2. What is your role at your school? This teacher teaches fourth grade at a Lutheran school in Wisconsin. She is also the head athletic director and the department chair for the first through fourth grades.
3. What training experiences have you had recently as a teacher? SMART Board Training This training was very beneficial for her to learn about both the SMART Software and the SMART Board itself. School website training The website is very difficult to use, so the training was helpful, but not helpful enough to be able to update it well. This has been an area of struggle for the teachers, despite their training session. Grade book/attendance Software Minimal training was done for this software, however most of the learning was self-taught because the training was not sufficient.
4. What are the biggest changes that occur at your school from year to year? Curriculum changes A different subject gets purchased each year to keep the textbooks up to date. CDs, DVDs, and supplementary materials come with the new textbook series. There is no training that occurs with new curriculum. Some technology changes, such as software, also get updated
5. How are these changes communicated to you? The Principal communicates the changes and expectations at faculty meetings. This includes when the classroom websites need to be updated and when grades need to be up to date.
6. What has been a change that has occurred in your school that you wish you would have received more training on? The classroom pages on the website There are no additional resources to refer to, and there is no technology person on staff that is able to provide additional training to supplement what has already been given. She would like to post pictures and videos on her classroom page, but is unable to.
7. Is there something that you would like to accomplish in your field that you feel you are unable to do because of a lack of knowledge, resources, or training? Create a classroom website that is easy to use Have the freedom to create a separate website that has more pages than the single classroom page she currently has
8. Have you had contact with any colleagues that have mentioned needing extra training in a particular area? SMART Board training Despite having the SMART Board class, some teachers still have trouble using the SMART Board and its software. No additional resources are currently available for these teachers, other than their colleagues. Teachers at this school would like some additional online resources or additional training.
9. What training methods do you feel are the most effective for training teachers? Face-to-face training seminars with the ability to practice what is being taught
