STAFF COMFORT LEVELS & PD SURVEY

Technology PD-related Comments: April 2015

Comments are unedited and uncensored, except to protect anonymity and professional decorum. No comments have been withheld from this list. Adding comments to a survey response was optional. 
  • Flipping a Classroom 
  • Flipped classroom model
  • Flipped Classroom Software/Apps
  • I want a tool that will grade tests for me (especially multiple choice) since scan trons are out next year.
  • I also want a took to monitor students use of the chromebook.
  • Training on the Smartboard that is specific to math.Creating and organizing online assessments, specifically math related. How do you I create a problem where students can manipulate graphs and use math symbols on their chromebooks and in a format they can submit to me for grading?
  • Flip cameras, GoPro cameras - using video in the classroom and storing it somewhere where it can be shared or re-watched.
  • There is too much of a focus on tech
  • Video editing and production
  • I understand how to use technology pretty well and am very comfortable with it and could even teach it to others, but what I struggle with is keeping the students focused on the technology at hand when it's so easy to become distracted on the Chromebooks or lab computers. I think training that would involve strategies for managing the classroom and/or behavior with the use of technology would be helpful.
  • We need Skyward RtI data implementation training at buildings again.
  • I would like to be able to use technology in a manner that is developmentally appropriate for the pre-k level. I would like to hear from other pre-k teachers on how they have integrated it into the classroom.
  • Don't be afraid to repeat the basics. Don't say, "Oh, we've already trained them on such and such. They won't want to see it again. We don't want to bore them." Not true! Sometimes it takes a few exposures to a tech option before a person finally decides to pursue it and learn it. I'm sure there are teachers who held off last year but are not at a comfort level where they are ready to plunge in and try now.
  • none
  • Twitter
  • ipads  
  • Refresher course. Something to go over the overall Google stuff in a short amount time.
  • I want to make and have my students make PSAs or TV commercials. I want to know how.
  • NA- all were mentioned that I can think of!
  • None that I can think of right now 
  • useful add ons and apps for elementary
  • n/a 
  • Flipping the Classroom  

Other PD-related Comments: April 2015

  • cpu's and how to enter them, how to keep record of them, what counts and what doesn't- Human Relations
  • Teaching in An Anti-Public School Age
  • Teaching in the Age of High Stakes Testing
  • Are Public Schools Really Failing? An Examination of Falling U.S. PISA Scores in an Era of Increasing Childhood Poverty
  • A Comparison of U.S. PISA Scores by Income Level to Other Developed Nations
  • The Statistical Significance of Test Scores in Determining Teacher Efficacy
  • developing appropriate assessments and units for common core and student growth model
  • further training on KIDS assessment for kindergarten  
  • science common core standards
  • differentiating instruction
  • Implementing Conscious Discipline at the pre-k level.
  • No new initiatives please. I want to barf when I hear about this new direction or about that new acronym. To me, "the new XYZ initiative" means some grand idea dreamed up at least two levels above us and then sent down the chain as a project for the rest of us to do. Then, it will be forgotten about by the next year. All those hours and all that effort drains resources from our classrooms and our kids. Please give us space to focus on our classrooms and our students. Give us space to improve our lessons and our courses. There is so much that I want to do! I want to continue to improve certain things about my teaching. I know what I need to do.
  • I think all buildings should receive the basic de-escalation strategies from TCI training. 
  • Classroom management
  • Content Area improvement
  • N/a 
  • Writing Student Growth Objectives (in preparation for the Student Growth component of the evaluation plan. 

General Comments: April 2015

  • I think we should attend both regional institutes....not one or the other
  • I feel like the workshops/training I've received so far have been "telling" not "teaching". In my profession I'm asked to offer hands-on learning experiences to help my students take ownership of a concept rather than just hear it. Yet the learning opportunities I've had with technology offered by my employer have offered very little hands-on opportunities and even less time to try the activity in the presence of someone who can help answer questions.
  • The fall institute gives me the opportunity to apply what I've learned immediately and then time to tweak it/ adjust it as the school goes on.  

