12. Professional Development – Describe how ongoing, sustained professional development for teachers, principals, administrators, and school library media personnel will be provided to further the effective use of technology in the classroom and library media center.
We have, over the last several years, delivered professional development at various times during the day and year; workshop days, after school, weekends, and during the summer. All times are problematic for some staff members and there are some staff that never have taken advantage of our offerings. An addition to these possibilities could be possible online workshops and staff development opportunities. The ideal would be to have time built into the school day for this professional development to occur. The potential restructuring of the school day may allow for some opportunities during the school day.
Another key element in delivering technology professional development is not to teach technology in isolation. An example of this would be teaching an application like word processing by itself. Teachers need to have a direct linkage with the curriculum, teaching strategies, or improvements in achievement. It’s not just the use of technology that brings about improvements in teaching and learning, it’s the examining of practices. In schools we must always look at what we are doing with teaching and practices with an eye for improvement.
Professional development for all staff must be ongoing and delivered in a variety of different ways. Some of these ways for professional learning could include:
•Workshops available after school, weekends, and during the summer
•Workshops available to both school and town staff.
•Technology Integrator support staff in all buildings (Mentoring and coaching)
•Web sites with quality resources for teachers
•Atomic Learning website with software tutorials for 24/7 availability
•Building based support
•New staff technology training
•Provide out of district opportunities for staff development (EX: ACTEM conference, MLTI trainings, etc)
•Bring resources and opportunities into the district for staff
•Collaborate with nearby districts to offer staff development trainings that benefit many districts
•Learning with students
•Offer recertification credits and flextime opportunities for those involved in technology staff development
•Communicate to staff professional development opportunities available through other groups (MLTI, ACTEM, CBEA, etc.)
•Workshops and courses delivered via the ATM "Distance Learning Clasrooms" at our high school or videoconferencing equipment at the middle school
•Online learning opportunities
When looking at standards for technology we look to the work of ISTE and the NETS project.
The National Educational Technology Standards (NETS) Project is an ongoing initiative of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). What is the NETS project? This project has developed standards for teachers, administrators and students. Click on the links below to access these national standards. |
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Our goal is to get every staff member to a comfort level with technology so that they are integrating technology into their classrooms. We are striving to get staff to where they are modifying and redefining (see chart above) teaching and learning with technology. “Truly integrating technology into teaching and learning is a slow, time-consuming process that requires substantial levels of support and encouragement for educators.” Schools that have the most assistance, technical and otherwise, and strong professional development opportunities are the schools that have the most success in moving teachers up the levels of usage towards transformation.
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