What is a Techie Brekkie?

This guest post from Craig Kemp (@mrkempnz) was originally posted on Craig Kemp’s Professional Reflection Blog.

ICTuesday’s, Techie Brekkies, Techie sessions, whatever you call them – if you do them right they will create an exciting sharing culture within your school.

I have been involved with Techie Brekkies for a long time now and have been inspired by many other amazing teachers to run them and create a more fun-filled, collaborative culture in the school towards the integration of technology.

This year I have implemented a professional development calendar for ICT as part of my role and this is sent out to all staff at the end of the term, ready for the next one.

On the calendar it has scheduled dates and times for my ICT PD sessions, whether they are compulsory or optional and a short blurb about what it is about (a teaser). I wanted staff to not feel stressed, people need time and I am incorporating as much of these PD sessions into scheduled staff meetings as possible. The idea of all sessions I run is to inspire teachers to use it in their classroom and there is always an expectation from me that I will follow up and the staff know they are accountable.

I believe, the use of technology needs to be shared in a positive, fun and non-time consuming manner. Teachers don’t want to feel like technology is a burden and it is an added weight to their already heavy loads.

Techie Brekkies are the new crazy at my school and we run these once or twice a term as optional sessions. Our first session this year was on Web 2.0 tools to liven up your classroom programme and for an optional programme I had 60% of staff RSVP and attend – I was amazed and none of us were disappointed. I was blown away by the up take on these fun tools and have seen them being used in each year level over the past 3 weeks since the session. I LOVE IT.

I am now having so many requests for my Techie Brekkies that I have got too many ideas! I have staff keen to run sessions and the positive culture is slowly developing.

Techie Brekkie

Techie Brekkies run in many different ways and the way I organise my sessions is pretty basic:

  1. PD calendar sent out to staff with dates
  2. Staff RSVP to event
  3. Reminder sent to staff 2 weeks out with an RSVP to attend
  4. Light breakfast provided for staff (e.g. fresh fruit, breads, yoghurts, coffee, tea, juice etc.)
  5. Informal presentation of ideas as a teaser (normally 15-20min)
  6. 30-45min for staff to have a go – follow links, play, interact, share, collaborate, discuss!
  7. Staff leave when they are ready and tell me one thing they are going to use this week
  8. I follow up with all staff who share with me something they have done in their practice from what they learnt (this is then followed up with a classroom walkthrough at the end of each term – blog post coming soon).
  9. I sent an email to all staff with some inspirational messages and the links to the presentation and tools – that way even those who didn’t attend can still get involved.

The next important step for me is getting staff to create an online learning journal (similar to that I use with students that I mentor) where they record their PD, post links of what they found and reflect on their teaching in a positive manner.

This process has already personalised our professional learning experiences at my school and I continue to seek ways of improving this experience.

Thank you to my Twitter PLN for inspiring me and exciting me every day. Here is an older blog post about Twitter vs Traditional PD. This post was inspired by many on my Twitter PLN – I would love for you to join as well and follow along and contribute in my learning journey.

Please pass this on to your colleagues and join me in this exciting journey.

Have a great week and stay inspired!

Please visit the inspirational website http://www.techiebrekkie.net/ for more information and some excellent resources.

 

Feature image courtesy of Flickr, Vox Efx.

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