Staff Development Reflection

   Earlier this year I completed a staff development session on the many uses of Discovery Education.  Until this point, they only thing Discovery Education was only used to show full video or video clips to enhance the lesson they were teaching.  In the staff development I showed everyone how to add their students in order to create more meaningful ways to use Discovery Education.  Once everyone had their class added, I shared with them how how to create quizzes to go along with the video they were watching to check for student understanding.  I then showed them how to assign the video and quiz to all students or to just a select few.  Once everyone felt comfortable, I moved on to how to create writing prompts using selected videos.  The last thing I taught the staff was how to make an assignment to go with a video or a selection of their content.  I showed them the three different assignments I created for my class based on animals and how I would assign them to different student based on their needs.
   The staff development was focused on different types of integration.  The first was technology.  This concept integrated technology by giving the students their own was to connect to Discovery Education and take ownership of their learning,  I was also able to integrate writing into content by using the writing prompt and assignment maker.
   The information was presented to the staff in a more direct way.  I would show them how to complete a task and then have them complete one like it as I walked around to answer questions or help where needed.  For example, at the start of the development I showed them how to add students to the program and then had the teachers add their own students.
   The staff development was well received by most everyone.  There were a few staff members that do not like using technology unless the lesson is ready made and no prep work is needed.  Most of the people at the staff development really liked seeing the new things they could do with the program and have told me all the ways they have been using it within their classroom.  The follow up was to see how the staff was doing using Discovery Education and helping with any questions or concerns they had arise since the original meeting.
   This experience really gives you the chance to see what things are like on "the other side".  I try my best to stay quiet and pay attention while I am attending any training or staff development, but can tell that I am one of the few people that do that.  I was able to see how easily staff members were able to get side tracked and start conversations that were not about the topic I was teaching,  It also taught me that I need to make sure I am keeping any future staff development or training interesting and showing new ideas/concepts at a pace that will work for everyone.
   One of the things I would change if I were to teach this staff development again would be to separate the staff development into different sessions.  I think things would have gone better if I would not have had to teach all ideas on only one day.