Differentiated Professional Development

One of the professional development sessions that won rave reviews last year was one of our technology afternoons when we offered eight different technology sessions and invited teachers to sign up for the session that peaked their interest. Each session was run by a teacher at Chets Creek that was using the technology. Once again this year we offered seven new sessions this afternoon: Making graphs from an Excel spreadsheet; Using igoogle and Google calendar; Voicethread; Review of Geeks from the Creek; imovie and Photobooth; windows Movie Maker and Classroom wikis.

I attended the session for making graphs from an Excel spreadsheet with Tracy and Tom Ruark (2nd ELA and fifth grade Math/ Science teachers). This is of interest to me because, as a special education teacher, I often have to present behavioral and academic data in graph form to the Target Team (our intervention team) or to parents or to behavior specialists. I usually spend hours doing this by hand. Today I figured out how I can take much of the data directly on the computer while it is happening and then automatically turn it into a graph! What a time saver. This is something I've always wanted to learn how to do, but just haven't found the time to stop and figure out. Today was the day! Like most learners, I really enjoy getting to choose what I want to learn! What a fun afternoon... and how time flies when you are engaged!