Voluntary Tech PD During Winter Break

It seems that the most common cry I hear from teachers is, 'not enough time!'. Next week we are off for winter break all week and I sent out the following note to our teachers and administrators:

If you have intentions of playing around with new tech tools over break, or learning something new but often end up in the trap of best intentions falling through when trying to work on your own at home………..
I will be opening up the building during February winter break Tues thru Thurs from 10AM – 3PM for anyone interested in coming in and working on anything tech. Some ideas to work on might be:

• Searching up ideas on making your lessons include more 21st century skills
• Learn how to build your personal learning network (I can help get you started with tips for Twitter, Educational Webinars, Educational social networks and more)
• Learn and play with Google Docs
• Work on your teacher web page
• Work on Moodle
• Setup a wiki and start building content.
• Setup a blog and learn how to embed code for objects from other sites onto it.
• Learn and play with more Web2.0 tools (I will have plenty of ideas to share with you!)
• Create a screencast with Camtasia or Jing.
• Have software installed onto your computer that you are wanting but haven’t had a chance to do yet. (iTunes for Windows, Jing, Skype)
• Meet with others to develop cross curricular projects

The only thing I ask is that you RSVP with the day and time you will come in and what you might want some help with so that I can be prepared and please DO show up if you say you will be there. My cell phone is 313.719.xxxx if you need to reach me during this time. I hope this gives some of you the opportunity (& time) to continue to grow and learn in the area of using technology tools in your classrooms.

Cheers,
Annelise

PS…..There will be no stipend. There will be no additional time off. There is no CEU tied to this. This is voluntary time for anyone interested in further professional development in the area of tech. No subs will be needed. There will be no distractions of students or sub plans. This is not required and is only open to those interested in learning, exploring, creating, developing, sharing and playing with anything edu-tech related. I hope that I can share some of my enthusiasm and excitement with some of you that might not have plans over the winter break.

I wonder how many will take me up on this offer. Would you?