Summer Splash 2013

Howdy everyone...I'm back! I've taken a break as my grandmother passed away at the end of the June. That little lady had a special place in my heart and I just needed time to let reality set in. No better way than with planning 3 professional development sessions for my school district! Let's just say I'm a walking zombie because the work sessions until 3:00am the last 3  days along with working summer camp everyday have finally caught up with me.

Back to Summer Splash 2013. Today our district's instructional coaching team hosted Summer Splash. It was an all day professional development day for our district employees. I loved the title because everyone could get a "splash" of different topics. We had one hour sessions on all kinds of topics: writing, reading, differentiation, technology, etc. The timing was perfect. It wasn't to close to end of the school year when teachers are burnt out but also not to close to the beginning of the school year when teachers aren't able to reflect in enough time.

I facilitated a session on Assessing Digital Work. Many of our schools have iPads and are diving into a lot more technology based products. In working in a 1:1 environment, it takes instruction to a whole new level. My group was wonderful! They were so thoughtful and really connected well with one another. We discussed rubrics, checklists, and storyboards. We've heard about rubrics for years but with the increase of technology it is important to really consider rubrics. A great discussion that came about was allowing students to peer review one another using rubrics and how a teacher can build a safe classroom environment that can be honest and offer critical criticism. It was wonderful to see that many of the people in my session were interested in allowing their students to peer review one another.

I couldn't have been more pleased with Summer Splash. I really things its somethings we should do more often in the school year. It also provides teachers a great opportunity for collaboration with other teachers they may not normally see or work with during the school year. It was great to see a variety of grade levels bouncing ideas off one another when normally teachers are divided by grade levels for professional development.

 

Summer Splash 2013=Success!