Showcase Schools Template (school name, website and postal address here) The National College of Computer Science 12, Mihai Viteazul Street, Piatra Neamt, Romania,

SCHOOL SNAPSHOT Type of school (private- government- charter- other) government and phone (inc area code) Size of school (student population) 920 Level of schooling (primary, secondary) secondary Location (metropolitan, suburban, regional or rural/remote) metropolitan Number of classrooms 32 Total number of teachers 64 Total number of all full time equivalent staff (including administrative, support) 94 Microsoft Expert Educator (include name- year level taught- area of expertise) Florentina Ungureanu, 2014, Computer Science Gabriela Blaga, 2014, Computer Science Alina Sauciuc, 2013, Biology Microsoft Student Ambassador details (name, grade) -

SCHOOL SNAPSHOT Daniela Neamțu – principal Vasile Diaconu – principal’s deputy Gabriela Blaga – coordinator of the computer science comission (from right to left)

SCHOOL SNAPSHOT

PRINCIPAL SNAPSHOT 1.Daniela NEAMŢU, 2.I graduated from The Philosophy Faculty in 1992, when the Romanian society was undergoing significant changes. From the beginning I came in this new computer science school as a teacher. I developed myself with this school and I achieved Ph. D. in philosophy in 2003 and I became the school’s principal in the same year. 3.One of the best years was 2004 when we managed to work together so as to become a National College (from Highschool), to start an important national interdisciplinary contest (for mathematics, computer science, physics). In the same year we succeeded in putting the basis of the Infomat Foundation which helps us finance the college’s projects. 4. Try not to become a man of success, but rather try to become a man of value! (Albert Einstein). 5.Our school and Microsoft share the same vision for education: we imagine ourselves as part of an educational virtual community, where people want to study by joyfully using the digital technology of the future.

SCHOOL ACHIEVEMENT SNAPSHOT Our college is modern, alive, with open-minded people, in an ongoing transformation and adaptation to the latest challenges and developments of our society. As a result of this, our students have had significant improvement in examinations and their use of technology, having better chances to integrate on the job market. In educating our students we do not focus only on their formal education but also on developing their leadership skills, creativity, making them open-minded. According to our motto, we intend to have valuable graduates, not only successful ones. Our school provides all the material and human resources in order to support all the students’ initiatives (expressed inside the School Clubs and the Students Council). For example, on the occasion of this year’s College’s Days, the members of the Students Council have an open session event for their fellow students from other schools and their guests (former graduates and inspiring people from our county).

LEADERSHIP & CULTURE OF INNOVATION We imagine that we will manage to change the learning process into a new experience which will allow the community made of students and teachers to get integrated in the knowledge society. We imagine that we cross the borders of the classroom and the traditional learning methods by changing the classic educational process into an inspiring, interactive and relevant one belonging to the modern world. We imagine ourselves as part of a virtual learning community where people want to learn using the digital technology of the future. The school’s improvement is the result of managing to build a team of great open- minded professional teachers and brilliant, motivated students to work together. Our success is also explained by the fact that we are part of the digital era, because of the specific of our school and of the new technologies we have purchased from different financial resources. We are successful because we have developed among our teachers and students the leadership culture, in order to share common ideals and values. Last, but not least we are involved in numerous international projects which help us exchange information, professional experience and culture.

TEACHING, LEARNING & ASSESSMENT Digital textbooks, instruction videos and applications that bring theoretical notions closer to practice have transformed the National College of Computer Science in Piatra Neamt into a school that goes further and further away from the traditional teaching methods and heads towards the technologies that can offer children the joy of participating in interactive lessons and a better chance on the job market. We want to develop, with the support of technology, a type of education in which the students should be not only the objects of the educational process, but its subjects who are capable of having ideas that are worth promoting and we want to be able to offer them the necessary equipment for accomplishing their projects. Tablets have been recently introduced in the learning process and are used by 5-th to 12-th grade students. Whether we are talking about lessons of Romanian language and literature, mathematics, economy and even philosophy, music or drawing, tablets have found a place in the classrooms of our high school and have changed the way teachers interact with students. Technology helps us make students with particular abilities reach their full potential, by organizing the physical learning environments so as to encourage collaboration, creativity, and learning. At the same time, by using Project Based Learning our students work in groups to solve problems, make decisions, go on knowledge quests. Technology and programs support collaboration among students and their peer groups in other schools. For example, our students created an audio book that can be used by students with hearing impairment.

