ACS as an Innovative School – the First Semester
As has been the tradition, we started off the school year with a couple of new additions to the ACS faculty. Among them was an Integrated Technology Coordinator, full-time position now, and it was filled by Al Mitchell from the US. Most of Mr. Mitchell’s professional life, he had been working with either technology support or teaching technology courses. In 2015-2017, Mr. Mitchell had been a Technology Coordinator at an international school in Thailand, where he had been assisting faculty and staff in their use of Google applications and all the possibilities of the school’s student Chromebook program, very much like what he was to be doing at the College. Here, his focus was going to be on working with departments and individuals who were struggling or wanted more help.
On September 3, to get everyone started Mr. Mitchell gave an introductory Chromebook presentation to all faculty and staff members, naturally, in Google Slides. Additionally, we had a half day full faculty session on Google Classroom. This session was an overview of how to use Classroom, its features and then time for teachers to set up and start to use it before students arrived so they were familiar with it before going live.
The first week of school, Mr. Mitchel was busy distributing the actual Chromebooks to all 800 students but starting the week after, he announced his regular office hours for all teacher needs to do with Chromebooks, tech integration, Google Classroom etc, so we knew where and when to find him.
ACS Faculty Development Coordinator Karen Lavender continued organizing monthly teacher learning community sessions (TLCs). As Ms. Lavender shared “the plan for the TLCs this year has been to introduce and integrate the use of technology to teachers through a hands-on program. The TLC sign ups have been deliberate to do two things:
1) let people sign up for sessions working from their level as we know our faculty has beginners through to advanced users and
2) provide sign up options that meet our e-Learning Plan to introduce Google Classroom school-wide and then to introduce the gamut of G-suite apps that all teachers and students are expected to become familiar with.”
And as the school year's focus was to be technology and integrating technology into everyone’s classrooms and workplace, at their TLC session in October, faculty and staff looked at Google Drive and Google Docs. For improved results, different groupings were introduced as per everyone’s level of comfort on a topic, determined by a preliminary survey. The latter helped us identify the leaders, our in-house “experts”, who would facilitate some of the sessions, thus providing real experience teaching for faculty, at the same time offering them technology leadership opportunities.
Also in October, a Google Classroom was created where all faculty and staff were to be the students, having the opportunity to see the app through the eyes of the students this way. Ms. Lavender began using this forum to distribute information connected to the TLCs and support teachers as they were navigating Google Classroom.
In November, the ACS E-learning Committee created a Support Form for all faculty and staff members to use whenever they needed assistance with Google Classroom or other technology issues. Once submitted the form got distributed to the person best able to provide help.
The December TLC session was devoted to topics like Google Drive (Level 1 and 2), Google Classroom (Level 1 and 2), Getting the Most out of My Chromebook, and Integrating Technology (Level 3, a sharing session). The Google Classroom session participants learned about organizing their Google Classroom by creating topics, sharing files, adding assignments; they got acquainted with the difference between assignments and announcements, learned how their drive connects to their classroom, how to control student comments and return assignments. The Getting the Most out of My Chromebook covered Chromebook keyboard shortcuts, learned how to convert MS Office documents to Google Docs/Slides/Sheets, as well as how to add apps to their Chrome Profile and add a cloud printer. The Integrating Technology session was for the tech savvy colleagues, already familiar with and regularly use Google Classroom and Google Suite, looking for collaborating with others who are trying new ways to integrate educational apps. Every participant shared something they had been trying and explained why they would use it, including pros and cons.
The February TLC sessions offered Google Forms and Integrating Forms (Levels 1 and 2), Google Calendar (beginners), and a sharing session on apps and advanced features for all those completely comfortable with Chromebooks, Classroom, and all things Google. The Google Forms session takers concentrated on making all kinds of Google Forms and using them with Google Classroom while the Google Calendar ones learned how to integrate their calendar into everything they do, including the "Appointment Slots" feature.
Increasingly knowledgeable on all things Google and more and more comfortable with Chromebooks, we look forward to the second semester of ACS as an innovative school!
