bit.ly/PDTheyWillLove
Reach your teachers in new, unexpected ways. Goodbye to boring sit and get PD, and say hello to quick, fun, and meaningful PD. See what has worked for us in both virtual and face-to-face settings. Teachers have so much to do... grades, RTI reports, data disaggregation, parent conferences, lesson plans, managing their LMS. The list goes on and on; what they don’t have time to do is sit through a professional development that doesn’t pertain to them. Our bite size PD allows teachers to have a more personalized approach to learning. Use what you need, and ask for more assistance when needed.
Meet the Presenters:
Jennifer
Rushing
Jennifer has been in education for 18 years. She started her teaching career as a K-4 Special Education teacher. She then taught 8 years as a 4th grade teacher and tech apps teacher before transitioning to her current role in Dickinson ISD as an Technology Integration Specialist. Jennifer provides support for 7 elementary campuses as well as professional development for the entire district.
Caroline Lightfoot serves as the Technology Integration Coordinator for Dickinson ISD. There, she has provided Professional Development as part of the Technology Department for over 10 years. Prior to that, she was a consultant for an Educational Technology Company and began her career in education as a Junior High and High School English Teacher. Caroline holds a M. Ed. in Administration & Educational Technology and is also a Certified Educational Technology Leader (CETL) through the Consortium for School Networking (CoSN).
Caroline Lightfoot
During TCEA2020, we saw someone share that they created a newsletter-type flyer that they would hang in the restrooms on their campus. They had a list of names they suggested calling it, but we loved Potty PD the most. We decided to give it a try when we returned the following month. We had no idea it would be so popular. We each do our own for our campuses and have different layouts. We put up sheet protectors with command strips to hold the current "Tissue," that way they stay protected and it is an easy to change out each month. Below are our latest "Tissues."
Click below to get a copy of our templates for you to use at your campus.
The first summer of the pandemic, we decided to hold all of our summer PD through Zoom. We usually had 90-100 participants. It was definitely a learning curve for us, but we went with it and even decided to continue the following summer. The teachers liked the flexibility of attending PD from home and not having to find childcare. In addition to virtual PD, we also began offering daily office hours where we would be logged into a zoom and teachers could pop in with any questions that they had during that time. Between the three of us on our team, we have 15 campuses that we support. Offering virtual meetings helped us reach more teachers for just in time help.
Click here to get a copy of how we started each of our virtual PDs:
Click here for a collection of Tips and Tricks when conducting Virtual PD:
Our YouCanBookMe sites allow our Teachers to make personalized appointments with us. They are able to find a time that works for all of us, and this also allows them to let us know what they are interested in achieving. We are able to better prepare and come to the table with some ideas and suggestions in mind. We can even troubleshoot ahead of time so that issues may be resolved and we can get to the work when we meet.
Social media is not just for sharing pics of you kids or what you are eating anymore. 9 times out of 10 when someone asks where I get an idea from or something new I'm sharing with them, it is from one of my social media platforms. My favorites to curate ideas from are Twitter and TikTok. Each month on my Potty PD, I have a section that highlights some of my favorite Educational Social Media influencers.
These are some of my favorite people to follow on Twitter:
This is one of my favorite teachers on TikTok:
Each month, our department collaborates on a Digital Newsletter we call the Tech. TidByte. We include a message from our Executive Director as well as Tips and Tricks, with a section for All Staff and another for Teachers. Our fearless leader has an opportunity to provide a positive message and district update, and any trending issues can be noted, along with fun new things to try. These are often similar to what we include in Potty PD, so it is not like we have to recreate content. It is another opportunity to get the word out.
We utilize Google Sites to share information for the majority of our professional developments. It is easy to build and teachers can bookmark it to reference later.
Below are a few of our sites we have created for PDs:
Our District is always asking, "Can you provide me a one-pager on that?" Our Cheat Sheets are our answer to that, since technology can seldom be done in one page. This started with Google Classroom and kept its momentum after we transitioned to Schoology. Quick How To Videos and Step-By-Step Instructions are created. Some prefer video. Some prefer written and visual instructions. Regardless of learning style, it is provided and updated as new requests come in to us.
Some of our favorite image editing and design resources are Canva, Flat Icon, Google Drawings, Google Slides, Text Giraffe, LunaPic, removebg, and ColorPick Eyedropper.
