Writing Workshop and Preparing for New Teacher Institute
The last two days have been spent multitasking. I originally intended to attend a 2 day Introduction to Writing Workshop, offered by two teachers, who by the way are great presenters and did a fantastic job.
I have been out of the classroom for about 6 years, and writing workshop and writing instruction has changed a lot in that time. I wanted to learn more about this because the district has committed to supporting this writing program and it will be used in many classrooms in my school. Learning about the program will enable me to provide tech integration support in ways that will be meaningful to the development of written expression for all of our grades.
However, and fortunately, it was held at the same school where I will be presenting our Technology Resources Training at our New Teacher Institute on Thursday. I say it was good that I was there, because I was able to slip out of the workshop at breaks and other times to help with the Doc Camera and Airliner set up and softward upload in both labs. We have so many new elementary teachers, that it will take 2 labs and 4 presenters to accommodate them all.
I was also glad that I was there, because I was able to go over my agenda for the workshop with some of my colleagues and friends, and was able to trim it down and polish it up a bit.
I could relate to Carolyn Foote’s Not So Distant Future Blog today when she said:
”On the one hand, I have learned so much this summer that I am enthused and eager about implementing. But the tasks at hand right now aren’t necessarily those that will even get me there, but things I have to get done. ”
I, too, learned so much this summer. NECC was a turning point for me. I finally feel like I “get it”.
I had included way too much in my New Teacher Training because of my excitement over what I had learned this summer. But Carolyn is right, the task at hand right now is not what I will eventually be doing and I needed to refocus on the task at hand. Our new teachers, right now, need a brief overview of the tools and resources they have available to them. We have so many that covering this in 3 hours is going to be tricky.
But, no matter how much we need to cover, I could not leave out a discussion about our students being 21st Century Learners. Rethinking our teaching and and student expectations is becoming critical. So I put in about 15 minutes about the District’s Committment to this and what it might look like on an elementary campus. The remainder of the time will be spent on how we might be able to use our ample tools and resources to accomplish this.
Out of curiosity I entered the minutes a New Teacher would be spending on each activity during their 2 day Institute into Excel. I then graphed it, and the greatest amount of time will be spent on technology related activities. The second greatest amount of time is spent on our district culture and team building. This is one example of how committed our district is to developing 21st Century skills in our students beginning at kindergarten.
So, I was lucky in that I learned a lot in two separate areas over the last 2 days.
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