By Jennifer Arms
This article, “Staff Development” by Jennifer Arms, explains a meeting teachers are going to where they get a refresher course in technology. The meeting is set up in a coffee shop to make the atmosphere more friendly and relaxed instead of restricting and professional. These meetings are designed to enhance program development within schools and put teachers on the same page their students are in terms of the use of computers and other technology resources. The teachers are required to participate in three, two-day training events and one online meeting. The online meeting is crucial because it puts everything the teachers learn in the training events to work and the teachers can actually use what they have learned. In addition, the teachers are able to evaluate if they need another tutorial session or if they are good to go and can use the technology tools in the classroom. This article shows a sample of one of the schedules used at the meetings and the schedules incorporate a lot of time for the teachers to collaborate with one another. This gives each teacher the opportunity to think of the technology on a bigger scale, not just the usage in their classroom.
Q: Do these meetings really give teachers the full capability to use technology in the classroom?
A: I think it would at least give the teachers an idea. If will take practice and trial and error to see where the technology works the best in their curriculum and where it doesn’t.
Q: Do teachers have to pay to go to these meetings of does the school pay?
A: I think at some schools it is a requirement and other schools it is just recommended. At the schools that require the teachers to go, I would assume they would pay for it. At the schools that either recommend it or do not mention it at all, I think the schools would still pay for it if the teacher requested to go.