Wow...What a Busy Start to the 2014-15 School Year!

When August rolled around, the DHS Library hit the ground running.  Before school started, we were involved in some summer training.  I always enjoy summer training because it seems more relaxed than school year training.  This summer Blanca and I taught...

• Google Drive Basics, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/googlebasics
• Google - Basics and Beyond, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/google
• Build Your Own App, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/buildapp
• Learn to Fly with Twitter, http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/disdtweets

After summer training, we were also involved in New Teacher Orientation.  As Campus Instructors of Technology (CITs), we usually have a day to help with the laptop training.  Although the teachers are usually a bit overwhelmed by the time we see them, they are usually attentive.  This year was no different.  We have a lot of new teachers, but they seem to be quick learners.  

Once our week of staff development started, the campus CITs were give an entire day to cover all of the technology tools that the teachers needed including grade book. lesson plans, webpages, library policies, etc.  Since we have a staff of about 230 teachers, the traditional "sit and get" was not an option for us, nor did we want to do that anyway.  Who wants to sit in a room all day listening to us talk?  I believe we all know the answer to that...

Instead, we designed mini classes and broke up the training into 4 areas.  Each of us tried to have an activity to go with our training.  For instance, in my sessions, the teachers participated in some discussions about our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) policy.  So I created QR codes that highlighted our AUP (Acceptable Use Policy) to keep the teachers from having to read the whole document.  

Instead, they used their devices, scanned the codes, and talked to their group about the policy.  In addition, we also read some current articles on BYOD.  I also covered some "housekeeping" programs in Eduphoria.  Here is a link to my session's agenda...  http://duncanvillehs.libguides.com/session4.

After staff development, the first month of school hit us hard.  I'm not even sure I can explain what happened.  So I'm going to let our September 2014 Statistics Report do our talking for us.  

I can't believe it is already October.  Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!