As I approached my first PD with the staff of my high school, I was -of course- nervous! I know I'm not the only one who sometimes get butterflies, even after doing this for 6 years.  

But I was incredibly surprised how well everything went! Using those tried-and-true methods of remembering peoples' names and calling on their expertise and ideas was instrumental in this PD being successful.  

Whenever you're doing a PD, I always rely on these things:

• Be patient, especially if you're doing a hands-on PD. You must communicate through your words and actions that you respect teachers where they are.
• Try your best to remember peoples' names.
• If someone tries to high-jack your PD, I call upon their expertise by asking them a question like, "well, how would you use __________." Once they answer, I comment on their answer and move on. 
• I try to let teachers have time to process information every 10 minutes.  That can be through pair-and-share, putting comments on a Padlet, using Kahoot, basically, anything I would use as a formative assessment in class. 
• Have food: candy, mints, something! The dollar store is great for getting some cheap treats. 

What do you use when leading a PD?

I must say that I didn't quite know what I was getting myself into when I came on as the "Technology Integration Specialist" (TIS) at a high school in greater St. Louis, MO. This was the first year for the TIS position, which had its own advantages and disadvantages (more on that later), plus it was my first year in the district. 

I was charged with doing some training in the weeks leading up to school on Google 101 and 201. Knowing that my school has just started to dip its toe into the Google for Education world, I had a good idea of how to approach these sessions. Being introduced to some of the staff through a PD was somewhat nerve-wrecking. Here I am, standing before them as the "expert", knowing that "you never get a second chance to make a first impression". So I came prepared...with FOOD. I learned through my last principal that having food at PD always eases the blow (there has to be a scientific study on this somewhere...).

Thankfully, my years' of experience and PD on presenting PD fully prepared me for this moment. But I wasn't expected for what would happen...

Am I the only one who is so OVER students making PowerPoints/Google Slides/Prezis? I mean, even though I go over what to do & not do, the kids still end up committing every PowerPoint crime their is (as explained by this guy).

If you're wanting to avoid a PowerPoint like the one above, there are some helpful guidelines that I even use when creating presentations for workshops.

• PLAN - Students need to have a plan going into creating their presentation. If they don't, they get sidetracked by font choices and pictures.
  • Ideas for planning: a web, storyboard, outline, mind-map of what will go on each slide. See planning examples here.

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• Get the big picture - Have your students create a web/mind map, note cards or some other planning tool so they have a plan going into their presentation.

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• Font Faux Pas - View slides at 66% and students will have a good idea what people will be able to see.  Please, please, please do NOT use Comic Sans (for reasons why, click here).

As school starts to gear up for a lot of the country, you may be faced with a new (or existing) technology policy for your class. This can be overwhelming.

There's no doubt that you will encounter things you NEVER anticipated when it comes to students and technology, just like your first years as a teacher. "You put WHAT in the pencil sharpener?!"

Over the years I've found a few things that have worked for me in helping curb some of the issues that can occur with having tech in the classroom.

Here are some tips that have been helpful to me:

• Have a charging station - even if you have a cart of laptops in your room, have a few power strips in different parts of the room so kids can charge easily while continuing to work.

• If you encounter class-wide issues, give it 5 minutes to troubleshoot, then move onto Plan B - Maybe the website you were planning on using is down for maintenance, or perhaps the network isn't working. If it's something you feel comfortable tackling, give it 5 minutes. I have wasted entire class periods trying to address an issue. Maybe you can get to the website and you pull it up on the projector and do the activity as a class. Whatever it is, do what teachers do best: think on your feet.

• See the screens - If students are working independently, have them turn their desks (if possible) so you can see their screens. Perhaps they can't adjust their seating, consider working from a place where you can see the screen. If students are working in groups, use Google Docs so you can monitor their progress. 

• Post login information - Are you tired of reminding students how to login into Google or SIS or whatever common website they are using? Consider posting those naming conventions to cue their memory on what their login is. If your district/school doesn't use a naming convention, then help students by offering one to use. 

• "Procedures Proceed Content" - Post rules & procedures, or at the very least discuss these with your class. I found these posters, plus you can check out what I've done. 

 July 29th - 31st
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Most schools today are having some kind of technology in the classroom initiative. If you were like me, I suddenly had 30 devices in my classroom with not much training on how to manage it all. 

The infographic below are 7 steps to help you manage technology in the classroom. If you have other ideas or questions, leave them in the comments. 

Here's an infographic showing some research tools that could help your students (and you) with researching and gathering information. Most of them aren't focused on research itself, but workflow and organizing. 

To download the image, click on it, then right click on the full-size, choosing "Save Image As."
To download a 2-sided PDF, click the file below.

Are there any you would add to the list?

These 8 simple questions can help guide any student to whether what they're looking at is worthwhile. You could also create a digital literacy lesson by adding some sample websites to this and have student analyze them using these questions. 

Are there any questions you would add? Leave a comment below!

To download a PDF version, click the link at the bottom.