PD at Wells Junior High School (Maine)

Published by in schoolreform, web 2.0, workshops on April 3rd, 2010

Yesterday I had an opportunity to share a presentation with the faculty at Wells Junior High School, in Wells, Maine. Cheryl Oakes webcasted the presentation on UStream. I shared a modified version of my presentation, “Tales of Digital Magic.” The Ustream recording is 1 hour, 18 minutes long.

The most amazing thing about this day of PD was that EVERY teacher in the school cafeteria had and used their OWN school-provided laptop. Many of these teachers have had their own school laptops for NINE years. After my presentation and a short break, I joined other school and district technology integration facilitators helping teachers develop their own tech-lessons. Many started using VoiceThread, others experimented with Etherpad (via iEtherpad and PiratePad,) some worked on multimedia presentations, and other assorted topics. It was a great morning of short, focused direct instruction followed by about two hours of differentiated learning. This is a photo I took with Pano of the teachers working on their laptops.

Teachers working on their laptops in a PD session at Wells Junior High School

I look forward to the day when this kind of PD is “normal” for all the teachers in Oklahoma!

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On this day..

5 Comments »
  • http://staff.prairiesouth.ca/sites/stangea/ Alan Stange

    PD sessions will have to be limited to the battery power in the laptops. I bring my laptop to all meetings now. I am a minority still. It annoys me a little because everyone actually has one. Our productivity would increase though.

  • http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

    Alan: The staff at Wells had extension cords and power strips for everyone at their tables, so we could have gone all day. Providing adequate power for laptop users is a big problem at most school staff meetings, however, and at conferences. Hopefully Apple can invest some of the money they are making on the iPad in battery technology so we can get laptop batteries which last 24 hours!

  • http://www.cheryloakes.com Cheryl Oakes

    Alan, we have some new laptops and older ones, so we string many power strips and extension cords around the cafeteria! IT is the cost of doing business in the digital age.

  • Isabelle Selak

    I am so glad that you post about these PD sessions here. It is a great model for every school. We should all have numerous days a year (with our school provided laptops, of course) that we are encouraged and guided through using exciting tools that will enhance our classroom skills and lessons. Thanks also for sharing some of the tools that you are using at these sessions. We can’t all be at sessions like these, but we can learn from yours!

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