Going 1:1... and not going gray! Staff PD

So, after attending #NASSP15 today, I opened by blogger for the first time in months.  I have been "too busy" to blog.  I just haven't made the time.  But, I found this blog that I wrote in August that I did not publish.  SO, I decided this was step one.  Publish what I have.   So, here it is.

Have you ever had a day that went so well, you wonder if it really did?  That is how our 1:1 PD session went for day one.  Here is a link to the agenda, however, the agenda doesn't tell you the details.

The teachers that we are training are at all different levels.  We have some pioneers who have been 1:1 or 2:1 in their classrooms for a few years to teachers who still you a chalkboard.

Our first challenge was organizing a day that would be thought-provoking, interesting, challenging, and not too overwhelming for everyone.  We started the day with the teachers walking around and answering questions about how 1:1 would affect the classroom, teacher, student, school and community.  This gave the teachers the opportunity to share fears, challenges, and hopes for the program.  Next was a guest speaker, who has been 1:1 for 3 years, talk about her challenges during the first year.  This allowed teachers to ask her questions about how she managed, changed, and created lessons for the classroom.  They also got to ask the classroom control questions.

After a short break, we did chromebook bingo.  I created a bingo card with squares to challenge my experts and squares that were not as hard.  Teachers worked together to figure out how to do these functions on the chromebook.  Of course, we had cheesy prizes to make it a little more energetic and fun!

After providing lunch, we went over the SAMR model and talk about how it was ok to be in substitution phase at the moment.  We also discussed that our goal was a blended learning model.  Paper and pen should go with the technology use in the classroom.  Then, teachers had about 1.5 hours to create a lesson.

After all of this, we went back to the posters from the morning.  Teachers marked items they still had questions or concerns about.  Over half of the items listed were no longer a question or concern.  For day 1 of the PD (out of 3 days) that is a great result!

The "we" is the PCS 1:1 team of +ReneeSemik (@ReneeKSemik), +LoriDeen (@lorideen), +JaneEscobedo (@jescobedo101) and me (Emily Dunnagan).