Techie Tuesday - Version 2.1 - What Do YOU Want From Professional Development!

For many years, schools and teachers in Indiana had professional development days built into their school schedule.  Unfortunately, a few years ago these days (PD days) were taken away and teachers had to find new ways to keep up-to-date with changes in standards and technologies.  For a lot of us it is difficult to stay after school for an extra hour and devote time to learn for ourselves.  Personally, I usually need to leave school no later than 4 PM in order to pick up a couple of my kids that happen to be in two different locations. But whether it is grading, family obligations, coaching, or a 2nd job, our time is valuable after 3:30.  That brings me to my question for you.

What do YOU want from professional development?  

I spent a lot of time this summer attending and presenting at conferences this past summer.  (If you did not have a chance to attend any of the Summer of eLearning conferences hosted by the Indiana DOE, I would highly recommend you look into attending a local one next summer.  Hopefully here at Twin Lakes!)  It was great to hear the keynote speakers and listen to their ideas for technology integration into the classroom.  There were multiple classroom teachers that hosted hour-long breakout sessions on specific topics.  Their passion for their profession was very evident in their presentations.  Most of them even had sensible ideas that would work well in our own classrooms.  :)

After sitting through multiple sessions I was able to come to one major realization for each session I
attended--always leave the audience with something they can use TODAY!  Throughout this year, the technology department is planning on hosting multiple professional development opportunities this year.  We have some great ideas planned for you that will cover Canvas, online assessments, video/photo editing, etc.  However, we are always open to ideas of items you would like to learn about.

So this brings me back to my original question--what do YOU want from professional development?  Let members of the tech committee know what would make your life easier and we will work to find a possible solution for you.  If you would like some help during your prep period, or before or after school, do not hesitate to contact us.  If you cannot make an afternoon session, let us know and we will make contact with you the next day.  Maybe you would like a video of the session to watch at a later time, we will work on making that happen as well.  We are all in this together, so let's learn together and make our school year, plus our students, a memorable and technological one!