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It sounds like if you are in Waukesha the effectiveness of your SD really depends on your school. Another Wauk teacher praising SD. Does your school have a committee that suggests and/or plans these sessions? Who spearheads these efforts in your building? AL

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Rob -

 

I thought one of the best staff developments was a few years ago when we started the year having an poverty simulation. It really opened my eyes at how tough it can be for our students and families. I did not realize some of the battles they faced each and every day. A little background of my school. One third of our students are on free or reduced lunch. (That is about 200 of our 650 kids)

 

I thought that having it as a simulation/hands-on made it more realistic. We had spent some time going through a day in the life of a single parent with a few kids or a family that one or both parents lost their jobs. The staff development I think also created more openness to the work children turn in. In today's society, most poverish families do not have a computer or if they do they do not have access to the internet. I think this has help me when planning an activity that involves computers and allowing for plenty of time to finish in class. I have also understood a little more when my students do not always get their homework done because often they act as parent at night for their younger siblings.

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As with any staff development you get out of it what you put into it. The best staff developments for me have been the ones where I have been able to practice what was being discussed. For example, I attended an in-service for creating a website in a district I worked in Arizona. All teachers were provided space on the district server and encouraged to create a class website. General guidelines in regards how the program works (FrontPage), what should included on the site, and general design rules were discussed. Then teachers were turned loose to create their pieces of work while experienced uses were available to answer questions. Near the end we were brought back together and taken through the process of posting our sites. All that was left to do was share the address with parents and update the site on a regular basis.

 

Jim Nelson

 

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The best in-service or staff development sessions are the ones that require hands-on experiences. We just had a 2 hour presentation. In that, the speaker noted that after 10 minutes you will lose almost 20% of the audience. The next 10 minutes, another 20% will mentally drop out. I usually fall somewhere in-between. Our in-service for the school year had little sectionals covering a couple different technology topics, drugs and alcohol, and standards. I chose 2 technologies; Moodle/Quia and Microsoft Word 2007. Both provided some verbal, a couple “cheat-sheet” handouts, and plenty of time to experiment. The Word sectional provided answers to common student questions that I did not know. With the disappearance of menus and replaced with ribbons, I found the information practical and applied it in the classroom the following school day. For Moodle, I have to take a course through school before I am allowed to create my class online. It will have to wait until next school year. What a bummer, but totally understandable.

 

Paul Pulvermacher

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Janet Yunker

 

Within the past three years I have participated in quite a few staff development training opportunities. From Inspiration, Smart Board, PowerPoint, Kurzweil, Webgrader and Oasys, I have learned that acquiring the skills to use technology can be fun and social. Most of the training took place at either the District office or in the Media Center at North High School. For several of these sessions, Glen Lehman (who was one of our instructors for this Master's program) taught the class. He made it entertaining with his dry sense of humor and I appreciated how he would first model a skill and then have us try it in a simulation. He did this throughout the few hours and it made the time fly by and it also made it easier to understand the content.

 

As you can probably guess, SmartBoard was the most fun to learn. But when it comes to organizing and lightening my workload as a special educator, the software that has helped me to be more efficient is Oasys. With this program writing IEP's is much easier. If a student begins in the District as an elementary school student, the files will show up on Oasys when the student moves to middle school and high school. This enables the new teacher to access information and to make changes without having to run to the guidance department and dig up a cummulative file. The paper work can be modified instead of totally rewritten. The classes that were offered through the District had more than one session along with follow-up opportunities and they gave us an 800# that would connect us with a live person to discuss any problems that we would have with the program.

 

Waukesha School District receives an A+ in my book for all of the technology staff development opportunities that they offer on a regular basis. They are one school district that clearly follows their long range plan for district-wide technology proficiency.

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I totally agree with Janet on how good the Waukesha is with offering staff development on different types of technology. In our school, North High, during professional development time we often dedicate a lot of time learning new technologies. these "classes" are taught by different teachers in the building to make them more personal to us as a staff. The staff development that worked best for me was a SmartBoard training that I went to last year. The school paid for me to be out for half a day to learn more about SmartBoard. It was taught by Glen and he had a wide range of activities that he offered to do in class. Since there wre all levels of teachers he definitely was able to adapt to all the teachers in the class. He made the experience very hands-on and motivating. I did however find it frustrating that my SmartBoard needs to be updated in order to use all the things I have learned!

 

A huge disappointment I have had recently is how my school has chosen to use our professional development time. Two weeks ago we had a half day for professional development and it was spent grading the district writing assessment. This did not benefit me as a teacher at all, and only frustrated much of the staff because we haven't been given the opportunity to improve our teaching by grading papers. Sorry a vent session but wanted to say something about a bad staff development I attended.