Comments: November 2014

Comments are unedited and uncensored, except to protect anonymity and professional decorum. No comments have been withheld from this list. Adding comments to a survey response was optional. 
  • File Sharing with students using folders in google drive
  • How to apply accomodations to ELL and low-literacy students when working with technology
  • Ways to save music files and clips for quick access on desktop
  • More information on Quizlet and online assignments
  • I would like to hook up my iPad to use as a reinforcement activity for the smartboard. I have an adapter that uses HD CORD
  • assessing students with technology - we don't even give Aimsweb with a computer "handy"
  • Would like time to figure out online assignments... Would like time to see what other classroom teachers are doing with technology in classrooms...
  • This may be under one of the above categories. I would like to know the fastest way to connect my students to a website I would like to use in class (games, practice quizzes, and so forth)
  • Podcasts, videos-expanding WeVideo allotted filming time
  • The problems and how to fix during your class period. 
  • Also, have had a gmail item that saved in my documents but when I went to put it in google classroom it wasn't there. Found it in downloads instead but I even had students helping me and they could not figure out why this happened.
  • I am a first year teacher and I am not at all familiar with EdAutomate. I am aware that some teachers went to a training and were given a handout. Is there a training on this for new teachers? Can we be given a copy of the handouts from previous trainings? Any chance you have a tutorial video that we could watch on our own if now formal training can be provided? 
  • Everything was covered prior in survey
  • Specific to our evaluation model 
  • I still don't have a chrome book. I would like one and I'd like to be trained on all its bells and whistles.
  • I am pretty good at it and find resources to learn the new skills. :)
  • Graphing and graphing calculators with data, (i.e. Plotly or other resources)
  • I could use more specific app suggestions and time to learn and implement them in my classroom. 
  • I would like to learn more about Moodle and how to set that up. I am using Google Classroom currently and would like to take the next step.
  • I am the library/media teacher ... and am having a lot of trouble allowing students to log in to the computers with their own Google accounts. Very few of them are allowed to log in to the computer itself, so I generally will have them log in with the generic school account and then log in to Chrome with their own account. Even if they log out, though, their information somehow is saved...I'd like training on how this process works and how I need to instruct my students so it's not a mess every time I have a new class come in.
  • accessing my textbook website and utilizing its features - maybe a rep from the company?
  • How to set up and maintain classroom websites.
  • Graphing Calculators
  • Something geared for K or early 1st, for special ed.
  • Safe sites
  • Quality apps to imrpove [sic] student performance in reading and all areas of Language Arts 
  • None...I am completely and totally technology trained OUT. Let me teach.
  • creating, giving online assessments that are self-graded - options other than Skyward? 
  • What's next? how to make the Chromebook more than glorified notebook paper.
  • Technology relevance and usage in my subject area. (preferably training provided by someone who actually teaches my subject matter and knows what technology would improve instruction.
  • Flipping Classroom 
  • I would like to have further training with the smartboard and document camera tools / software
  • We need to focus on technology that is related to Common Core and PARCC changes. Students are going to be taking online assessments, but none of our PD is focusing on the technology (Google, or otherwise) that is most in-line with the PARCC assessments and how we can modify our curriculum and our lessons to help prepare our students for these vastly different tests that they will have to be taking. I thought that was the primary purpose of the Chromebooks. Instead, we have been given no unified direction, so teachers are all over the place in respect to how they are using the Chromebooks and there is no consistency for students. I fail to see how this benefits them.

