Soft Technology

My friends Mike Patterson and Pete Logli got me thinking about how to quickly, easily describe the difference between "training" and "professional development" lately, and I think this is it. What do you think? Download the PDF version

Guest Post by friEdTech Technical Guru Michael Wallace  reposted from Mike's blog here . Synergyse is Free! Synergyse is now free. For those of you who are not familiar with Synergyse, it is a Chrome extension that can supplement Google training. There are hours of videos that cover basic tasks a person new to Google would want to learn about. They also cover a few in depth topics. At The Village School we purchased Synergyse for the entire staff. I did find the price a bit high, but now that it's free I would recommend it to any organization. There are two ways to install Synergyse, individually, or by Google OU,  I'll cover both. The first way is to install it for your self. In Chrome go to the Chrome Web Store  and search for Synergyse. You should see an extension that looks like this: Click the "Add to Chrome Button" and you should get a pop up like this: Click "Add Extension" and that's it. Now when you go to Gmail, Drive, or a host of other Go...

Since my first year as a teacher in 1997 I've been deeply interested in how to get students interested in learning what I wanted and needed them to learn. Lately I learned what I was striving for had a name that has become quite the buzz word in education; I wanted students to become ENGAGED. Eventually I developed a knack for understanding what choices left to my students would most likely lead to this state. Each educational book I read, and really each terrible staff development session I attended, helped me refine my understanding of exactly how to design engaging lessons and staff development events.  I want to help you learn to do the same, and to that end, I'm developing a new 3 1/2 day academy to help teachers learn how to get human nature working with them instead of against them. If you want to know more or sign up to get information, please visit http://www.EngageMeAcademy.org   Feel free to download this image, print it out, and use it however you want. There will ...

The biggest problem with staff development is that many times, it doesn't work.  . If you want it to " work ," then you have to work .  . Here are some ideas each of us can implement ourselves (school leaders, you can help!) to make sure our own professional learning sticks. If you've attended staff development with me, and want to do #6, please email me at amy@friedtechnology.com .  Download Printable Action Plan Google Doc Action Plan Download this file in any format you want  here . Use this within your school or district freely, republish freely online with a link back to this page and an acknowledgment of authorship. 

A couple of smart principals I know (and luckily get to work with frequently) told me that they're going to use Project Based Learning for campus staff development this year. We started brainstorming a Driving Question for this purpose. What do you think? Would you rather have PBL based Back to School staff development? What could we do to improve our DQ? Driving Question: How can you work in a team of 4-5 peers to create a 5-10 minute presentation on an engaging strategy, communication technique, or tool that could be used enhance learning or improve communication in our school? Norms & Expectations: All team members must speak about what they contributed during the presentation . Teaching techniques or scenarios addressed by the teams should be presented in an engaging way and modeled during the presentation. A digital representation or handout that will help your peers remember the technique/tool/idea, etc. must be shared.

Create a staff development project using stickers and clouds and motivate your staff to attend after school trainings. Enjoy! Materials: http://goo.gl/ZbecY