Professional Development

My principal asked me to organize a professional development for the instructional paraprofessionals for yesterdays PD day. I was not really sure what to cover at first but in the end it all came together nicely. We went over how to sign up for the PrometheanLearning.com site as well as how to use our new PD360.com site. Both sites offer chances to take PD into your own hands. PD360 is like having tons of videos on demand as well as a teacher's forum about almost any topic you could possibly have a question about, from classroom management to reading fluency tips. My school has signed up for a three year license with PD360, unfortunately it is not free. My principal ended up joining the session which had me a bit nervous, I must admit. However, she was very pleased with the presentation and was trying the activities just like anyone else which was very cool to see.

After my presentation I stayed in my room the remainder of the day to help other presenters use my lab. It became a great co-teaching moment that I was not expecting. I ended up learning a lot more about our online Blackboard website as well which is an added perk. I used a version of Blackboard during college but this is slightly different for BCPSS. I have been steadily trying to use it more and more because it does have a wealth of valuable resources,plus I am the designated parent portal approval guy for my school so I guess I should try to know what I am doing. Basically I will be telling the system that a parent has the rights to view their child's class information and grades online. I can not wait for online grades to start happening supposedly next year.

Today should prove to be fun, it is the first day back to school with students. As you can tell by my post time I am up way earlier than my usual roll out of bed at 7:30 time. I fell asleep on the couch last night and now I am wide awake at 5:30 in the morning. At least now I have plenty of time for breakfast. I am partly hoping that I will be asked to go on a field trip today. The first graders are going to the Washington DC Zoo and one of the teachers has been feeling under the weather so I volunteered to go if they needed. I doubt they will let me cancel a full day of classes to go however. Either way it should be a fun filled day.