Teachers sharpen tech knowledge
Modern educators frequently go back to school themselves for professional development to enhance their knowledge and improve their performance in the classroom, and the teachers of Porterville Unified School District are no exception.
That is what was happening Saturday at Granite Hills High School, where around 40 teachers gave up a day off and gathered for a one-day Google Summit to sharpen their skills with classroom technology.
“I think the most important thing about this event is for teachers to establish their skills on how to use the Google platform, finding out what other teachers are doing with it, and how to take it to the next level and better use it as a tool to deliver instruction,” said Jose Vasquez, STEM program manager for PUSD and coordinator of the event.
Vasquez added that the district has embraced the Google platform for about six years, and one of its advantages is its web- based versatility and its ability to work with both PC and Apple hardware.
Led by a three-member team of instructors who are full time classroom teachers themselves, each of the three sessions were divided into beginning, intermediate and advanced levels so teachers could customize the experience to their current knowledge levels and interests.
Teachers chose their skill level on sessions covering Google Classroom and Calendar, Google Drive and Gmail.
This is the second such summit put on by PUSD, Vasquez said the addition of different skill levels at Saturday’s event was in response to teacher feedback from the previous summit in August.
“We’ll go as fast and as far as the teachers want,” said instructor Kern Kelley.
Kelley teaches fourth grade in Maine when not traveling to instruct at summits, and he said one of his goals in teaching educators about Google technology is to ultimately give students ownership over their own education.
“The technology piece to me is just a medium. I want teachers to feel comfortable enough to allow their own students to try something. If they are afraid of letting students going only as far as they know, they are immediately limiting them,” said Kelley. “My hope is teachers adopt an attitude where if they don’t know the answer themselves, that they figure it out together with their students.”
Among those in attendance were ten students, who were sharpening their own skills in preparation for a similar technology summit for PUSD Pathways students on March 10. Vasquez also expressed an interest in eventually having PUSD students lead instruction at the recently opened STEAM lab at the former Citrus South Tule site.
The instructors, who present at summits around the country and the world, say the experience also enhances their own teaching careers at home.
“Travel’s great, but it gets old. What it does for me as a professional has much more of an impact,” said instructor Micah Shippee, who teaches seventh grade social studies in Syracuse, New York. “Just by me encouraging teachers to make their classrooms more exciting, it makes me want to make my classroom more exciting.”
Shippee also complimented PUSD staff for their dedication to becoming more proficient in the tools of their trade.
“They’re excited for us to be here, and people are choosing to be here on a Saturday. I think that means a lot,” he said.
For Victoria Duran, reading teacher at Vandalia, the summit gives teachers the tools to broaden the educational experience in the classroom.
“It’s really valuable to learn about the technology and incorporate it in different ways. It’s not just supplemental — it expands the classroom instead of just replacing the tools that are already in there,” she said. “It opens it up to so much more outside of the classroom that you normally couldn’t do.”
Duran was impressed by the efficiency that some of the Google technology offers. By sending out instructional videos ahead of time, she can spend less time on it in class and free up more time for discussion.
Vasquez sees the technology as a platform upon which to build other valuable skills for students that are important in the modern workforce.
“I think the beauty of all this is having the ability to provide students with the 21st century skills that they need — how to be more creative, how to communicate well with each other, and how to be more collaborative.”