Our district has PD days built into the schedule for teachers...and this year, our CTO decided to take advantage of a PD day to get our department better acquainted. We've been growing lately (thanks to our successful BISD 1:You Chromebook rollout) and we haven't all had a chance to get to know our teammates in other departments. So we, the leadership team, put together a day of professional development and team building.
The day started with an introduction to each team leader - who gave a little information about themselves and their background - and then introduced their team and explained what their department does in technology. It was a great opportunity for all of us to get a better understanding of what each group does and who the faces behind that work belong to! We even had assigned seating that forced us to sit with people outside of our teams so we could get to know them better.
Then our Superintendent, Dr. Bret Jimerson came in and did a session on customer service with us. We heard his vision for customer service in the district and then shared our thoughts on a Padlet. The idea was to introduce the rest of technology to tools we use every day with teachers and students.
After a delicious lunch catered by Roscoe's BBQ, everyone got a 15 minute break while Lindsay Foster and I set the room up for a Murder Mystery BreakoutEDU! With a CLUE (the game) theme...teams were reordered into new groups and had figure out WHO was murdered, who was the murderer...the weapon used...and the reason for the murder. It was great fun and the clues were all taken from a personal information survey given to the team 2 weeks prior (favorite colors, songs, movies, experiences, etc.). So in order to solve clues, team members really had to go around the room talking to one another.
MAD props to Lindsay Foster for writing this breakout! She did a TON of work to make it happen!
All of our paperwork and the clues given to the teams included this type of information as well...
Here's the intro video made by Lindsay's husband and son:
We created an entire deck of cards with one card for each team member in the department. Teams could use the information on these cards to help solve clues.
And here are some fun shots of our teams working together!
Then our Superintendent, Dr. Bret Jimerson came in and did a session on customer service with us. We heard his vision for customer service in the district and then shared our thoughts on a Padlet. The idea was to introduce the rest of technology to tools we use every day with teachers and students.
After a delicious lunch catered by Roscoe's BBQ, everyone got a 15 minute break while Lindsay Foster and I set the room up for a Murder Mystery BreakoutEDU! With a CLUE (the game) theme...teams were reordered into new groups and had figure out WHO was murdered, who was the murderer...the weapon used...and the reason for the murder. It was great fun and the clues were all taken from a personal information survey given to the team 2 weeks prior (favorite colors, songs, movies, experiences, etc.). So in order to solve clues, team members really had to go around the room talking to one another.
MAD props to Lindsay Foster for writing this breakout! She did a TON of work to make it happen!
All of our paperwork and the clues given to the teams included this type of information as well...
Here's the intro video made by Lindsay's husband and son:
Our overall graphic theme for the event...CLUE!
We created an entire deck of cards with one card for each team member in the department. Teams could use the information on these cards to help solve clues.
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