Professional Development at Info Tech

The PD at ITHS is ending today. We have teachers, coaches and school staff shown up at PD. Most of us like the new PD format proposed by Ted. People walk in the lab. As trainers, we would ask them what they want to do or learn, or what project they would like to work on. Most of them have very specific needs. With the specialties of each of our trainers, we help them out. During these several weeks of PD, we worked on Web Design with Dreamweaver, HTML coding, animation with Flash, video editing, blogging and many other topics which were not listed in the schedule. Most of the participants feel that it is quite productive, yet still with a lot of freedom. One important feature of it is that participants get much more personal attention at PD. Back to the regular classroom setting, this model can also be implemented. However I would argue that it could be quite difficult for large class setting. We just don't have that much time of attention to give to each student. Another advantage of this model is that with more personal contact, trainers/instructors can learn from trainees/students. I learned a lot from the conversations we have in the room in the unformal ways. People may have different views on this model. Some may feel uncomfortable. I would still encourage people to explore this model. I am very grateful to Noralee and Ted to arrange this PD for all of us. It is my great pleasure to work with Steve, Ken, Renee, Ted and meet so many great teachers during the training.