More on Instructional Technology Summer PD Offerings

Last post provided heads up to many of our professional learning activities going on in CMCSS for Summer 2009.  If you missed that posting, you might want to go back and have a look at the brief descriptions for:  Effective Classroom Management for Technology Lessons, Online Teacher ICT, Teacher ICT-2008 NETS Parts I, II, and III.  (Same 18 hours as offered previously just broken into 3 sections so that teachers may self-select the 3 dates for training and not have to commit to 3 straight days!), Advanced Teacher ICT – the Next Level, Creating the Protected Student Web Presence – Glogster, PowerTeacher (2 sessions are devoted to Kindergarten only), CPS – both Basic and Extended Features, Wikis and Blog (and those Bears the Aggegators, Oh, MY!), and Personal Learning Network – PLN.

So what does that leave for us this posting?

We will again work with those teachers who have InterWrite pads this summer, both for training and user’s group meeting.  Remember this is a condition of the grant and no inservice credit will be awarded.  But you do need to sign up on PLAN so that you get credit for the training.

Google Tools…Google provides so many rich and exciting tools to use in the classroom with students that we have developed two separate offerings.  Collaborate with Docs and More will devote its focus on learning to create and share, peer review, and edit whether students are working on a word document, spreadsheet, or presentation.  Or collaboration among your team to work on school improvement plans.  Then Map, Earth, Sky, and Sea day will explore using Google Maps, Earth/Sky/Sea to develop geography skills, math skills as well as create virtual tours/projects/lit trips and more.

We will again be offering Differentiated Instruction with Technology Learning Stations for Elementary and Middle School.  Those who attend will learn how and create content standards driven technology learning stations using rigor and relevance to drive the experience for the student.

Learning Essentials for Microsoft Office is for teachers who work with students who work on PCs.  This is a free set of programs/tools that Microsoft makes available to its users.  It has a powerful impact for any middle/high school teacher to ramp up a lesson and to truly get the most from their students work when using Microsoft Office in classroom projects.  It expands the tools available in Office to make students successful.

VoiceThread and Digital Storytelling for the Mac and PC will again be offered this summer.  If you have never attended either of those sessions, they would be well worth your time.  Students love working with multi-media and these are two excellent ways for them to present or demonstrate their growing knowledge of content and much more exciting the writing a report.

Any teacher who is acquiring a Technology Model Classroom next year is encouraged to attend a 3 hour session so they can make best use of all the features that come with the new equipment in those classrooms.  Organizing Your Computer for Success is a basic course that models how to make folders, organize documents, find missing work, use our web servers and just “work smarter, not harder” when it comes to using your teacher laptop or working with students to save their work.  Online Research Strategies for Students will focus on learning to perform valid and powerful web searches with students safely.  Anyone can Google, but our students must be very technology literate and get reliable results when they investigate topics online.

One other to tell you about… Design a Custom Technology Integration Lesson with Online Web2.0 Tools will be offered several times this summer.  Our goal is for you to walk out with an exciting and powerful lesson using technology tools.  We are providing a trainer, a menu of Web2.0 programs/tools to choose from, help selecting which one best fits your goal, and assistance as you build and troubleshoot the lesson.  You bring a idea that is thought provoking and addresses important content standards that must be covered.  Together we will create an engaging lesson for your students that assists them in learning both content and new technology skills.

As you can see we have a wealth of opportunity for you.  Remember also that 18 hours is a minimum only; you may take as many of these “free” offerings as you wish above that level.  So come on in and learn with us this summer!

Summer 2009 Professional Development Offerings

Amazing, as I sit in the office composing this it is April 6th; we are expecting snow flurries this evening!  Then again, not so surprising as the temperature on my weather tool bar says it is currently 37, and that is probably the high for the day.  Makes it hard to think about what professional development you might be interested in for the summer training sessions as you put on a winter coat to come to work.  While all of our teachers were out last week on spring break, the Technology Integration Coaches and myself were busy writing course descriptions and loading all summer training opportunities into our PLAN (Avatar) system so that you could begin making choices, based on your professional growth needs for Professional Development for next school year.  I must say we have another outstanding slate of offerings to choose from this summer.  Details about many of them will be provided in these next couple of blog postings.

