Training

Overview: When the COVID-19 pandemic struck New York City in March 2020 schools were abruptly forced to transition to remote learning. In response to the immediate need for technological support, I saw an opportunity to help my school community by providing technical training and creating resources aimed at helping educators adapt traditional classroom practices to the virtual setting. Initially I supported teachers one-on-one and then started facilitating multiple workshops to reach wider audiences and maximize my impact. I then strategized a more efficient approach and developed a range of resources, such as instructional videos where I demonstrated how to utilize various G-Suite tools, with a particular emphasis on Google Classroom. I also created infographics with best practices, instructional strategies, and tips.

Project objective: Develop and maintain a repertoire of training resources and supports to address the technological skills gap school communities were experiencing while teaching remotely.

Audience: Educators, Students, School Leadership, Families 

Responsibilities: SME, Instructional Design, Training, Project Management

Tools Used: Quicktime Player, Canva, G Suite, Studio App, Padlet, Kahoot

Approach

Video Tutorials

The very first training resources I created were video tutorials walking teachers through how-to do a variety of different functionalities on Google Classroom. I started with tasks as easy as creating a Google Classroom, and adding students, teachers, and administrators to the Classroom, and then scaled to more advanced tasks like scheduling assignments ahead of time and using add-ons to take attendance on Google Meet. I then created similar resources for students and their families to learn how to access their classwork, join live classes on Google Meet, and check the feedback on their homework assignments. 

Live Workshops

With the support of my administration, I led multiple workshops for my school community that focused on instructional strategies, utilizing a range of digital tools to increase efficiency and student engagement, automatizing tasks on Google Classroom, and tips on how-to-manage the virtual learning environment. I also had the opportunity to lead two workshops for our district superintendent and all of the principals under her leadership who then shared the resources I had created with their school communities. 

Just-in-time Resources

Agenda shared weekly with students to help them with organization and time management.

Presentation slides used during live training and shared post-training with attendees.

Extensive catalogue of training resources created and shared with school communities.

Pre-Training Surveys

After building a depository of how-to/tutorial videos to teach students the foundational skills they needed to perform basic functions on Google Classroom such as access recorded lessons, attend live classes on Google Meet, take class notes on Google Docs, submit assignments on Google Classroom, how-to access class slides on Google Slides, etc. I sent out this pre-training survey at the beginning of the semester to collect data on student skillset and comfortability levels using a range of digital tools. I then used this data to inform future training objectives and instructional approaches.

Post-Training Surveys

After facilitating live workshops, I would conduct a post-training survey to collect feedback from attendees to help measure the effectiveness of the trainings, identify areas of improvement, and the needs of the school communities.

(See below for some of the survey responses)

Post-Training Feedback

  • “I could not help sending you this E-mail. The simplicity of how Frias Franchesca, shows how to use google classroom is fantastic, I looked it over and could not stop watching it. It is very informational from the basics to more complicated, and does it in an easy way to learn it, Thank you Principal Woods for sharing this with me and the rest of the staff.”

  • “Great presentation. Looking forward to the emailed materials so I can share with cabinet and AP's, to turnkey to teachers. As this scourge isn't going away, we all need to become more knowledgeable about, and sophisticated with, remote learning. Again-- great presentation”

  • “Well presented ---Gideon is lucky to have a great tech team....future PD's should consider two sides of the equation.... "using the tech tools of production" and exploring best practices relating to the "pedagogy" to engage students-- two different tracks of PD....”

  • “This was really helpful. I would like my tech person to be able to deliver something similar to my teachers.”

  • “Great presentation. It was exactly what we all needed. Thank you.”

  • Sometimes it's important to share the positive things. One of my paraprofessionals sent me this email this morning (see below). I have been continuously sharing resources with all my staff and I shared yours, Ms. Frias. Keep up the great work and know that your impact is being felt even outside of Frank Sinatra. Thanks Gideon and Supt. Lindsey for sharing Ms. Frias.