Leadership

New Faculty Training

New faculty arrive at Asheville High and SILSA every year. A large effort goes into getting everyone on the same page. From how to use email and google docs to the digital grade books and attendance, there is a steep learning curve when new teachers arrive. The Media and Technology staff worked closely with faculty to make sure they can efficiently do their jobs.

District Professional Development

The Media and Technology staff delivered valuable and focused professional development at the district level. Teachers from across the district learned about media literacy, digital research, promoting 21st century skills, and educational models for lesson planning and decision making. Teachers and staff also learned practical computer skills to make their lives a little easier.

Curating Resources

The Media and Technology staff connect the dots between curriculum, learning styles and abilities, and print/multi-media/web resources that meet the evolving needs of students and teachers. We use our knowledge of the curriculum, project-based learning, student and teacher input, school demographics, reviews, and collection development principles to curate the most useful resources for AHS and SILSA. The resource collection includes peer-reviewed articles for classes; lesson plan ideas; graduation project topic resources; high-interest books for student-selected reading; relevant databases based on curriculum needs; and an extensive, user-friendly, curriculum-based EBook collection.

First Friday

First Friday is a series of professional developments that happen on Asheville High School's campus on the "First Friday" of every month. The purpose of "First Friday" is to provide relevant and up to date training to our staff on a variety of technology and media related topics. This year, First Friday centered around the District's Instructional Frameworks to improve core instruction to help students and teachers with skills that encourage creativity, collaboration, and communication.

Transitions

As technology evolves, so do our teachers. To support the many changes in our district and school, the Media and Technology team created a series of training sessions. The adoption of Google Apps For Education, the transition to Canvas from Moodle, the migration from Exchange Email to Gmail all needed a plan to assure their success. The Media and Technology Team was at the center of implementing many of the school and district changes.