Westonka Technology Academy -- #WTA2012

On my technology integration journey this year, one of my three roles was to create a summer technology camp for the teachers of our district. The goal was to have an environment that was fun, educational and full of ways to use technology in the classroom. I had been thinking about and planning for this event for over a year. (I obviously put my blogging on the back burner!) The day finally arrived and there I was – standing in front of 100 teachers in my district saying, “Welcome to the 1st Annual Westonka Tech Academy!” My colleagues cheered, and I was overwhelmed with energy and excitement!

WTA was a highlight in my educational career! I am truly proud of what we’ve created. As I’ve blogged about earlier, I have an amazing technology team (TILT). We had two full release days in additional to our regular monthly meetings where we planned out the details of our academy. During this process we truly bonded as a team. We energized and encouraged one another. We generated ideas and solved problems in a creative and productive environment.

The goal of the academy was to have a variety of offerings for teachers during our two-day event. We hoped to make a shift in the culture of our district where teachers realized that through the correct use of technology we could accomplish our goals of personalizing learning and embedding 21st century skills into our curriculum. We tried to make sure that we focused on ideas and topics for all grade levels. Another big goal of TILT was to create an atmosphere at the academy where teachers didn’t feel like they were going into another “faculty meeting”. We had music, lunch, t-shirts, a QR scavenger hunt, a small stipend and lots of prizes!

We opened the academy with Mark Garrison, Instructional Technology Coordinator from White Bear Lake Schools. Mark has been a featured speaker at the last four Minnesota TIES conferences. His presentation gave teachers ideas of ways to use unique websites in their classrooms. TILT taught classes on Prezi, Google Apps, iMovie, Flipped Classroom, iBook, SMART Board, Twitter, Podcasting, iPads, Blogging, Productivity Tools (Evernote, iGoogle, Google Reader, etc.), Chrome, ePortfolios, Online Assessments and Ideas & Inspirations (Pinterest, StumbleUpon, Diigo, TED talks, etc.).

The favorite class that I taught was Twitter. For me, twitter has been the single best source of my professional development as a teacher and 21st century learner. It was so fun to show my excitement and love for this incredible tool to my colleagues and administrators! My principals have actually entered the twitter world!

The anonymous feedback we received from academy attendees has inspired me for next year. Some of the comments were: “Thank you so much for your hard work and ability to be patient with us”, “Very well organized and good use of time”, “I liked seeing staff from different grade levels working together. The institute broke down some of those walls of isolation.”, “Thanks for keeping things simple. Thank you so much for helping to keep the students and staff on the cutting edge of technology.”, “Awesome job TILT! Thanks for treating us as professionals and being so patient and helpful with my many questions.”, “Thanks for being professional and well prepared.”, “Very organized! Super helpful!”, “AMAZING job! It was fun, worthwhile and informative. Best workshop I have ever been to.”

I love this journey that I have been on! WTA was certainly a highlight! I couldn’t have accomplished this academy without my amazing TILT team! They continually inspire, energize and push me to grow as a technology integrationist. I am excited for year two in the journey!

[caption id="attachment_158" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Westonka TILT"][/caption]