5+ Tech Professional Development Ideas to Share with Your School
Has your administration asked you to come up with some professional development ideas? Or maybe you just want to help your school get a stronger foundation in tech and STEM.
Before you take off with an idea of your own, think about asking your staff for input about what tech they want to learn more about. Make sure you hear from representatives from all departments, grade levels, and administration. You may also want to consider defining two main categories of tech to learn about: tech the school already has that teachers think they could be using better and then tech they’ve heard about and know they would love to implement, but the school does not yet have.
These are some of the hottest topics in tech that could easily benefit all the educators at your school to get you started:
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Makerspaces. Explain what they are and how to set one up, perhaps by using the resources on a website or setting up a course.
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Virtual reality. There are a ton of resources out there to help you train your teachers on Google Expeditions, or pick a workshop to share tips on the technology in general.
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Digital literacy. Spend some time going over ISTE Standards, then pick one (or have each grade level team pick one) and focus on actionable ways to integrate it into their teaching. You could also go over a couple of structured lessons, or even go all-out and set up your school to take a course on the subject.
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Virtual laboratories. Explore lists and collections of resources, then simply have teachers pick one and give them time to work it into their lesson plans.
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Gamification. Have grade level or subject teams curate their own lists of online games that support learning for their students, brainstorm how to use elements of games in a behavioral management system that could be implemented school-wide, or offer a course to introduce the concept to your teachers.
Here are a few other general ideas to help your school provide a fruitful professional development day:
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Pair teachers up to develop an interdisciplinary teaching activity.
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Conduct a survey of possible topics your teachers may want to cover prior to the professional development day. From that input create several rooms your teachers can choose from, with the intention that on the day each teacher will be able to pick a room with a topic they feel is relevant to them.
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Offer a book club type that allows teachers who opt in to slowly accrue hours over a period of weeks or months. Consider letting teachers who complete it to then be able to opt out of a portion of the final professional development day of the year.
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Share some websites where teachers can earn professional development credits independently, then provide time for them to get started on a course or complete a webinar or two.
