Our Reflections

Attending and presenting at the North Carolina Technology in Education Society annual conference (NCTIES)

A group of Pine Hollow educators attended the annual NCTIES conference in Raleigh where they attended a variety of sessions. Information learned at these sessions is being shared with PHMS staff in the form of Technology Smackdown segments and longer hands-on school-based professional development sessions planned for the 2019-2020 school year. Julie Stern (Instructional Facilitator) and Kristen Ziller (Library Media Specialist) also presented a concurrent session on 'Reading in the Digital World' to over 100 attendees.

Teacher Reflections

Professionally, NCTIES exposes me to new tools that I otherwise probably wouldn't have come across myself. It gives me first hand experience experimenting with these tools. These tools then make learning in my classroom and for my students more engaging, and oftentimes, more rigorous. It is also an opportunity for me to grow in my learning and have something to share with my professional colleagues. -Anna Hayes, 6th grade math and social studies teacher

I LOVED the conference and plan to go again! I found it valuable attending sessions with colleagues as it allowed us a chance to talk about how we would specifically implement tools into our lessons. It also gave me more confidence in using tech in my class. I'm already confident with the tools I know and currently use but this showed me so many new tools and provided opportunities to try them out with the experts available. ~Niki Case, 7th grade science teacher

Google Updates Professional Development

The Google Updates Professional Development session was led by Digital Learning Coordinators, Barb Vinal and Melanie Ferrell. They focused on Google Updates, which is a tool that's used by every teacher in the building, both professionally and with their students.

Teacher Reflections

I so enjoyed my hour with Barb! I would love for you to invite them back again to do another session! And the best part is I'm a part of their google classroom now in which they post updates every so often. She taught me so many things I had no idea about! I just finished writing math curriculum for the county and in creating the assessments I used google draw a lot - I had never even heard of it or noticed it before. I also learned about google forms and have been creating them to use for the students to input data that we use for our PLTs data analysis. ~Bonnie Miler, 7th grade math and social studies teacher

Teacher Tea ~ Professional Library Event

The PHMS Professional Collection was highlighted during a Teacher Tea where staff where encouraged to explore professional resources and check them out from the library. Resources were removed from the bookshelves, sorted by topic, and showcased on tables with their covers facing up to encourage browsing and reading. Allowing this time for exploration helped teachers uncover topics and titles that resonated with their current teaching practices.

Technology Smackdown

Technology Smackdowns have had a direct impact on teacher professional learning by providing introductions to a variety of classroom-tested tools to use professionally and/or with students. At each monthly staff meeting, three teachers presented a 60-second overview of a technology tool. The presentation was in the form of a Google Slide show, which provided a resource bank where all Technology Smackdown tools are contained.

Teacher Reflections on tools I shared

My students love making Stop Motion, which I shared for my Technology Smackdown session. For them it's engaging and exciting. They like the challenge of creating. They also enjoy watching each others and learning. Its been a great way to review concepts. I shared an example my students created with other educators in WCPSS and they loved it! ~Molly Harnden, 8th grade science and social studies teacher

The tool I presented, Padlet, provides a quick, digital way for a visual class review / wrap-up or discussion starter that can streamline that part of my lesson and heighten engagement and participation. -Colleen Tavolacci, 7th grade language arts and social studies teacher

Using the Looping and Playlist features in YouTube have allowed me to focus more on the students when warming up, and less on the music aspect of it. The students are motivated to do the walk/jog warm up and put more effort into their warm up. The songs are all newer, but clean and appropriate for class. The students enjoy listening to the music, vs no music and horse playing, walking, etc. -Danny Inscoe, healthful living teacher

I shared Twitter, which I use this almost every day for work. I share activities kids are doing or showcasing things going on at school. I get a lot of positive feedback from parents that they like seeing what's going on during their child's school day. So I feel it creates better relationships with the families and with the community. -Niki Case, 7th grade science teacher

Teacher Reflections on tools I learned about from others

I enjoyed and appreciated the Tech presentations because they added new tools to my limited "tech" tool belt and were ideas and resources I wouldn't have discovered on my own. I was thrilled to incorporate Molly Harndon's suggestion, PlayPosit with my social studies listening stations for students to answer questions for discussion about videos. This tool was a student-friendly way for them to do independent digital learning while being engaged and accountable for the material and a quick, easy way for me to formatively assess their understanding of difficult content matter. -Colleen Tavolacci, 7th grade language arts and social studies teacher

I have found all of the tools shared at the Technology Smackdown sessions to be amazing. I use Quizziz a lot! Students love that its different then Kahoot. I like that I can see how many students answered each answer choice and we can have rich discussions about why the choices are either correct or incorrect. ~Molly Harnden, 8th grade science and social studies teacher

Using the teamshake during pe and fitness to pick groups/teams was a beneficial tool that I learned about. With 40-50 in a class it normally takes too much of my time to pick teams. This app has made that process a lot easier. -Danny Inscoe, healthful living teacher