 

Kristin Hubmann

 

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Last year Waukesha North changed grading programs; we switched from “IGPro” to “Webgrader”. Webgrader is an online grading program that gives parents and students access to student grades. I enjoyed the professional development session that I attended last year on “Webgrader”.

Our training took place only a few days before the start of the school year, so it had to be effective. Two of the teachers who took an advanced training session taught the workshop. They led us, step-by-step, through the grading program. During the session we were logged onto our Webgrader accounts, so we were able to set up our grade books. They also showed us how to enter assignments and how to calculate semester grades. The session was extremely effective. Most teachers left the session fairly confident in Webgrader.

The other aspect that made the training so successful is that the trainers work in our building. When questions arise (and they do!), we can talk to the trainers and get immediate feedback.

Kristin Haefke

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Christopher See

 

It has been a long time since I participated in staff development, rather than led it. The few staff development sessions I did attend were more like lectures, with staff looking at a projected image, listening to a presenter explain what would be expected of us. None of the sessions I attended gave staff the opportunity to try what was being taught during the session. They may have had handouts, but that does not always allow for the exploration that leads to real-world questions. Many teachers do not pay attention in this type of staff development, so they do not ask the right questions during the session. This has been frustrating for many of the teachers involved.

 

One thing my experience has shown me is that smaller groups in each session is better. With large groups, some staff members are hesitant to ask questions because they do not want to take up everyone else's time. Smaller groups are more conducive to interaction and discussion, which can help improve retention and understanding.

 

I'm sure the staff development I lead can be improved, and I'm working on it. I use my experience as an audience member to try to make my sessions less boring. One thing I know the teachers appreciate is the ability to follow along as I demonstrate something. They like to have the tool we are learning in front of them so they can try different things, "break" software, and ask questions about getting out of trouble. For most of my users, their biggest fear is breaking something. I spend a great deal of time assuring them they can't break anything and actually encouraging them to try to break what we are working on. This gives me an opportunity to show that very few mistakes are fatal. This alone has gone a long way to getting more teachers to be less hesitant to try new things.

 

One nice thing about being in a small district is that we can fit over 50% of our staff in one computer lab. Since our staff development sessions are now split between a content area and my technology session, I can work with fairly small groups. This helps get more questions answered in each session.

 

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Throughout the three years that I have been teaching, we have had several staff development opportunities. As a new teacher to the school district, I was provided with many hands-on technology trainings on the FirstClass Email program, Skyward gradebook, and Cisco telephone system. While some of the instruction was basic, I liked how we were all provided with the computer, a login name, and informational handouts during the trainings, so we were able to have hands on experience.

 

My school district just became wiser in creating staff development sessions. Previously, most of the district-wide sessions included the entire teaching staff sitting in the high school auditorium listening to someone on the stage with a small projector and a PowerPoint. Although teachers should practice what they preach to their students (to pay attention during lectures), I would watch more and more teachers lose focus as the presentation goes on. Some people brought papers to grade, others wrote notes to their colleagues, and others created to-do lists. I obviously wasn't giving the presenter my full attention, because I was looking around to see what other people were doing. For our October inservice last fall, our administration opened it up to teachers to request trainings - some picked technology trainings, others picked collaboration, and others picked preparing retirement accounts. Teachers could sign up for two sessions and were then provided more individualized, hands on instruction. The trainings were very successful, and they are implementing it again this year. (Unfortunately, I was unable to attend that inservice because I was chaperoning the History Club trip).

 

The upcoming staff development opportunity that our district will be providing to the teachers is all online. They have recorded several required podcasts on alcohol awareness and standards, but have also recorded additional trainings on Moodle, etc. On their own time (outside of paid school hours), teachers can go to the website, view the training individually, and fill out an evaluation on the training. It will be interesting to see how this new type of training will work for the teachers in the district, especially teachers that are not as adept in using technology. When I heard of this new type of staff development opportunity, I was thrilled because it introduces a new form of technology to teachers while giving them their own individualized instruction.

 

Heather Slosarek

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After reading a few of the staff development opportunities described above I'm feeling a little ripped off that Elmbrook really lacks staff development opportunities. We are always encouraged to find different conferences and conventions to go to. These are things that individual teachers need to organize for themselves. All of our meeting time has been used (to a ridiculous level) create 'Power Standards', create 'Know And Be Able To Do's', and create common final assessments. It has become comical. We'll cut that vent short. The best staff development I have been a part of wasn't a staff development but it was the TI International Convention in Denver - 2 years ago. Three math teachers traveled to Denver and spent three days in intensive workshops learning to integrate different technologies into our math classes. What made it so effective was the fact that the instructors were very well versed and the sessions were vary hands on. Each session was taught as if the participants were the students in the class as well as teachers to give the full experience. Also, participants had many choices of sessions to attend so they were able choose those which were the most meaningful.

