AWESOME Day – Teachers Enhance Learning

On April 15, teachers at Villa Maria Academy held an AWESOME Professional Development Day. Instructional Technology Coaches, Mrs. Melissa Dow and Mrs. Lisa Callan planned a wonderful day of sharing and learning.

All of our teachers are doing such awesome things in their classrooms with technology! The morning session began with each of the teachers split into groups by color and sharing the awesome things they have been teaching their students. “We surveyed the teachers before they came and put together a presentation with links of what some of them were doing. It was such a great sharing session, because some of them were even giving the others ideas of what they could do,” said Mrs. Callan. They were green screening, making newscasts, using Google Classroom and Educreations, Anatomy 4D and Elements to make 2D pictures appear 4D, making iMovies, and so much more.

They then explored six new technologies in both self-guided and teacher-led centers by Mrs. Callan and Mrs. Dow. They learned Quizlet, Touchcast, Tellagami, edPuzzle, Aurasma and Lego. And then they were asked to reflect on what they had learned using a short video that they created.

“It was a really fun learning sessions and they left with some great new tools for ideas,” said Mrs. Callan. “We like to encourage fun in learning for our students and our teachers.”