Summer PD at MVSD

I personally love this time of year. I don’t care what anyone says, New Years’ Eve for teachers is the end of August! Summer PD is so enjoyable for me (both as a participant as well as a facilitator):

• everyone is refreshed following the summer break
• there is a feeling of excitement and new opportunity
• there is an increased ability to focus and implement new information as classes haven’t started yet
• those who are there are participating voluntarily and geniunely WANT to be there

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Like many school divisions, MVSD offers professional development for their teaching staff near the end of August to assist staff with their goals for the upcoming school year. Prior to joining the MVSD team in 2019 I had also facilitated summer PD in TRSD as part of their Summer Learning Institute. In my new role as Coordinator of ICT my participation is obviously related to educational technology PD.

To provide some context, MVSD moved to the Microsoft Office 365 platform in late 2018 with a full purposeful implementation for all staff and students occuring alongside my arrival to the position in 2019. As such, much of what I have focused on in my first year as Coordinator of ICT is related to Office 365 and it’s functions within the education sphere. This summer’s tech PD offers 3 main sessions running from August 24-26:

• Tech Support Session
• Intro to Office 365
• Microsoft Teams

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While the above sessions are primarily designed for teaching staff (and support staff who also work with student programming) we also play a role in supporting our secretarial staff. Our Data Systems Administrator provides summer PD on our SIS, PowerSchool, while our Communications Manager provides support on our school-based websites.

In addition to these sessions, I will also be working as part of our Programs & Planning and HR teams to host our annual Mentorship PD for those who are new to MVSD. My participation in this PD includes the distribution of divisionally-assigned laptops, introduction of the ICT Departments available supports and review of our applicable policies & procedures (Acceptable Use Procedure ICT, Social Media Guidelines, Cell Phones & PED)

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Are you involved in summer PD, either as a participant or facilitator? I’d love to hear what you are involved in; leave a comment below!