I’m on PD overload, I truly don’t think my mind can intake one more ounce of new information/ideas right now. Yes, I know my job is all professional learning, but I have not received this much excellent professional learning in such a small amount of time in a long time (if ever)!  In an effort to brain dump and synthesize the great information I’ve taken in over the past month and a half I selected to share with you some (no particular order) of my take-aways from a few of the breakout sessions and online PD I’ve taken part in since January!

• Session: Designing Staff PD 
  • Presenters: Sarah Ogborn, Melissa Garcia, Megan Troyer, & Kyle Bush
  • My Take-Away:  Follow Devin Siebold on Youtube!  He is constantly creating new timely videos that are sure to make you smile. These would be great for staff meetings, to use during professional learning, or to turn a frown upside down!  Here is a link to his “Teacher Comedy Sketches” YouTube Playlist for your convenience. For your enjoyment, here is a sample of one of his videos about PD:

•  Session: How To Design Google PD That Works 
  • Presenter: Kasey Bell
  • My Take-Away: I’ve been working to become a Google Certified Educator for a few months now, I am happy to announce that as of Sunday (2/14) I am officially a Certified Google 1 and Google 2 Educator! As I recently earned these accreditations, I will use what I learned in Kasey’s presentation as I create online Google Trainings that we will start to offer through the ROE (more information to come on this in a few months)! However, I will be sure to heed her advice and start out my training(s) with a deep dive into Chrome before starting to dig into the other amazing G Suite Applications.   

• Session:  Ready. Set. Play. Gamifying Your School’s PD
  • Presenter: Stephanie Crawford
  • My Take-Away: Stephanie pushed me to think about different ways to engage learners and build relationships while delivering high quality professional learning. Those of you that know me, know I love themed activities and am an extremely competitive person so let’s just say this was right up my alley and I can’t wait to gamify my PD – Watch out Kane ROE!!  Future themes include – Harry Potter, Scrabble, & Apples to Apples! 

• Session: Remote Learning Done “Right”
  • Presenter: Dr. Courtney Orzel
  • My Take-Away: I am always looking for quick and easy feedback tools and discussion prompts.  Dr. Orzel shared with us, “Kudos, Comments, Questions, and Suggestions” as a way to provide feedback.  She also discussed a shorter discussion tool, “Loved and Learned”.  These prompts are perfect to use with adults and students and provide more meaningful responses than just asking for questions or thoughts.

• Session: Online Learning Best Practices, Tips, and Tools
  • Presenter: Kasey Bell
  • My Take-Away: Check out this link where Kasey shares 20 Formative Assessment Tools for Your Classroom.  Surprisingly there were some I had never heard of before, after checking them out I can’t wait to use them! She also shared “15 Collaborative Tools that Aren’t Google” which again, introduced me to new tools to implement/utilize!

• Session:  Bite-Sized Professional Learning through 1-3 Minute Videos!
  • Presenters: Jenna Moller & Katie Algrim 😊
  • My Take-Away: I know you have heard me say it before, but I often learn more from delivering PD than I do when I receive it.  This experience was no different!  I was blown away by the participation and collaboration of our recorded, on-demand presentation.  I am honored that so many participants reached out during and after they watched our session with completed examples of their “Bite-Sized PL Videos”.  Here is a video that Aaron Houston created after attending our session.

In order to make professional learning beneficial we need to do something with our knowledge gained, change our teaching practices or perspectives or share your learning with others.  I hope that you enjoyed and will benefit from my brain dump above.  I firmly believe that we can take one nugget, one piece of information, at least one take-away from every professional learning session we participate in.  These are just a few of the amazing sessions I have had the privilege of attending since 2021 started, I can’t wait to see what I learn and am able to share with you in the remaining 10 months of 2021.