Online Professional Development Courses Coming Soon

Are you looking for technology integration professional development but are unable to attend after school trainings due to other commitments?

The Office of Personalized Learning will be rolling out  online professional development courses soon.  These courses will be listed in PDExpress when available and can be accessed through our Moodle server at eLearn.spps.org.  Interested participants will register in PDExpress and use the enrollment key listed there to enroll in the Moodle course on eLearn.spps.org.

Online professional development can be worked on anytime, anywhere - whenever is convenient for the individual participants, whether that is at 4:00 p.m., 9:00 p.m., or 12:00 a.m. during the week or on the weekend. Whenever is most convenient for the participant.

After completing an assignment in the course, participants will receive clock hour credits in PDExpress just like they do for attending trainings after school or during the school day.

If online professional development sounds interesting to you, check in PDExpress under Personalized Learning for new courses coming soon!

Personalized Learning Institute

The Office of Personalized Learning held the first Personalized Learning Institute March 26 and 27.

The institute was attended by eighty-five Saint Paul staff and introduced them to personalized learning essentials, tailoring instruction, culturally responsive teaching, teaching in technology rich environments, student voice and choice, universal design for learning (UDL), and a hands-on introduction to some of the features of the new learning platform.

Staff also had time to collaboratively explore web 2.0 tools and resource websites that can be integrated into lessons to help students collaborate online, produce multimedia examples of their learning, and educate students on digital citizenship and online safety.  

Additional personalized learning institutes and training will be available later this spring.  Please check the Personalized Learning website for additional information about institutes and professional development.

Student response: Plickers

There's a new tool in student response: Plickers.  Plickers is great if you don't have access to student devices like an iPad or clickers.  The only requirement is the teacher needs to have an iPhone or Android phone to collect responses.  Each student gets a paper response card, and can turn the card based on their chosen answer (A,B, C or D).  The teacher scans the room with the phone, and the responses are collected!

The Plicker website allows teachers to print cards, create class lists and see students' responses.  Feedback I've already gotten recommends printing the cards on cardstock, or something more durable than regular paper.  You can set up your class list so that a student is associated with a specific card. Then, you can see that student's answers afterwards.

Have you tried Plickers?