Scheduling

=**Scheduling a Technology in Motion Training** =

//Please take some time to review what constitutes good professional development://
 * Thank you for your interest in scheduling Technology in //Motion//(TiM) for technology professional development in your school or district.**
 * Alabama Standards for Effective Professional Development: [[file:Alabama Professional Development Standards.pdf]]
 * NCLB Defintion of Professional Development: [[file:NCLB Definition of Professional Development.pdf]]

__STEP 1: Selecting the Date(s)__ The TiM Instructional Technology Specialist is available for training by request. Sessions are scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis among all K-12 public schools in the central Alabama region. Therefore, it is usually necessary to select and request dates as far in advance as possible. Many schools/districts choose dates monthly for ongoing, sustained professional development that is most effective. Visit the [|Calendar] link to see open dates that might work for technology training at your site. Email those dates to the TiM Instructional Technology Specialist, and they will be confirmed and placed on the training calendar.

__STEP 2: Selecting the Topic(s)__ There are a couple of forms that will need to be completed and returned prior to the first scheduled workshop. The **ASU-TiM Technology Professional Development Plan Form** is supposed to help focus your technology PD on targeted goals for technology, professional development, and student achievement.

The best thing to do is look at the school's technology plan, professional development plan and/or school improvement plans to pull objectives from areas of identified need based on the data. The TiM Instructional Technology Specialist will be glad to offer recommendations on topics and delivery formats (whether face-to-face or online courses or book studies) might be most effective for your teachers and/or administrators. Other alternatives are: 1) give teachers an opportunity to select directly from the workshop titles and descriptions from the attached **ASU-TiM Workshop Choice Form** __OR__ 2) give them the attached **Technology Skills Assessment** to determine their skill levels and choose appropriate workshops based on that information.

The Tech PD Plan Form should also help you think about who your targeted audience should be. Perhaps providing training for different groups will be more effective than having everyone attend all sessions. You can group them either by skill level or by subject area. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. By skill level, we can introduce them to the kinds of activities they can handle without frustrating them by going too fast or too slow. Grouping them by subject area, allows me to provide examples and specific activities that are relevant to them and they will be able to help one another apply their new skills in their own classroom settings. Finally, this form will serve as a way for us to monitor progress and document the end results of continuous, job-embedded professional development. Please complete it as soon as possible.

The other form is more about implementation of each session. The **ASU-TiM Workshop Roster for Planning Period Training Session Form** needs to be completed so that the TiM Instructional Technology Specialist will know when each session should begin and end and who should be in attendance at each. Please note, there should be a designated break for lunch, and teachers need to report __on time__!



__STEP 3: Selecting the Format(s)__ There are a variety of formats that can be used to deliver technology professional development to teachers and administrators. Learning communities provide ongoing, sustained, job-embedded instruction and application of learning over an entire school year, utilizing both site-based and distance learning methods. Book studies, online courses and hybrid models are viable alternatives to the traditional face-to-face "workshop" method. After-school workshops are not recommended because teachers are usually tired and not as attentive, but can be arranged under certain conditions. It is strongly recommend that substitutes be obtained and give teachers release time to work in departmental or grade level groups for longer periods of time -- ranging from 2-hour blocks to half-day and full-day sessions. If you are interested in receiving funding assistance for substitutes, just put your request in writing on your school's letterhead to Dr. Evelyn Hodge, Director, Central Alabama Regional Education Inservice Center. Be sure to include the date(s), number of substitutes, reason needed, cost per sub and total cost. You can fax it to her at 334-229-4961. Alternatively, training can be scheduled during teachers' planning time, __if__ teachers can be ensured __at least__ 1-hour of professional learning time, and the training is ongoing (not just a one-time workshop).

__STEP 4: Selecting the Location(s)__ The sponsoring location(s) will need to provide a room dedicated to professional learning for the training time (not shared with other activities, such as the library or computer lab being used simultaneously as classes). There will need to be tables and chairs suffiecient for adult learners. TiM can provide some of the equipment needed to conduct a hands-on training if necessary. There are 20 wireless laptops with the Windows operating system available for training as well as digital cameras, scanners, handheld computers, interactive response systems, etc. PLEASE NOTE: It is always better to use the computers that teachers have access to at the school, if possible, since they are usually already familiar with how those computers work (or this will help them if they are not). An Internet connection must be available in the training location as well (a live data port, so the wireless access point can be connected in the case where TiM laptops will be used). The sponsoring location will need to provide a projection screen or (interactive) whiteboard in the room where the training will be conducted.

Please complete all forms as soon as possible and email them to the TiM Instructional Technology Specialist.