Club of ICE Teachers (Innovative-Creative and Enthusiastic Teachers)

Assignment Topic: Teachers knowledge and confidence

My suggestion: Training for teachers about implementing ICT in their teaching practice.

Context: Lower school teachers P2 (7years) to P5 (10 years). There are 24 tutors (English/castellano), 22 specialists staff (maths, science, art, ICT, etc.), and 4 teachers for support staff.

The challenge: Professional Development. Improve teachers knowledge and confidence

The suggestion

Resources: Laptops for teachers/ tablets/ Smartboards

ICT Tool: Documentos de Google/ DRIVE, Blogger/ Skype

Activities:

·         Plan meeting times for a small group of innovative teachers. This group can be called “ Club of  ICE Teachers (Innovative-Creative-Enthusiastic Teachers)” A topic of concern to belong to this group could be “Developing 21^st Century Skills in the classroom and beyond”

·         Choose a coordinator of the team and choose in the group a curricular area which is interesting for everybody in the group.

·         Share in the group that Team teaching helps teachers learn from each other, so all the teachers who belong to this team are committed to achieving common goals.

·         Using Documentos de Google /Drive, in pairs, can share resources they have found or developed and prioritize their work between innovating and engaging children.

·         Teachers can work with four general ways: instruction, assessment, differentiation and as a resource (tablets, smart board, laptops) database, so, they can create a variety of activities with different objectives. It is important to remember three questions WHAT TO USE? (Required ICT applications and resources)- WHERE TO USE? (Preparation of environment)- WHEN TO USE?(Planning of application) and HOW TO USE? (Determine methods and strategies)

·          The Club of ICE Teachers can create support systems and facilitate idea sharing across grade levels and vertical teams using a Blog, created in Blogger. They can upload their research and products in their blog as a journal or e portfolio of their work.

Other challenges related to the main CHALLENGE

School management:

The role of school management should be concerned and involved.

The commitment of the Principal, Deputy Head, Coordinators, Heads of the year.

Support technological and pedagogical innovations.

Time

Some teachers say that there is not enough time with other task and roles they have.  So, the schedule for planning and make the research can be flexible, but always with a limited date to upload the products in pairs.