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2019-20 Focus - Professional Learning
2019-20 Focus - Professional Learning
A strong school library program harnesses the collective leadership and expertise of the Media and Technology Advisory Committee members to lead personalized professional learning on skills related to information literacy, digital citizenship, and digital learning.
Our Wake Forward Initiative for the 2019-20 will include the drive towards successful PL. This year we will focus specifically on promoting a common language of Computational Thinking through work with the Friday Institute and the Computer Science Department at NCSU. We will learn how to take coding and computational thinking (CT) beyond the walls of the media center or technology lab into every classroom in the building. Participants will learn practical and user-friendly strategies for implementing coding and CT across the curriculum in all subject areas.
Observation:
Observation:
After the push to hire teachers to teach code in stand-alone classes, research through the National Science Foundation, and other groups found that the best way to get all students interested in coding is to introduce it in all disciplines.
Discussion:
Discussion:
Because our faculty members are overwhelmed by the thought of teaching coding, we should create a gentle, supportive environment for this year of Professional Learning!
Proposal:
Proposal:
Last year, we implemented Tech Thursdays, one day a month for our teachers to use their planning time to explore new technologies. This year, we will use that same schedule to explore coding using the SNAP platform.
Implementation:
Implementation:
On the last workday, Friday before school started in August, teachers came to the library for an open house of our coding lessons created at The Citadel and NC State. That day, they also created their SNAP IDs so they could start learning in September.
Our MTAC meetings were held after school on the 2nd Thursday of the month to plan for the Tech Thursdays, held on the third Thursday of the month. Each of our Teacher Leader team taught a session.
By November, we were ready to break off with a mentor, someone to help guide each teacher or team through the process of implementing a coding lesson in their classroom. Our Friday Institute team came to provide coding support, and continue to support our endeavors.
Expected Outcome:
Expected Outcome:
The team taught their lessons in the first quarter, and others soon followed. The 8th graders created an application called "Ha's Journey," where they used background images to retell the journey from Inside Out and Back Again with quotes from the book and descriptive sentences.
Other lessons and fun are posted on our SNAP website!
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