Today was the first day back at school for teachers in Victorian Government Schools.
All schools are spending the first three days on professional development and planning.
This year my school is focussing on in-house professional development. Each Monday night teachers will be presenting on Literacy, Numeracy and ICT. I am in charge of ICT professional development.
Last year, I set up a weekly lunch time ICT Drop in Session for teachers to assist them with blogging, IWBs and general ICT questions. I hope to continue with this this year to follow up on my Monday night sessions.
Today I presented to my staff about ICT. My guidelines were broad so I decided to offer my Top Ten Tips to Integrate Technology in the Classroom.
The ideas in the presentation are some of the areas that I will cover in PDs throughout the year. I knew not everything in the presentation would appeal to all teachers however I hoped there was something to inspire everyone.
The highlight of the presentation was skyping with the wonderful Linda Yollis in California, USA. Linda not only spoke about some of the ways she had used Skype in the classroom but demonstrated how Skype is actually used for those teachers who were unfamiliar with this tool.
Great technology tips! I would have to agree with all of them.
I wonder Kathleen where you find the time to do all these things!
Keep up the great work!
@ Stephen, where do I find the time? I don’t know. Sometimes I push my time management skills to the limit and have to force myself to stop working!
I’m sure you’re the same though 🙂
Kathleen
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Vytheeshwaran V, Edna Sackson and Carla , Kath Morris(McGeady). Kath Morris(McGeady) said: I just blogged about my presentation to staff today – Tips to Integrate Tech http://bit.ly/eucnwC #edtech #edchat #vicpln […]
Great work Kathleen, as always! You’ve certainly provided a fair few choices for people to get started or to take the next step and try something new. Can I pinch a couple of your ideas to add to my presentation? I don’t have a spot for a good few weeks yet.
@ Pam,
Go for it! Glad you liked the ideas. Hard to cater for everyone – different levels of ability and interests. Hopefully gave people a little food for thought!
Kathleen
Hello Kathleen
I enjoyed watching the presentation and felt right at home. I think a critical part of learning to use tech is the fact that it may take a lot of time and patience. When you first start reading blogs, you can be overwhelmed with all the neat tricks others are using. People need to understand that these things will come with time. They are not always nested sweetly in a published continuum but are learned as you need them.
My first step was learning about how edublogs was used by our whole grade six team to communicate work assignments. I then experimented on my own.
Next was some personal time with my (now tech) mentor and a couple of buddies he knew from the online community. Following a conversation with them on the usefulness Twitter I joined in that online conversation and the ball really got moving.
That was 3 years ago. People simply must allow themselves the time to learn along the way and not give up. When a challenge faces you, the teacher has to become the student and figure out the problem and it’s solution. They may need to ask a question of their developing PLN (another ICT session maybe =O) The rewards, as you know Kathleen, are tremendous!
Half of today and all of tomorrow will be snow days. I hope to begin work on a virtual kindergarten so my class can still be engaged in learning content in a structured way while away from school. I’m not sure what challenges I will run into but I know that the active learning on my part will be there long before the content ever reaches the students.
BTW I enjoy finding your posts in my Google Reader.
@ Gail,
Thanks so much for your comment. I can really relate to what you’re saying. I have had a similar journey and more than three years later here I am. I always try to point out to people who are new that I didn’t get here overnight and you need to start small and take it from there.
Like you, I really encourage all people who are new to blogging or tech to get on Twitter. I was so reluctant but it is the best PD I do.
Oh snow days, goodness. Yesterday was over 40 degrees Celsius here is Australia (well over 100F). Good luck with your virtual kinder class. It always feels like a risk at the start doesn’t it but you and I both know things usually work out great!
Stay warm,
Kathleen 🙂
Fantastic that your school is taking such an intentional step toward increasing and improving PD and that teachers are not only the heart of that, but the leaders! Many schools are not taking such important steps, it is nice to hear of one that is!
@ Kelly, it is great and hopefully our Monday night sessions will go well. Unfortunately there isn’t much “time” for PDs on ICT in term one so hopefully ICT will make more of an appearance as the year goes on! Thanks for your comment.