In order to carry out my GAME Plan I will need to keep up-to-date on professional development opportunities. My school district has a variety of workshops throughout the year that I can look into. I could also look at taking graduate classes. I would be curious as to where I could find great opportunities elsewhere if anyone has some ideas.
For my second goal, I will need to visit with colleagues on technology they use and look online for lessons that have used technology. I think it would be great to join an interactive group on-line. I would need additional information from someone who could get me the place to look for that. So far, I have been able to keep up on making one technology lesson each week. I have a variety of tools available to me, but I know that the students will want to try new tools as the year goes on. I also have set up three training dates with my principal so I can train staff on the new toolkit tool in the SMART boards.
For your first goal, it is great that you want to use professional development to further your use of technology. I know it is tough for me because they are time consuming and expensive. Does your district help pay if you want to go to professional development or do they make you pay?
ReplyDeleteFor the second goal one interactive group on-line that you can use is actually a twitter or facebook account. If an account is made for the soul purpose of using technology in education you can find "friends" that have the same interest and interact with them. This account would have to be made without personal friends because then everything talked about would be based on educational technology. In facebook there are even groups to join that have those same interests.
Good luck on the rest of your journey.
Paul
I believe you are in great shape for carrying out your GAME plan. Going to workshops and professional development conferences are a great way to stay current with the latest. I just attended a professional development day at my school and one seminar I attended was on web resources to assist teachers. We were given a whole list of websites especially designed for teachers. These websites contained worksheets, lesson plans, ideas, and such. It was such a nice thing and I gained a lot of resources I surely will take advantage of. But if I did not attend this workshop I would have never known about all the valuable resources out there. I asked the instructor of this workshop how she went about to compile the list and she said she simply sent a note to each teacher asking them to share at least one resource they use frequently within the classroom. How easy is that?
ReplyDeleteIn your post you mentioned that your school is equipped with Smart Boards. Our school has something similar, a brand called Promethean Activ Boards. Our boards support presentation software that can be used to create something called flipcharts. We also have an online database of flipcharts that we can browse, download, or upload. This may be something you are already familiar with, but I know that I personally use the Promethean Planet website to find great flipcharts for classroom use all the time. If you are unsure if your boards have an online resource bank, you could ask your IT or another technology-savvy colleague for help or ideas. It's worth a try!
ReplyDeleteThis year we have been able to get workshops and training approved through out Staff Development group. They have an account to pay for those, but next year it will be gone. I will have to look for a Twitter or Facebook account in that field.
ReplyDeleteWorkshops are a great way to meet people and learn about all the new and exciting things out there.
We do have some great websites we use with our interactive whiteboards. In a couple of weeks, I am one of the trainers to present this information to the staff at my school. We are wanting to give them time to just go through the sites to download lessons that will work. So many great sites are already out there, so our staff really wanted to have the time to grab some good sites and build other ones.
Thank you all for your feedback.
I think keeping up with professional development opportunities offered by your school district is an excellent way to carry out your game plan. I think educational blogs and small buisness organizational principle offer some value in the classroom.I can help you carry out your game plan as I use the Mimio, which which is a cheaper brand of smart board technology as it uses your existing whiteboard.They have a community called mimio connect where teachers can share ideas and lessons they are usings in their classrooms.
ReplyDelete