Design professional learning based on needs assessments and frameworks for working with adults to support their cultural, social-emotional and learning needs.
Technology Survey
LLT 590 Internship
When designing professional development, it is essential to understand what your starting point is. When I plan professional development within my own School District, I usually pick a topic that I think will be interesting to other educators. We have specific time set aside on Professional Development ( PD) days for "best classroom practice" issues. Many different courses are offered, and educators have the option of either taking classes or offering classes. I have gotten to the point where there is very little provided for me to take that I haven't already used in my classroom, so I decided to create professional development classes.
When I did my internship for Kutztown University LLT 590, I contacted the building principal of High Point Baptist Academy. I had asked her if she would be interested in having her teachers do some PD on integrating technology into the classroom. She was delighted to have me design something for the teachers at her school. Questioning her about the topic, I understood that some teachers were using technology in their classrooms. Still, most of them weren't sure what kind of tools were available, and most were uncertain how to incorporate them into the classroom. The teachers were working out of Google classroom and used the tools that would be available in the Google Suite, but other than that, I didn't have much direction.
To design effective professional development, I created a survey to send the teachers to know what to focus on. I started my survey with questions about the concept of organization. I wanted to know what educators thought about how they stored content. Are they organized keeping things in files, or was it a more random approach such as "create and save" wherever? I started the survey with this information because I have found that if educators aren't organized with their data, they will also struggle to incorporate technology into their classrooms. You have to have a working knowledge of managing content and materials if you're going to be using them with Web 2.0 tools.
LLT 590 Internship
When designing professional development, it is essential to understand what your starting point is. When I plan professional development within my own School District, I usually pick a topic that I think will be interesting to other educators. We have specific time set aside on Professional Development ( PD) days for "best classroom practice" issues. Many different courses are offered, and educators have the option of either taking classes or offering classes. I have gotten to the point where there is very little provided for me to take that I haven't already used in my classroom, so I decided to create professional development classes.
When I did my internship for Kutztown University LLT 590, I contacted the building principal of High Point Baptist Academy. I had asked her if she would be interested in having her teachers do some PD on integrating technology into the classroom. She was delighted to have me design something for the teachers at her school. Questioning her about the topic, I understood that some teachers were using technology in their classrooms. Still, most of them weren't sure what kind of tools were available, and most were uncertain how to incorporate them into the classroom. The teachers were working out of Google classroom and used the tools that would be available in the Google Suite, but other than that, I didn't have much direction.
To design effective professional development, I created a survey to send the teachers to know what to focus on. I started my survey with questions about the concept of organization. I wanted to know what educators thought about how they stored content. Are they organized keeping things in files, or was it a more random approach such as "create and save" wherever? I started the survey with this information because I have found that if educators aren't organized with their data, they will also struggle to incorporate technology into their classrooms. You have to have a working knowledge of managing content and materials if you're going to be using them with Web 2.0 tools.
I used Google forms to create a survey. In the results of Google forms, you can easily convert findings into graphs, which helps determine trends or commonalities. I used the information from the survey to focus on specific Web 2.0 technologies. I provided information for several other technologies but focused on Edpuzzle, Nearpod, and Flipgrid, the three technologies the educators from High Point Baptist indicated they were most interested in learning about.
I enjoyed starting with a needs assessment approach and working from there to design professional development. I would certainly be interested in doing it again. However, now that I have more professional development experience, I think I would choose specific topics as possible offerings and let the educators choose what they would think would be most interesting rather than focus on multiple technologies.
I enjoyed starting with a needs assessment approach and working from there to design professional development. I would certainly be interested in doing it again. However, now that I have more professional development experience, I think I would choose specific topics as possible offerings and let the educators choose what they would think would be most interesting rather than focus on multiple technologies.