Planning

October 6, 2014
We have already sent out a needs analysis via Google Forms and have analyzed the results.  At both of our sites, the majority of the teachers need Google Drive, Docs, and Slides.  From our data and conversations with teachers, we know that most teachers need to first learn how to navigate and organize Drive.  They need to learn how to create and share documents so they can do this with their students.  Our survey has influenced our PD planning process in that we realized we had more teachers who needed the basics than we had originally thought, and most importantly, they need to know WHY we are having our students use Drive.  This seems the largest knowledge gap with our teachers, and we know that we’ll have to give multiple reasons and examples of why Drive is important to use.  We want teachers to understand that using Google Drive with students fosters the four Cs of 21st century learning skills.  We have our PD time planned at both of our sites during all day professional development that will take place at the end of October.  We are in the midst of creating our lesson plans and presentations to use during our PD time.  So far it is going well. We are incorporating videos, live demos to model, guided practice with teachers, and guided independent time for teachers to put what we’ve taught them in action.  We keep asking ourselves in our planning process if we are showing all the steps, making sure that our teachers will understand the basics.  We are also constantly modeling up until our PD time whenever possible.  For example, when the curriculum coach or principal presents at a staff meeting or PLC, they are modeling the use of Google Drive.  We are excited to continue our planning process and continue to ask ourselves what types of activities will be meaningful for teachers.

After a few weeks of planning, Taeler and I feel like we had a good outline and start of our presentations.  Planning the PD has been much more time consuming than we had first anticipated.  We are following our PD Plan Outline that we created based upon our needs assessment results.  A next step was asking teachers to fill out a Google Form to determine their level for each Google App that we are focusing on: Calendar, Drive, Docs, and Slides.  The survey asked teachers to rate their comfort level from three choices.  This survey is helping us to differentiate our PD and also give teachers more individualized support. We are keeping in mind the fact that teachers need time to practice the tool and have something useful to create as a takeaway.  We are using Google Slides for all of our presentations and are in the process of creating them.  We just keep reminding ourselves to focus on the trees of this PD forest.

October 22, 2014
I have found that being flexible is now more important than ever as a Digital Learning Coach. So many changes happen and I need to go with the flow. I found out that, due to last minute changes from the district, I will be leading a full day of PD on Monday, October 27!  I'm definitely excited, but also now really feeling the crunch.  I'm appreciative of this time and now teachers will get a full day of technology instruction.  I'm still using the data from the Google Form and focusing on the same areas because they are the areas of greatest need.  My principal is completely on board with this.  Now, rather than having separate PD opportunities after school, I will need to teach everything in one day. This will be tough because I don't overwhelm teachers and still give them enough time to "play."  I won't be sleeping much from now till Monday, that's for sure!  

My principal, curriculum coach, and I worked all day and developed a basic outline of what teachers need to understand with Google Drive. The end goal of the PD day is that teachers feel comfortable with the basic features in Google Drive so they can be better equipped to use the Google Apps with their students.  

We discussed the need to differentiate the day so all teachers' needs are met. The principal sent an email to perform another needs assessment, this time on teacher comfort level. She asked teachers to determine if they would like to be in the beginning or advanced Google Drive group. The staff split themselves up and we ended up with about half of the staff in each group. You can view the groups here, with group 1 as the beginning and group 2 as the advanced focus. Bernadette, the curriculum coach, will be teaching one group while I teach the other. We need to determine where we will teach each group and what materials are required. We also need to communicate with the teachers that they will need their teacher laptops for the entire day. The principal will be sending out that communication. Terri, our technology assistant, will set up all of the power strips around the room so teachers can charge their laptops.

Below is a list that the principal, curriculum coach, and I created. All staff members will focus on the below tasks. The advanced group will take part in a 20 minute review of Google Drive, while the beginning group will focus on this list all day.

Google Drive

• What is Google Drive?
• Accessing your Drive
• Creating folders in Google Drive
• Types of Drive files
• Creating and naming documents in Drive
• Adding shared documents/folders to Drive
• Uploading files to your Drive folders
• Sharing Drive files
• Adding comments to a document in Drive

To determine what the focus should be for the advanced group, we looked at our two-year Technology Integration Plan.  The principal, curriculum coach, and I determined what focus areas would be most beneficial to teachers.  Below is the list of the questions that will drive the advanced group's lessons.

Google Drive and Beyond

• How can we use Google Apps/Padlet/Pear Deck, etc. to enhance instruction?  
• What does it look like embedded in instruction?
• What tools are available?  
• Where does collaboration fit in?  
• What about checking for understanding?

Below is the initial agenda for the day that my principal, curriculum coach, and I created. We agreed that we will need to consolidate it to one page for the actual PD day. Click on the image below to view the full two-page agenda.

The principal, curriculum coach, and I also created a to-do list for the PD day that we would use to help keep track of the many tasks that need to be completed in the next five days.  Below is a screenshot of the to-do list.  Click on the below image to view the actual to-do list document.

I found out today that Taeler's principal also asked her to present on the full PD day. Luckily, her principal wants her to focus on the same aspects of Google Drive as mine does. Taeler and I will be working around the clock to finish all of our presentations by Monday. I am glad that Taeler is my partner in this PD project because she is dedicated and will do what she needs to when placed in a crunch like we have been. We will continue to ask ourselves what teachers need to be able to know and do to have proficiency in Google Drive. We will also make sure that we keep the focus on what students are able to do in Drive so teachers understand that they're learning this for the ultimate benefit of their students.