CAPACITY BUILDING The College is led by the Administrative Board (including teachers’, local community administration’s and parents’ representatives). The learning process is managed by the Teachers’ Council, which is subordinated to the Administrative Board. The principal is the chairperson of the Administrative Board and has the executive management position. The principal’s main decisions can be applied only after the Administrative Board consent. Mr. Vasile Diaconu, computer science teacher, is also the principal’s deputy, sharing the management duties. The school’s activity is also supported by the administrative departments: IT, secretarial, accountancy and maintenance. Although we go through economic recession, we have planned for this school year to improve the computers in order to support, from a technical point of view a Balkan Computer Science Contest. We plan to devise a monitoring and evaluating system for the human resource activity having in mind what the beneficiaries (students, parents and local community) requires. Our plan is also to use cloud computing for all our IT services.

Learning Environment At the National College of Computer Science, the school utilizes large spaces for various laboratory classes such as computer sciences, physics, chemistry, biology, and multimedia. Along with learning spaces, the school has invested in laboratory equipment which allows students to be involved in activities and experiments that require the use of new technologies. Due to the use of technology and the small number of students who work in groups of 13 to 16, learning and teaching have been designed so that every student can be involved. Labs also have general software and updated educational software where didactic activities are developed including the following: Microsoft Office; Classical lessons; Classical and modern lab papers consisting in real and virtual experiments; AeL version 6.0 mock lesson; Video projections; Auditions. The labs also integrates modern and functional audio-video equipment, stationary video projectors, smartboards, sound systems, computers, and laptops, all of which enable students to work in a hands-on and visually stimulating environment. In fact, each student is able to access course content and tests from his or her own computer, allowing students to learn in a more up-to-date and interactive way. By using Microsoft Surface RT tablets and Kinect for Xbox, students have adapted rapidly to the new technologies. Recently introduced in the educational curriculum, the tablets are used by fifth- to tenth-grade students. They have modernized the traditional ways in which teachers and students interact, which prepares them for the future. Students and teachers use Office 365 to collaborate in different projects both in classrooms and outside (in other cultural environment and in natural one).

Learning Environment

Analytic Services Reporting, Insights Operations Services Planning, HR, Finance, Procurement Productivity Services Calendar/ , Collaboration, Portal, Presence, Video- conferences, Social Learning Services Content, Homework, Assignments, Personalized Learning Identity SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT INFRASTRUCTURE LEARNER & STAFF ACCESS Laptop/PC TabletSmart Board Storage/DataServers Network Security Support, Monitor, & Control

APPENDIX We attach the following documents or provide links to shared repository: Latest annual report (in romanian language) 3 recent school newsletters (INFOPULS- student’s newsletter- one number in english language and another in romanian language, TNT-science newsletter-in romanian language) A scan of 2-3 media articles featuring your school/ teachers/ achievements 1. in-sala-de-clasa http:// in-sala-de-clasa

APPENDIX Any other artifacts which showcase your achievements RO-SAT ONE CanSat 2014 Competition RO-SAT ONE CanSat 2014 learning in different environments, inside-outside communication RO-SAT ONE CanSat 2014 peer- learning, critical thinking, problem solving, tests RO-SAT ONE CanSat 2014 problem solving and critical thinking

Presentation made by: Daniela NEAMȚU – principal Gabriela BLAGA – coordinator of the computer science comission Silvia MORȚE – english teacher Ovidiu NECHITA – network administrator