Professional development helps teachers use technology

By Kayla Samimi
Staff Writer

The Instructional Technology Learning Opportunities for Teachers Professional Development held a sesssion on Feb. 5 that focused on assisting teachers in adding apps to a lesson that could customize student learning, make lessons interactive and engage students.

The Manhattan Beach Unified School District Board of Trustees created these sessions to help Manhattan Beach teachers implement technology into their classrooms and has held monthly meetings since November to discuss how technology can be used to maximize learning.

The EdTech Teacher on Special Assignment team, which helped bring technology into the classroom, is a group of former teachers that specializes in iPads and other related software work to train the teachers during the meetings.

“Each session dedicates time for teachers to practice using technology applications and programs and share ideas,” MBUSD Superintendent Dr. Michael Matthews said.

During its meeting on Jan. 28, the TOSA team introduced a variety of apps on the iPad such as Google Drive, Notability and Educreations that can be used to advance learning.

“I believe technology allows for the creation and design of new tasks previously inconceivable,” EdTech team member Gretchen Gabreski said.

Instructional Technology Professional Development plans to hold two more meetings, one on Thursday and the other on May 7.
“Due to the improvements we are seeing, we will continue to have more meetings throughout the year,” Gretchen said.”