Professional Development Reflection

I presented the Google Docs app to the science department. I chose this because there have been multiple occasions where an app like Google Docs would've been useful, I just didn't know it existed. When we were told we were going to be presenting an app to the teachers, I was really nervous. I don't really like talking in front of people my age, let alone people that are older than me and happen to be educators (they can tell how stupid I may sound better than my peers.) The day of the Professional Development, one of my teachers told me that "teachers make the worst students," which only scared me even more. In a way, she was right. It was funny to see the teachers talk and "cut up" like some kids in my classes do. However, my presentation went really well and (most of) the teachers seemed really interested in what we all had to say. Even though we got positive feedback from basically everyone, I wish we would've conveyed the overall theme of collaboration better. Based on the survey, it kind of seemed like some of the teachers took at is if we were trying to introduce specific apps that we felt we really needed to incorporate into our learning environment, and to a certain extent, we were. It wasn't just about the apps though. The reason we introduced the different apps to them was to open their eyes to a new world of collaboration among students AND teachers. Other than that, everything went the way I hoped it would. I had two teachers tell me before the Professional Development that they weren't looking forward to it because they hate the schedule of half-days and having to stay after school for 2 hours when they feel like the day should be over. However, those 2 teachers, along with many others, told me after the presentations that they really enjoyed it and loved how it was all driven by the students. I honestly feel like we, as students, taught the teachers a lot, which is pretty cool.