Staff Development

Every year our principal, Sallie Brown, passes out goals for Success Survey. Staff often list technology they desire and Professional Development that they would find beneficial. This year (2009-2010) teachers asked for more SmartBoards, digital projectors and Elmos. Staff has asked for PD training in technology curriculum integration, webpage development, SmartBoard training, PowerPoint slide show instruction.

At WCLL teachers share their technology savvy. For example at a regular staff meeting, a teacher shared a very successful Marzano Paint project. She showed student projects and offered to help staff to implement the project. The third grade teacher has an Elmo. When the kindergarten teachers received Elmos she helped them to set them up and showed them how to use them.

The WCLL School Improvement Program (SIP) state inservicing in the integration of technology is needed to give new and seasoned teachers the strategies necessary to increase student learning. There are vanguard technology staff members at WCLL. The media specialist Instructional Technology Leader (ITL) has a degree in Library Science and a Masters in Technology and Curriculum. She teaches many district wide and WCLL staff development courses and technology courses at Marquette University, Lakeland College, St. Thomas University and McPherson College. She has been teaching these courses since the late 1990s. The third grade teacher also is a technology teacher. She has a Masters degree in technology education from Cardinal Stritch University. At WCLL, there are teacher technology leaders at all levels to facilitate staff development.

For four years 2000 – 2004 WCLL had a PT3 technology grant with Marquette University. The grant set a precedent. Every week professors from the University met with WCLL teachers and helped them to integrate technology in their everyday curriculum. A Marquette technology support person helped us to install advanced software and to set up Dana and SmartBoard carts. He was the support person for WCLL staff who took up to 12 credits of online technology courses that were offered (free of charge) by Marquette. Marquette also offered a special Masters in Curriculum and Instruction with a critical focus on technology integration. Five staff members have completed the Masters. At this time there are still a significant number of staff members who participated in the Preparing Teachers To Teach (PT3) Grant. This grant also included a partnership with MIAD. Four teachers who remain on our staff took Adobe multimedia and web building courses at MIAD. Perhaps one of biggest legacies of the PT3 Grant is the experience that we had with peer coaching. Designated WCLL staff was given hours to work with peers and their students. For instance, the third grade teacher who used Inspiration with her class worked in the classroom with the other third grade, second grade, etc. teachers and students. She modeled teaching the use of Inspiration, helped the teachers to integrate Inspiration in their curriculum and was there to help students to use the program.

Even though the PT3 Grant has terminated, the tradition of peer coaching continues. Teachers at WCLL are willing to support one another on a continuous basis. An example of this support can be seen in the way that WCLL has embraced the My Access Writing Program. Last year a seventh grade teacher went to the training. She has been instrumental in getting all of the classes (grades 4-8) on board and eagerly using the program. Data shows an increase in writing scores for those WCLL students who are using My Access.

We have offered technology Professional Development (PD) through the ITL Grants, during staff meetings and on Banking Time Days. The ITL conferences with staff whenever the opportunity arises – in between classes – in the hall – during lunch – during teacher preps. The ITL mini grants provided individual teacher PD. During the 2008-2009 school year technology PD included: Raz Kids, Kid Pix, Kidspiration, Inspiration, IDEAS, Microsoft Publisher and Excel, Virtual Field Trips, collaborating in TLC, the MPS Virtual Library, TeachTube, Citation Machine, SmartBoard and The WCLL Destiny Library.

In High School and Middle School teachers learned about how to use the eLibrary, NewsBank, Ebsco Badger Link and Nettreckker resources. A CyberHunt was posted in tlc. It helped teachers to navigate these resources. We revisited and shared what we had done with Microsoft Publisher and teachers used the website template. Teachers learned how to capture websites using the Shortcut Command. A CyberHunt in TLC was used to navigate the IDEAS website. In Grade School the eLibrary – Elementary, and Nettreckker were explored.

At another PD session High School and Middle School, explored the Biography Resource, Black Newspapers, Sirs Discovery and Thinkfinity. All teachers in grades K-12 explored the WCLL Destiny Library and the – Grolier Online and World Book Program as well and we will designed two Microsoft Publisher templates (poster and brochure). We have had three Esis Gradebook Training sessions. Esis savvy staff are on hand to help one another use the program.

During the 2009-2010 school year staff has been trained in the use of the Student Learning Center (SLC). SLC allows teachers to deliver their course material online. Online discussions are available and students submit their assignments. SLC enables differentiated instruction down to the individual level — WCLL teachers and students are using Discovery Education. Discovery Education which offers curricular resources that integrate 80,000 concept-level video clips, virtual labs, interactives, audio files and lesson plans. Teachers create Probes to measure achievement on an ongoing basis and effectively prepare students to succeed. A component of Discovery Education is professional development which trains educators to meet the needs of technology-savvy students. The K12Intelligence Analytical Dashboard is used on a daily basis to help staff to retrieve up to date student data.

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