Candidates develop and implement technology-based professional learning that aligns to state and national professional learning standards, integrates technology to support face-to-face and online components, models principles of adult learning, and promotes best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment.

The Infinite Campus Handout artifacts were given to me by Dekalb County to help me facilitate a staff training at my school. Two school years ago Dekalb County was rolling out a new student information system. I was chosen, along with one other teacher, to attend the county training, learn the new software, and then train the rest of the staff on how to use the new software. The county gave us these handouts to use in our training sessions. 

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These artifacts demonstrate mastery of standard 5.2: candidates develop and implement technology-based professional learning that aligns to state and national professional learning standards, integrates technology to support face-to-face and online components, models principles of adult learning, and promotes best practices in teaching, learning, and assessment. Myself and one other teacher conducted training sessions to show the teachers how to use the new system. We also discussed how this new software could aid us in using best practices to improve professional productivity, practice, and student learning.This training was conducted face to face, but each teacher at the training had a computer to work on so they could interact with the new software while at the training. We knew that this would be the most effective way to conduct the training, and that it would help keep the attention of our adult learners. The other facilitator and myself also invited the teachers to reach out to us online, via email, with any questions they may have while using the new software. We also provided the teachers with online resources to use to help them better understand how to use the new software. The teachers were also asked to complete an online survey about the effectiveness of the training. The initial training session was conducted during pre-planning week at the beginning of the school year. We knew the teachers had a lot to get done that week so we tried to keep the session as brief as possible, while still being effective. We then had a second training session a month later during the teachers planning time. This session was specifically on entering grades into the new system. We knew teachers would need a refresher course on this topic after they got a little into the school year. Again, we offered online resources, provided through Dekalb County, to help them navigate the software. We also sent out a PowerPoint presentation via email for everyone to reference. 

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Conducting these trainings taught me a great deal. One thing I learned is how much faith my principal had in me. She chose me and one other teacher out of the entire staff. Seeing how much faith she had in me boosted my confidence a great deal. I also learned that not everyone is as comfortable navigating new technology as I am. Many of the teachers in the training were very hesitant to use the new system. They did not want to click on anything without checking with us first. This was an eye opener for me. I am very comfortable playing around with new technology, and did not realize how many people are not. This drove home for me the importance of training sessions when any new technology is rolled out in a school. One thing I would change about this artifact is I would include the planning sheets myself and the other facilitator completed. We put a great deal of thought into the training when we planned it. We wanted to make sure our adult learners were engaged and felt comfortable with the new information. We also wanted to make sure we touched on all of the important components while respecting these adults' time. Another thing we focused on when planning the training sessions was that our sessions were in line with state and national professional learning standards. We took into consideration the learning community by setting up the training at a place and time that would be convienent for the teachers. We also planned to have the training in the computer lab to enhance the teachers learning. We also offered two different sessions to have fewer participants so we could help each person more. We also took our resources into consideration. We knew it was imperative that we conduct the training in a place where each teacher would have access to his or her own computer. We planned all of this out in great detail. However, I did not keep those planning sheets we used.  

 

These training sessions directly affected faculty development. Without these training sessions the staff at my school would've been left to their own devices to figure out the brand new student information system. Being that this system was used for everything from taking attendance, to inputting grades, to referring students for behavior concerns, that would have been a disaster. Effective training sessions are imperative when rolling out new software, and as leaders of technology in schools it is important that we be the ones to model and facilitate the effective delivery of this type of professional development. The impact these trainings had on faculty development could be measured with a staff survey and/or through observing the staff's utilization of the new software. 

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