ISTE SIGIVC 2007: Professional Development to Classroom Teachers

Organizational Overview
Keystones: Technology Integrators, is a program that celebrates model practice teachers throughout Pennsylvania. These teachers bring to the classroom content, motivational and management expertise to capture students' imaginations and harness learning in our children. Over 1,700 teachers from across the Commonwealth have been identified as Keystones representing over 300 school districts, non-public schools, and CTC/AVTS. Annually approximately 100 Keystones are invited to attend a five-day Summit each summer where they engaged in hands-on workshops with topics such as differentiating instruction and teaching in the 21st Century. Throughout the past year, the Keystones network has grown strong through constant communication, professional development opportunities and grant writing competitions. Keystones are featured at the annual Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo and Conference.

Challenge
Our challenge with a two person team has been to continue the community developed at the annual Summit and to pull the other 600-700 teachers per year into the mix while expanding their horizons and building their network.

Solution: A Three Step Approach
1. Develop an ongoing webinar series that will provide access to nationally know educators
and introduce teachers to the potential of IVC.
2. Train teachers to use IVC with students.
3. Provide increasing opportunities and models for teacher.

Results
We have completed the third successful year of webinars with an increasing audience. While tech topics tend to be the biggest draw, teachers are beginning to attend and ask for webinars on curricular topics. Speakers have been most interested in using this format. Indeed, some agreed to talk with the teachers just so they could try it out. An increasing number of teachers have begun to incorporate the virtual meeting room into their curriculum and are reaching out across the globe to make the connections.

Innovation/Best Practices
We use Elluminate as our IVC platform to engage teachers from across the state in professional development that would not be feasible otherwise. We are able to bring nationally known speakers on a range of curriculum topics directly to the schools as well as providing collaboration opportunities for classrooms across the state and the world. In the past year we have had

•Will Richardson – how blogs support learning	•Heather Chirtea – basic concepts of photography
•Patti Thorn – developing safety nets for risk takers	•Tony Vincent – podcasting in K12
•Kecia Ray – IVC for K12

During each of the 1-1.5 hour sessions we have been able to provide a rich experience in which all the participants are active learners. We also record the sessions so that participants can re-visit or share with others. You can see these samples at www.vclasss.cciu.org under the recording button.
Each year, we survey the growing Keystones community (www.keystonespa.org) to find out what topics are most important to them and then find speakers who can best address these.
We met with and developed the online presentations with speakers. The old joke about Carnegie Hall is apropos - practice, practice, practice.

Contact Information
Carol Teitelman, Bucks County Intermediate Unit, Doylestown, PA 18901
cteitelm@bucksiu.org (215) 348-2940