 

 

Another experience I really got a lot out of was when a few math teachers organized and had a representative from TI come to the school and provide us with a specialized Q/A session. This was extremely helpful and efficient because we ran the training session for the most part. We came prepared with the exact issues we wanted to be covered so we had very little wasted time learning about things we didn't need to know or already knew.

 

Melissa Schuett

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Well, unfortunately I have not had a lot of opportunities to receive technology training in my four years at Fort. The only technology focused professional development that I participated in was the one that I offered as a result of my action research. I will, however, share what I learned from my action research project, as it was specifically focused on professional development for technology use in instruction.

 

What I found in the research was that technology focused professional development had to be: 1) Continuous and ongoing, 2) Adequately supported, 3) Using the "Just in Time" model, 4) Differentiated for Different Ability Levels, and 5) Interactive.

 

It seems that professional development that is based upon a "One and done" format doesn't have the long-lasting impact that a continuous and ongoing format has. This makes a lot of sense when you begin to look at the psychology of the teachers being trained. All of the teachers come to professional development with different levels of experience and attitudes about technology. To provide them all the same training is overwhelmingly pointless. Those teachers who are not up to the starting point of the training will gain nothing but frustration from the teaching. Those teachers who quickly pick up on the training will be bored and equally frustrated (or off task). The only group that MAY benefit is the group that fall in the middle ground (sound familiar to our classroom approaches to teaching?).

 

Good training starts by finding out what the participants know, how they feel about technology, and by identifying what it is they want to know. From there, splitting the groups up or at least identifying the different needs of participants will begin to yield some more positive results with participants. This is the differentiating aspect of the training that will lead to training success.

 

All of the research suggests that the only way to make long-term change is to provide long-term training. Simply summarizing what I read this summer, it takes, in general, about a year to a year and a half to begin to see NOTICEABLE changes in the patterns of technology use in instruction for professional devleopment participants. From that point forward, it becomes engrained in their ideas of how to improve their instruction to make it more interactive.

 

To be adequately supported, that means that that teachers can rely on a supportive mentor to help them when they struggle with the technology. Due to the relatively high frustration level associated with inexperienced users attempt to utilize new technology, a solid support system needs to be in place for them to rely upon. This supports experimentation in their personal use, which results in experimentation in their professional use as well. As they gain confidence personally, they begin to feel more comfortable in using the technology professionally (in their instruction).

 

The "Just in Time" model is a key part to quality professional development. One and done models simply overload individuals with too much information without a purpose for utilizing that information. However, when resources, information, and support is provided in a timely fashion as the user/participant is in need of the material, the information suddenly has a purpose and is again accepted into long-term memory and practice. This model is particularly effective if an instructional technology mentor is available throughout the school year/day.

 

Finally, the training has to be interactive. Professional development must revolve around, at some point, training, which means people have to resort to the Teacher/Student format of learning. While this is not a bad format, many participants in professional development find little value/sense in sitting and listening to the speaker fill them with knowledge. Therefore, in these "classrooom" training sessions, the participant must be actually using the technology being taught. Furthermore, if the trainer can find a way to allow the trainee to actually create something for their own personal/professional use, the training is not only interactive, but it also fulfills the just-in-time approach, which we know is very effective for long-term memory and practice.

 

What I find most interesting about all of this is that educational institutions use poor practices to educate their educators. It stands to reason that the same quality instructional practices that we expect teachers to use with students would be equally beneficial when we bring in trainers to teach the teachers. Yet, few educational institutions employ these expectations when they are looked to to become the "EDUCATORS." There is some strange irony to it all when you think about it.

 

-Brian Yearling

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I can honestly say that I cannot recall a truly effective staff development session. When I think of staff development for I cannot help but to think of two things- a. ack! What a waste of my time- this has NO application to what I am doing. Or b. could this have been more hastily put together? When I am subjected to ineffective staff development it makes me angry. I feel as if my time is not valued and my development as an educator is not respected.

While not traditional staff development, my favorite development experience has been through Sally Ride Academy. These sessions are the best possible sessions. They are voluntary, meaning, for the most part the participants are eager and interested in the subjects. The instructors I have encountered are knowledgeable. The class work does not dwell on theory, but rather focuses on the practical application of ideas and techniques in the classroom. I have especially enjoyed the sessions that continue into the school year. These sessions have allowed us to implement ideas into the classroom, then reconvene to discuss what worked, what didn’t and how to make it even better.

