March+2010

March 2010
Standards I-A, V-C During March we provide afternoon staff development. This year we had some funds that needed to be spent so we decided to first demonstrate and then provide the teachers time to learn how to use some new hardware. The first thing I needed to do was learn where to find lessons that had already been created. After finding the lessons, I practiced on the hardware so that I would be ready for the workshops. Learning the new equipment was fun. Learning where to search for the lessons will enable me to help teachers find lessons quicker and I will have an idea of how to help them design new lessons. The afternoon workshops were facilitated by me, a High School Technology Apps teacher, and the Middle School Technology Apps teacher. Some of the workshops took place at the High School campus, and some took place at the Elementary campus. We provided interactive workshops on new document cameras, interactive wireless tablets and interactive white boards. For those teachers that already have this hardware these afternoon mini-courses were refresher courses. At the end of the month those that did not have this hardware were given a survey to find out which type of technology resource they would prefer for their room. This survey will be used for a needs assessment for the Technology Team. We also provided the regularly scheduled afternoon mini-workshops on classroom productivity software. We have workshops on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Moviemaker. The more of these workshops I facilitate, the more I am learning how adults learn. I can take this knowledge and use it for designing future workshops and facilitating future meetings.