Other Training Needs: November 2014

  • Accessing Common-Core materials online
  • I have no chrome book or device to learn google applications on, my desk top barely works. I was not given a chrome book to use over the summer to learn things. I am frustrated with the number of training a occurring right now. By the time I get chrome b
  • I would like to see more PD that is specific to our department and shows us ways to make our classrooms more efficient with the things we already have or things that we can make on our own cheaply. 
  • How to integrate Daily 5 strategies; working with Moby Max
  • What websites students can use on Chromebooks to measure progress and work on, while the teacher is working with other groups? (especially math) and how to navigate those sites. 
  • PARCC
  • walking through with help how to put info into the teacher evaluation thingy :) 
  •  Visit progressive technological innovative schools..
  • I would like to use Skyward to keep my gradebook-but we don't currently do that at my school. 
  • How about our phone system? Set a password that does not work and now can not get messages.
  • I am a first year teacher and I am not at all familiar with EdAutomate. I am aware that some teachers went to a training and were given a handout. Is there a training on this for new teachers? Can we be given a copy of the handouts from previous trainings? Any chance you have a tutorial video that we could watch on our own if now formal training can be provided? 
  • I'd like to understand some of the special features that Google can do that I could use in everyday lessons.
  • Just curious about committees that I have been on in the past and if they are coming back? Science, Technology, Skyward??
  • EdAutomate
  • Teaching with Comprehensible Input - Foreign Language
  • I would like to learn more about what other people are doing in their classrooms with technology and share what I'm using.
  • I would love some PD on behavior management methods especially designed for specials.
  • chromebooks
  • Common Core Curriculum and materials, especially Math. PARCC Assessment.
  • curriculum mapping ELA middle school
  • creating assessments that fit into our model
  • EdAutomate t
  • Flipping classrooms - with the Chromebooks, I would like more information on how to really make that work. With so many great online resources, students' homework could be to watch a video, do some research online, etc. Then class time could be used for collaboration, projects, performance tasks etc. 1:1 computing makes that possible, but it is a complete mindshift on what teaching and the classroom "look" like. I would like more examples of how to do that in my classes.
  • Danielson Training 
  • Ed Automate
  • Integration of tech in day to day classroom activities.
  • Continued development of curriculum toward PARCC assessments and Common Core. We are tackling too much at one time, part of it due to necessity, I understand. Integrating Chromebooks into the classrooms has taken the focus off curriculum adjustments and development that is CRUCIAL at this time. This is all too much at once and we, as teachers, are being pulled in all different directions with no unified focus on developing lessons that are beneficial to our students. Jan Leonard told us previously to pick one aspect of Common Core and "go deep" with it, then move on to the next. Why aren't we doing that instructionally as well?

Other Comments: November 2014

  • Book there won't be any training do left I will be behind the curve and struggling to learn it properly because all the training a have already taken place.
  • My responses as to how I feel using technology now compared to how I felt at the beginning of the year are the same due to the fact that we have received NO training. I don't have the time or the knowledge to teach myself computer skills.
  • Thank you
  • Matt Jacobson Rocks!!
  • Even after months of working with google programs, I still HATE the organizational system it used. The search is not refined enough - I want to be able to look where I want, not have it bring me what it thinks I need. There is no auto correct on anything, which suck up tremendous amounts of my time while I go back to correct simple mistakes. Trying to teach myself a new word processing program, and also teach my students how to do the same, is a waste of my time and the district's funds. I wish that the district did not purchase inferior technology in order to save money. Also, I am not learning much that is new; I just keep using Explorer and Microsoft Office for most of my needs. 
  • I do not have a Chromebook since I teach library/media. Thus I marked that I do not have any knowledge or experience of it. I trust that I could figure out without vast difficulty, but at this point I do not have a Chromebook and therefore have not gone to those trainings since I have been told that specials teachers won't get them.
  • I am a para in a preschool. I would like to learn
  • The chromebooks have been a great help. 
  • This is really a question about what happens to the class folders that were created by "School Docs" in my Google Drive and all the documents in them when the class over for Term 2 (I teach high school). Do those folders automatically get deleted when the course is over? Are they stored forever on the drive?
  • It is unbelievable that the District expects teachers to use Chrome Books without training for staff. We all had to scramble to learn these next technologies on our own time with little direction. If the District expects teachers to use a new program, then set up training sites for us. 
  • I would be good to offer leveled classes such as 100, 200, or 300 or beginner, intermediate, advanced level.
  • Thank you for developing this survey to assess current needs.