Teacher ICT Certification course has been updated for this summer.  All teachers in the CMCSS are expected to become Teacher ICT certified.  This course is NOT for year 1 teachers but any who have completed their 2nd year teaching in the district who have not had the course are encouraged to take it.  Beginning this summer, teachers will need to sign up for  three interdependent sections or parts.  Teacher ICT Part I is conducted online as a basic introduction with some readings/discussions to consider and to allow time to begin brainstorming/thinking about possible lesson ideas driven but content standards.  This facilitated part has three cohorts beginning June 1 and another three beginning July 6.  You must complete Part I prior to attending Parts II and III.  You may, however; register for all 3 parts at once.  That said, anyone who has not completed Part I will need to do so prior to attending Part II, and be finished with Part II prior to attending Part III.  Teacher ICT Part II, is a study of Project Based Learning while integration Technology and Teacher ICT Part III is using Slam Dunk Lessons as a way to effectively infused content with technology when it “fits”.  Technology trainers have worked hard this year to update this offering and make it an outstanding way to really learn to integrate technology with your students efficiently and even, more important effectively.  We believe you will enjoy this approach as many best practices are modeled throughout the 3 parts of training.  There is also being offered a 100% Online Teacher ICT course which will begin early June and run along the same lines of the blended course.  You should be comfortable with online learning and a self-motivated learner, if you choose this approach.  Any who register for this course will be able to audit the F2F (face-to-face) sessions if they need additional assistance.  Both the blended and 100% online Teacher ICT certification offerings are 18 hour professional development experiences.  However, all lesson plans and teacher artifacts must be completed and submitted before certification is awarded.

Next on the menu of sessions is the Teacher ICT Advanced – The Next Level Course – this is 21 hours of professional development and those who participate become a member of a PLC studying best practices from the experts in the technology literacy industry.  This is also a 100% online, facilitated course that runs throughout the summer. Those in the cohort last summer were not ready for the course to end continue to have online discussion with a members only online forum

Effective Classroom Management Strategies for Technology Integrated Lessons is a self-paced, 3 hour online course offered continuously.  Each week the facilitator adds new registrations to the course, and notifies new participants they may begin by emailing complete directions for accessing the course and any other instructions.  Credit is awarded on the last weekday of each month.  So if you register on June 1 you have 30 days until credit is awarded and if you register June 23 you have 7 days.  The course takes approximately 3 hours to complete and is done 100% online.

We are currently writing additional online courses that will become available as we complete them.  All technology online professional development courses are run through our CMCSS MOODLE.

Also offered this summer are PowerTeacher trainings scheduled for near the end of July to train teachers new to the district how to manage their electronic gradebook as well as those who feel more comfortable with training before adopting the new features rolled out in PowerTeacher 1.5.  Two sessions will be devoted to Kindergarten teachers to address their unique needs as well.  Technology Model Classroom training has been slated for those teachers getting a model classroom.  CPS, Classroom Performance System, (blue clickers) training will be offered with “just the basics and getting up and running” offered in the mornings and “more advanced features like using Examview” offered in the afternoon.

New teachers to the district will have the opportunity to attend a “Get Hired/Get Wired” training any Friday morning throughout the summer.  Each group will have a menu of selections to choose from to prioritize their needs in the 3 hours available for training.  They will also be briefed on other technology professional development sessions offered in the district.

Creating the Protected Student Web Presence – Glogster is a new offering this summer.  It stems from requests our teachers have made to have a way to showcase student products online in a safe manner.  Glogster will be our tool of choice.  It is by no means the only tools available nor will it always be first choice.  During the session teachers will be guided through the features available in Glogster and why it is the tool we have chosen.  They will also be given instruction in making use of our www2 server and linking files from within their sites folder if that is a better choice for their needs.   That is what it consistently boils down to in this field.  Finding the tool that works best to deliver the functionality you need today.  And, realizing that tomorrow another tool may better serve your needs.  Our team really likes Glogster and the features it provides that make it a good fit for many of you.  Wikis is another tool that can also be used effectively to communicate student work and course objectives and we also offer Wikis and Blogs (and those BEARS, the Aggergators, Oh My!) this summer.

Last one for this posting…we have a new 2 day, 12 hour offering called PLN or Personal Learning Network.  So much information is available to anyone with an internet connection today that it is becoming imperative to learn to bring the information you consistently search for to you rather than you having to constantly search for it.  This session is designed to bring many Web2.0 tools to you to assist with that wherever possible.  It is stretched over 2 days to allow ample time to practice and “own” those tools which best fits your needs.  There may well be time during class where you are working in familiar territory.  You need to have in mind several areas of interest or need to explore so that your time is devoted to creating your own personal reference library or network to draw from as you plan and teach.

Next blog posting will provide additional details of other offerings being brought to you this summer…until then!