 

Anna Lardinois

 

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Effective staff development.....hmmm.... We have done a few staff development programs at MNSD, and I have to say that some have been very good and some have been very poorly received. The common factors in the good ones are: knowledge of the instructor (both of the material AND the specific environment for the technology), sufficient time to work with the technology in a hands-on way, and targeted sessions to the specific grade level that a staff member teaches at.

 

The poor sessions have virtually always come back with one staff comment: NOT ENOUGH TIME TO WORK ON IT! We had a set of staff development opportunities on August 29th this year, and the time frame that we had to work with was condensed from 2 hours 45 minutes to 90 minutes (due to a longer presentation by our new superintendent). This time constraint did not allow for enough end-user interaction with the technology and the instructor. In the future, if given the choice between a shorter time frame or fewer/not offering at all, I would go with fewer sectionals.

 

Bob Boyd

 

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Staff Development that Worked

 

To be honest, the best staff development I have been to was done by Economics Wisconsin. The development was geared towards bringing economics into a U.S. History class. Obviously, one of the ways to have a positive staff development is to be interested in what is being said which I was in this case. Second of all, the presenters need to be charged up by what they are doing which they were. There is nothing worse than having to listen to a person who has no passion for what they are doing. The third thing that made the development worthwhile was the hands on approach. The audience was involved through various simulations throughout the presentation.

 

Daniel Simonson

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In reading the comments from others about staff development, I can say that I agree with the majority and am longing for productive or effective staff development. Due to the fact that I am in this masters program, I would consider myself ahead of the “technology curve” I know how to use the pieces of technology, what I was lacking was how to effectively apply it to my classroom. So the inservices that I have attended lately on learning our new grading programs have not been very effective in helping me strive to try new things with my students.

 

My most memorable and helpful professional development experiences come from the Foreign Language Teacher’s conference I attend each fall. These are not district-scheduled inservices, but I always come back from this conference refreshed with new ideas to try. My favorite sessions in the past three years have included using music to teach grammar, internet sites for student practice and learning, and a session a potpourri of ideas when you have 5-10 minutes in class. I come back from the conference with “real-life” ideas or strategies to try that do not take large amounts of prep to use with my students.

 

I think this conference is successful because many of my department members attend each year, and we divide up the sessions and try to have a representative at as many as possible so we can share what we have learned with others. My favorite time of the day is when we go out to dinner and share what our favorite part of the day or the best new idea we received. This starts a conversation of how we could modify the original ideas to best meet the needs of our students. It is a great time to reconnect with other teachers and learn from each other.

 

Angie Jurisch

 

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I also agree with the majority of people above, I am waiting for my school to have a professional development opportuniy that includes something other than updating our web pages or how to update you web-based grade book. A large majority of teachers and staff members have very little technology experience.  Since the beginning of the masters classes I have grown technologically literate. In doing so, I have seen that my school has become less technology savy and needs to make a turn to integrate technology into the classroom, not just having the students play educational games during lab time.

 

The most memberable professional development experience came from an interactive whiteboard conference I attended in the fall. This was more beneficial where I came back with a wide array of ideas, not just for myself but for the whole school, and anxious to apply what I learned with lessons. I learned how to apply the tools and ideals of the interactive whiteboard in the classroom that will be fun and excited for the students. All of the activities take little time and is easily adaptable to other programs. The conference expanded from the basics to the more skilled uses of the interactive whiteboard.

 

I hope the availablity of the interactive whiteboard will change. Right now it is not usable to classrooms, it is packed up and not being utilized. I would like to assist in training others in the multiple functions of the interactive whiteboard where everyone can create material to use in the classroom. If only the principal would get into gear and relize the mistake he is making by not promoting the use of a piece of hardware that assists in student learning.

 

Carl Dehne

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I work in the Mukwonago School District and hate to say that Peg and Lisa are right on the money.  We have very ineffective meetings and in-services.  Twice a year we head to our high school with our assigned room number and sit through an inservice that has been chosen for us.  This form of training is very ineffective.  When sitting through these in-services, teacher talk, correct papers, and read magazines.  It is rare that we walk away with anything useable and worth while.  I can't think of any training that I took something from.  Every year goes by and every year we keep saying that it would be great to get together with others from our grade level to work together on an area of curriculum or work with a small vertical grade level group. We need to have goals and objectives.  We also need followup.  It seems that when we do go to trainings that there is no followup.  This sends me the message that these training sessions are not worthwhile or no one cares if we got any thing from the in-service or not!

 

 

Kim Struve