Great Session of Technology Professional Development with our History Department

One of the many things I enjoy doing as a School Library Media Specialist (SLMS) is teaching teachers and students about great educational tech tools. This summer I was asked to present two hours of technology to our history department at Lakeside High School.

Whenever I am asked to present technology I usually always try to find out if there are any specific needs that the group wants me to address. Teachers have precious time, and I want to make sure to make the best of the time they invest with me! I also try not to show too many concepts or apps. (We have all been to sessions where the presenter will show 60 apps in 50 minutes- that's too much!  I've found that few people can remember useful information presented in this format.) It's usually best to focus on just a few concepts. If the few things I present make an impression, the teachers will usually seek additional help, or they will investigate on their own. For this session they specifically requested SMART Board basics. I decided to also share some video project ideas since this is beginning to be a big trend with technology learning projects (especially with so many students having smartphones- every phone is a camera/ video camera)!

I had a great time presenting to our history department in the two hour session. I showed them SMART Board basics, iMovie app, Tellegami app, Morfo app, blogs, and Twitter basics. The SMART Board session was great! Some of the teachers were comfortable with the SMART Board and shared their experiences. They had some creative ways that they used these tools in class. The discussion that came from this was great! One teacher even got up and demonstrated a few techniques while everyone watched and asked questions. Isn't this what departmental meetings and Professional Learning Communities (PLCs) should be?

This is the outline I shared with them:

History/ Civics Department Meeting

8:30-10:30  August 7, 2014

Library Media and Technology Ideas

I.               SMART Board Boot Camp

a.    Basics

b.    SMART Notebook

c.     Ladybug

d.    SMART Exchange

e.    Experiment on your own- you can’t hurt the technology!

II.             Video Projects

a.    iMovie

b.    Forgot to Study Video Channel

c.     Tellagami- free app for iPads and iPhones

d.    Morfo- free app for iPads and iPhones

e.    Blogging

I had a lot more material to cover but time ran out (of course!). I hope all of you have great opportunities to share your knowledge with your school faculty in 2014-2015!

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Mission: Student Led Summer Book Club

Back in April, Misti Bell (my partner SLMS) and I decided to encourage two students to lead our final book club for 2013-2014. They chose the novel, Divergent by Veronica Roth.
They came to me with ideas and activities for each of the meetings. I gave input as needed and served as a facilitator. We had nearly 20 participants (including a teacher)! One of the meetings was even on webcam (via Google Hangouts) with another school in Northwest Arkansas (Lakeside Junior High in Springdale). There is a blog entry on that session here!

Due to the success of the student led sessions, I decided to try a summer book club on the novel Insurgent (continuing the Divergent series). I had a student offer to take the lead. Together we brainstormed ideas for the club and decided to have three meetings.

We had five students participate during the month of July. The first two meetings were mostly discussions led by our student leader. We also experimented with Twitter as a way to have mini discussions and comments among all of us while off campus. I'll write an entry on this successful initial use of Twitter (in a book club format) later!

Mr. John Terry demonstrating the art of Karate to summer book club students. (They loved it!)

We had a martial arts instructor (Mr. John Terry- pictured above) visit the final club meeting to share some basic self defense techniques. We thought this would help the club members better connect with the characters (in the Dauntless faction) of the series since they train to be fighters. This was a suggestion by our lead student! The kids enjoyed it so much they can't wait to start an Allegiant book club (to complete the trilogy) when school starts.

Misti and I were excited that five students made their way to the library media center during the summer. We think the students were excited because one of them was in charge of the sessions. We can't wait to see how this concept evolves in the 2014-2015 school year!

Please Subscribe if you are enjoying this blog. Please, put your email address in the box on the right side of the page. You will receive notifications when I post new blog entries!

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