While students enjoyed one more day of vacation, Bellevue Public Schools teachers were hard at work collaborating and learning in classrooms at Bellevue West on February 15, 2015. The classrooms were buzzing with teachers actively engaged in professional development activities. Teachers were able to choose from a variety of session topics including instructional technology, math, co-teaching, art, NeSA-ELA, HAL and others.
Sessions were led by a number of our own Bellevue Public Schools educators as well as members of the ESU 3 professional development team. Some of the experts from outside the district included Dr. Villa on co-teaching, David Dechant from EHA and Julia Hebenstreit and Jill Hamilton with suicide prevention and mental health.
Schoology, a learning management system, was the tool of choice to smoothly share resources with teachers throughout the day. Presenters uploaded their materials to the February 15 PD Schoology course for easy access by the 698 teachers enrolled in the course. If teachers weren’t able to attend a session, it is not a problem. They can find the information in Schoology anytime, anywhere. Schoology organizes and streamlines content which makes it a consistent way to share materials and resources efficiently and effectively.
Shortly after kicking off the inservice, Nicole Fox, Director of Curriculum and Classroom Assessment said, ”The day is off to a great start with our dedicated BPS educators! We have some phenomenal presenters, and the best part of learning is sharing what we know with our colleagues.”
Led by our District Instructional Technology Specialists, Building Technology Coordinators and iPad Academy teachers, the #bpsne hashtag was brimming with tweets about the learning that took place during the day. By utilizing Twitter, Bellevue Public Schools was able to share the incredible day with each other, along with educators and community members near and far. The tweets from the day were captured in this archive and available for anyone to access anytime.
Written by Jeanette Carlson @mrsjcarlson and Ann Feldmann @annfeldmann1
