What works . . . .
This past Monday I ran a 6 hour SmartBoard training workshop for a group of teachers at one school. We focused on the features that are in the new SmartNotebook 10 software mainly. I had quite a range of skill sets and comfort levels in terms of the teachers I was working with, so I approached it in a way that allowed all of the teachers to get something out of the day. Here’s what worked for me:
1. Demonstrate a little bit. I started the day off with some demonstration of the basic tools that are in the new software. This took a little over an hour. My goal was to only take an hour so that I wouldn’t lose their attention and also so that we could have maximum time back in the classroom working.
2. Provide “play” time. I set up the workshop so that the majority of the time was spent with the teachers in their classrooms working with their SmartBoards. My experience has taught me that the one thing teachers need a lot of for learning technology is time. Time to try it out, experiment and play. Doing this allows each teachers to use their own learning style to come away with skills that they need at their own level. We spent 4 of our 6 hours doing this: playing, working, experimenting, creating.
3. Float. I floated while the teachers worked. I went from room to room to try and answer questions during the work time. I also had a portable phone with me so that the teachers could reach me whenever they needed to. This kept me very busy as each time I went into a room with teachers there were questions to answer.
4. Share. At the end of the day, we all came back and I asked the teachers to share something that they learned and discovered. I prepped them for this by letting them know ahead of time that we would have this time for sharing. I encouraged them to share what they learned, even if they thought it wasn’t that significant. The way I see it is that it might not be a significant item to someone else, but it is to them, so why not share with the group? So, we shared. We could have shared more, too, as this group was in a very sharing mood.
This format isn’t one that I will use always, but in this case, it worked very well. It is one to keep in my bag of tricks for doing Staff Development, too. Perhaps this will be helpful to you, too!
