You lead a busy school like Leafyside High, how are you going to get staff to learn new technologies and use them for teaching?
In an ideal world or a world with budgets? I am gathering, this needs to be taken in context of school budgets in order for the ideas to be a reality.
1. Choose an appropriate time
As a school leader in a busy school I think the leadership team would need to strategically adopt ICT as a focus for a particular year. For example, with the change over to the Australian National Curriculum, it wouldn't be in Leadership's best interest to expect a positive response from teachers in terms of ICT development for 2012 and 2013. Consideration needs to be given to the demands that are placed on your staff.
2. Whole school closure days
Schools are allocated a certain number of whole school professional development days (2 or 3). I would make the focus of these days ICT. I would invite a keynote speaker on the first day to increase staff enthusiasm and then invite staff members to share their skills with peers on the subsequent days. I would also encourage in house staff presenters to allow hands on time for other staff members to 'play' with new ICT tools.
3. Get online!
a) Online training
Provide links for teachers in regards to online training. Online training is a fraction of the cost of face to face training, doesn't require release time of existing teachers and provides flexibility in terms of access for staff.
b) Create an online resource base for teachers through your school website.
c) Email resources for teachers
Invite teachers to email via group listings of resources that they come across. Encourage staff to use appropriate subject descriptors to minimize staff's opening of emails which are related to their curriculum ares (especially for secondary teachers).
d) Encourage staff to join a forum or Ning
Joining a forum or a Ning allows teachers to read information and ideas by other teachers. Teachers don't want to know about products from a sales pitch because they often don't have the money within their budget to purchase the products anyway.
4. Utilise your shared directory at school
If you are ICT savvy yourself, create your own video tutorials and store them on your shared directory for staff to access. This will minimise your email build up. Alternatively, use YouTube.
5. Staff meetings
These usually occur on a weekly basis. Invite teachers from different faculty areas to share some form of ICT integration with other staff members. Keep it to a maximum of 10 minutes otherwise teachers with begin to loathe it! Time is precious.
6. Involve the students
Not only can you teach your own students new technologies who will then teach their teacher the following year, but invite classes to buddy up with you. If you are aware of a teacher who struggles with technology, invite their class to join yours and learn together.
7. Encourage and pay for staff to attend ICT PD days
Teachers generally like to attend PD days during the school term rather than holidays because they get paid for it. Lets face it, it makes sense! However, once teachers have attended PD days invite them to share what they learnt with other staff members. You need to be careful with this though. Some teachers are comfortable teaching students but aren't comfortable teaching teachers. You don't want them to feel as though they HAVE to report back.
8. Utilise your school technicians
Although they speak a different language (figure of speech) they are a great resource for your school. Invite them to present to your staff (it doesn't cost you additional money) or ask them to tell you what they think teachers should know and then you can transfer the information.
9. Try not to overlook your staff
Teacher librarians are a wealth of ICT knolwedge. Involve them in PD for your staff.
10. Resources
Find out what resources teachers want and fight for them (its true, schools only have a certain amount of money to spend). You also need to do your own research before approaching higher leadership in terms of purchasing ICTs for your school. Once you have the rsources, teach your staff how to use them. You can't simply give teachers a new tool and expect them to change pedagogy.
In an ideal world or a world with budgets? I am gathering, this needs to be taken in context of school budgets in order for the ideas to be a reality.
1. Choose an appropriate time
As a school leader in a busy school I think the leadership team would need to strategically adopt ICT as a focus for a particular year. For example, with the change over to the Australian National Curriculum, it wouldn't be in Leadership's best interest to expect a positive response from teachers in terms of ICT development for 2012 and 2013. Consideration needs to be given to the demands that are placed on your staff.
2. Whole school closure days
Schools are allocated a certain number of whole school professional development days (2 or 3). I would make the focus of these days ICT. I would invite a keynote speaker on the first day to increase staff enthusiasm and then invite staff members to share their skills with peers on the subsequent days. I would also encourage in house staff presenters to allow hands on time for other staff members to 'play' with new ICT tools.
3. Get online!
a) Online training
Provide links for teachers in regards to online training. Online training is a fraction of the cost of face to face training, doesn't require release time of existing teachers and provides flexibility in terms of access for staff.
b) Create an online resource base for teachers through your school website.
c) Email resources for teachers
Invite teachers to email via group listings of resources that they come across. Encourage staff to use appropriate subject descriptors to minimize staff's opening of emails which are related to their curriculum ares (especially for secondary teachers).
d) Encourage staff to join a forum or Ning
Joining a forum or a Ning allows teachers to read information and ideas by other teachers. Teachers don't want to know about products from a sales pitch because they often don't have the money within their budget to purchase the products anyway.
4. Utilise your shared directory at school
If you are ICT savvy yourself, create your own video tutorials and store them on your shared directory for staff to access. This will minimise your email build up. Alternatively, use YouTube.
5. Staff meetings
These usually occur on a weekly basis. Invite teachers from different faculty areas to share some form of ICT integration with other staff members. Keep it to a maximum of 10 minutes otherwise teachers with begin to loathe it! Time is precious.
6. Involve the students
Not only can you teach your own students new technologies who will then teach their teacher the following year, but invite classes to buddy up with you. If you are aware of a teacher who struggles with technology, invite their class to join yours and learn together.
7. Encourage and pay for staff to attend ICT PD days
Teachers generally like to attend PD days during the school term rather than holidays because they get paid for it. Lets face it, it makes sense! However, once teachers have attended PD days invite them to share what they learnt with other staff members. You need to be careful with this though. Some teachers are comfortable teaching students but aren't comfortable teaching teachers. You don't want them to feel as though they HAVE to report back.
8. Utilise your school technicians
Although they speak a different language (figure of speech) they are a great resource for your school. Invite them to present to your staff (it doesn't cost you additional money) or ask them to tell you what they think teachers should know and then you can transfer the information.
9. Try not to overlook your staff
Teacher librarians are a wealth of ICT knolwedge. Involve them in PD for your staff.
10. Resources
Find out what resources teachers want and fight for them (its true, schools only have a certain amount of money to spend). You also need to do your own research before approaching higher leadership in terms of purchasing ICTs for your school. Once you have the rsources, teach your staff how to use them. You can't simply give teachers a new tool and expect them to change pedagogy.
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