9/9/14
was the start of our school’s Revolution.
We decided to send off the teachers on a QUEST. It was designed by our 1:1 technology fellow,
Jessica Geremia, and acted as a
guide for the first 1:1 professional development day. The QUEST was focused, differentiated,
collaborative, and provided some independency.
It gave time for teachers to play and step out of their comfort zones
with support if needed. Teachers could
navigate through their new Apple MacBook and try out activities on the web that
they may use in their classrooms.
Activities varied from accessing Evernote to practice taking
notes to creating a custom search engine using Google. Also, we were fortunate enough to have Apple
representation from the Boston offices to provide support for teachers on an as
needed basis. They were able to answer
questions about the track pad to maneuvering through the system preferences on
their laptops.
This day also provided our 1:1 fellow and myself baseline
data on what teachers need to learn about so we can plan more personalized PD
in the future. They filled out a Google
form that promoted reflection.
Questions they responded to were, how can
technology be personalized to you as a teacher that will enhance your
instruction with students, what was the most valuable part of today's
professional development, why, and tell us what you want to learn about next. Teachers
overwhelmingly gave us plenty of information about their levels of knowledge
with the device and with using the web/ apps as products to enhance
instruction.
What’s next? Our next PD will
feature SAMR, which shapes teaching and learning with technology. This will provoke a discussion based on our
focus question, what is 21st century learning. This discussion is important because we need
to gain information on the various levels of understanding about 21st
century learning so we can then plan PD for teachers as we evolve and shift
they way we think about teaching and learning when devices are placed in the
hands of students.
