Professional+Development

Date: 2009-2010 Our Professional Development workshops met the following Standards: II. Communication V. Integrating Technology into Instruction VII. Professional Growth

Description: Our team's first Professional Development workshop focused on Web 2.0 plus a hands-on component of applicable skills we have learned through Step-It-Up. The one hour after-school workshop was offered to teachers in grades Pre-K through 6th grade, Support Staff, Office Staff, and administrators. Attendance was on a voluntary basis. Please see the Agenda and the pictures taken during the workshop. [|Google Doc for Teachers] Our second presentation was at a staff meeting where we presented on what we found useful at the MSET Conference in Baltimore. Please see the list of useful websites generated from the presentations. [|Handout for Teachers]

Reflection: In our first presentation, the interests of each team member were addressed. Each member had the opportunity to present the things they were passionate about. We decided to present the workshop on a voluntary basis so we were not competing against teachers grading papers, conversing, or checking their email rather than listening to what was being offered. After offering the staff a variety of new skills and activities, we can now see where the interest lies and can offer more workshops focusing on the needs and wants of the staff. The staff was very enthusiastic and is excited about the future opportunities to learn new things.

The second presentation was for a captive audience at a mandatory staff meeting. Even though the meeting ran over, most of the staff stayed to hear about all of the websites we were talking about. I was shocked! They were most appreciative of the list of resources. Many of them have spoken to us and expressed their excitement with having new, useful and educational sites to use. The websites are all user-friendly which makes it nice for the novice users as well as the more experienced users.