I'm back! Well, it has been over SEVEN months since my last post. Time sure does fly by! I am currently wrapping up my fourth semester as an Instructional Technology graduate student. This may have been my most challenging semester so far. Grad School + Full Time Job + New Baby + Husband + Housework + Everything Else = One Big Disaster. I am actually very proud to say that I have survived it all!
This semester, I have been learning about facilitating professional development. Teaching professional development to my colleagues is definitely out of my box. I do NOT like to get in front of a crowd. I know that this is an issue that I will have to overcome if I ever plan on being a technology facilitator for a school district. I think I'm making some progress!
As I think back to my assignments for this semester, there were definitely positive and negative experiences, but, in hindsight, I find that every experience has been a learning opportunity. As I tried to determine the current reality at my school, I took the time to interview the new principal at my school. This was enlightening because I was able to see his stance on technology use. I was excited to learn that he is definitely for it - he even recently purchased iPads for the teachers to use with their students. I completed a Professional Learning GAPSS Review based on our interview and I learned that my school is mostly performing at an emergent and operational level. I was actually impressed with the professional learning communities that were already developed at my school, but I wanted to see what areas were really lacking. As a future technology facilitator (hopefully one day), I was interested to see how I could develop a professional development session based on technology implementation. While technology is widely available at my school, technology training is scarce.
Through my own research, I've discovered that teachers need, and want, the time to learn about new technology tools. I completed a schoolwide survey about technology and professional development and I learned that my colleagues really wanted to learn more in iRespond. I jumped into developmenting my professional learning plan, my teaching sessions, and my evaluation plan but I hit several roadblocks. I realized that developing a professional learning session would require me to be fluid and flexible to some extent. I ended up teaching my colleagues about "assessing using technology." We decided to look at iRespondNow and Google Forms. At the end of the training session, I was able to pass out an evaluation to the attendees, and I determined what the next steps should be. I am hoping to continue some trainings in these areas for my capstone project I am completing.
Overall, I do think that I am growing as a technology facilitator. I've learned about some new technology tools that I never used before - Prezi and Google Forms Flubaroo. I am becoming more comfortable with presenting in front of my colleagues. I also think I understand a more about the process of developing professional learning. It is definitely a thought out, complicated process, but, if done the right way, the end result can be great!
