EdTech PD – S. McCroskey

Right after student teaching, I was lucky enough to get my mentor teacher to share all of his digital teaching material with me on a thumb drive; the problem was it needed to be more organized, and I was extremely overwhelmed. Imagine a younger, more stressed-out Stuart ( I know, hard to believe), but that is where I was at leading up to my first school year. Luckily, I would attend one of the best PD sessions I had ever participated in,  only weeks before the school year began. The PD session was led by the county curriculum coordinator, and he casually showed the group several databases online that had access to primary source documents for us to use and lessons that went along with them. He was not pushy and took a neutral approach to showing the various apps, websites, and databases. The PD was unlike any I had ever participated in; it was small and intimate, and you felt like your voice was valued. It started with a few helpful suggestions for the first twenty to thirty minutes, and for the final hour, he asked us about our teaching styles and how we liked to conduct class; from there, he showed us helpful apps/games curtailed to our specific teaching styles. From that session, I learned about Stanford History lessons that include primary source documents and questions that I still use in my classrooms to this day. Our curriculum coordinator did a great job listening to us and tried his best to find technology-based solutions that would fit our educational classroom needs and not push an agenda that the central office wanted.

The worst PD I had ever attended or participated in was this past summer when a book study focused on integrating technology in the classroom and giving students more autonomy was implemented for our department to somehow help us raise our SOL scores at the end of the year. For one, the book was written clearly by people who either worked in prestigious private schools or had never set foot in a classroom since the early 2000s. The book was too idealistic, and it was required for all social studies teachers to read. I felt that it did not benefit me, and I wish I could pick a book that would fit my teaching style. To add insult to injury, while reading the book, we had to answer questions throughout a 55-page Google Slides presentation, with summaries of the chapters, helpful tips, and how you would implement these new strategies into your classroom. Along with answering those busy work/box-checking questions, we had to develop three lessons that integrated strategy from the book or new teaching approaches. I get that there has to be some sort of assessment to check for accountability throughout the book reading or at the end, but to force teachers to artificially create lesson plans that may or may not apply to their teaching style is just unfair. It took me forever to complete this book reading and assignments, and by the end, I was rushing to complete it before the year’s start. Overall, it was not a great experience, and I would have liked a more authentic PD experience.

Stuart McCroskey: #EDtechPD