Summer Trainings

This summer I had the opportunity to attend three trainings that will hopefully improve my instruction. The trainings that I attended were: Promethean Board, Ipad, and Modified block schedule.

Our special education department has a promethean board within our department for all of us to share. The training I attended went over how to care and clean the machine. We also touched on the basic maintenance and tools of the board. During the afternoon, we were given a quick run down on how to utilize and implement the board. I was very impressed with what the machine is capable of doing. I felt the training was beneficial; however, all of the information that was covered was a little overwhelming. I am excited to be able to use this with my classes. The only obstacle that I will encounter will be getting into the classroom where the board is located. It is installed in another teachers room so I will have to coordinate with him and the other special education teacher times to use it.

Our district also has provided Ipad's for all of the special education teachers. The first training that I attended set me up with an itunes account and gave me a quick run down on how to download apps. We then were given time to go home and download more apps and familiarize ourselves with the device. At the next training we were able to share the apps that we found. This was very useful because most of the apps that people had pertained to classes that I teach. I am looking forward to using the Ipad in my classroom.

This year the high school has decided to go to a modified block schedule. Last year we tried it for a 2 week period. It seemed  like a success for teachers and students per the survey monkey that was completed. This training gave us an opportunity to get ideas on how to break up the 82 minute class period. We also were able to discuss as a staff things that worked well and things that did not go so well last year in order to work out the flaws before we begin the schedule. Again, I am looking forward to being able to teach a longer class period. However, I knot that it will be difficult for some of our students and we will need to work together to get through it.

I am excited to have 2 new tools to use within my classroom. I am also excited to see how the modified block schedule will work.