshows and athletics updates and receive alerts to their mobile phones. Our parent and student portals offer access to virtual classroom spaces, assignment calendars, report cards, a searchable school directory and supplementary information available to portal users at any time from anywhere. Students depend on our classroom portal as an easy way to access their homework assignments, participate in a discussion board topic, contribute to a class blog, turn in work, and collaborate on projects, and it serves as a communication center for many student clubs and groups on campus.
Classrooms

All of our classrooms have at least one computer and some have several, allowing teachers to provide a variety of activities simultaneously in their classrooms, and nearly every teacher makes use of a digital projector to bring multimedia content, digital slide presentations, or the latest news and research from the Web into the classroom. Students and teachers also have wireless access to the Internet and the school network throughout the campus.
Computer Lab

In addition to our 1:1 Chromebook program, Tandem Friends has a Mac lab for digitial film and desktop publishing classes. With the experience gained in their classes, Tandem Friends students regularly produce films recognized as noteworthy in the greater Charlottesville community, and our students compete every year in the Bridge Film Festival.

BYOD

Tandem Friends has a bring-your-own-device (BYOD) program in grades 10-12. The goals of the BYOD program are to:

Provide seamless technology integration into the classroom in order to enhance the rigorous college-prep curriculum.
Promote collaboration and communication amongst students and teachers beyond the walls of the classroom.
Allow students to explore and create, and reinforce a process of learning that allows innovation and problem solving.
Educate students on how to be healthy, considerate digital natives.

Recommended devices: While we don’t recommend a specific device, there are some points that should be taken into consideration, as listed below. Please note that in order to use the free software subscriptions we provide to students (Adobe Creative Cloud software and M.S. Office 365 desktop applications), we recommend that students use a more robust computer with at least 8GB of RAM. There are some loaner laptops available with Microsoft Office if a student requires the device for a class activity, and the Art department has classroom laptops available with Creative Cloud installed.

The minimum device requirements:

be lightweight and sturdy;
include a keyboard;
have several hours of battery power and easy options for recharging;
have wireless capabilities;
have access to cloud storage;
be available to come to school each day with the student.

Recommended minimum specifications:

Processor	Intel® or AMD processor with 64-bit support; 2 GHz or faster processor
RAM	2 GB or more of RAM (8 GB recommended)
Hard disk space	3.1 GB or more of available hard-disk space for 64-bit installation.
Monitor resolution	1024 x 768 display (1280x800 recommended) with 16-bit color and 512 MB or more of dedicated VRAM; 2 GB is recommended
Graphics processor acceleration requirements	OpenGL 2.0-capable system

Optimal specifications for a laptop computer that will be scalable for several years and that can run :

Processor	Multicore Intel processor
Operating system	macOS version 10.13 (High Sierra) or macOS version 10.12 (Sierra) or Windows 10
RAM	12 GB of RAM
Hard disk space	3.5 GB of available hard-disk space for installation
Monitor resolution	1024 x 768 display (1920 x 1080 recommended), Retina display support
Video card	32-bit video card

NOTE: We did not require a specific operating system (i.e. Mac versus Windows). However, in order to take advantage of the software subscriptions we offer to students, we do not recommend purchasing a Chromebook for students in grades 10-12.

1:1 Chromebook Program

Our Chromebook Program stems from the school’s strategic plan’s 21st-Century School goal. We believe that devices such as Chromebooks allow students to explore and create, and reinforce a process of learning that allows innovation and problem solving. We support a 1:1 Chromebook program in grades 5 through 9, with students receiving school-provided Chromebooks to use. Teachers work closely with each other and with the Technology Director to develop a dynamic curriculum that integrates the devices in a thoughtful, deliberate way, consistent with the ethical and moral standards of the School and the larger community.
Chromebook Policy

You can find our Chromebook policy here.