Today I spent our district professional learning day with the media specialists and instructional technology specialists of Clarke County. The PL was lead by one of the two instructional technology specialists. Topics included creating plans and protocols for next year, creating a media specialist handbook, budgets, discussing needs at each level, "refreshing" 7-12 Chromebooks, book challenges, and the best ways to get ready for the upcoming statewide assessments. I spent downtime talking to the middle school media specialist team regarding their use of technology, their role as a technology leader in their schools, challenges they face, and how they are involved with different initiatives within their schools. My greatest take away from the meeting is the lack of focus our county has in regards to technology. Many media specialist voiced concern that they don't know who they can approach with their problems. One media specialists shared that she is frustrated with the regression our county has taken over the last two year. One way her school has compensated for a loss of instructional technology support is to form grade level teacher technology teams.
February 20, 2019 - 8 hrs.
What a great experience! I spent the day at Whit Davis Elementary School with Clarke County's Instructional Technology Specialist Dana Siegmund and his wife Carrie Siegmund, Director of Instructional Technology for Northeast Georgia RESA assisting in the management of a Breakout EDU experience for 3rd graders. (Prior to two weeks ago, I had no idea what a "breakout" involved.) Back in December, the third-grade classes at Whit Davis began a cross-content unit focusing on the impact of cell phones on gorilla habitats. Today was the Gorilla Breakout. It began by getting each of the four "zones" set up with the same four clues and supplies. At the beginning of each session, students were put into four groups of four or five, an overview of the task was presented, norms for the session were established, and directions were given. The students were given 30 minutes to solve the clues to find the combinations to the locks.
Overall, the students worked very well together to solve the clues. Most groups were finished with about 3 minutes to spare. However, no group solved the breakout without using their two hints. In order to use a hint, all members of the group needed to agree on its usage.
It was a great experience to see two technology specialist run this session.
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