Since the LINC instructors in our group teach in small, rural communities across the entire Columbia Basin in southeastern B
C., once PBLA was implemented in our region we really needed to find a way for our instructors to be able to connect online since face-to-face training sessions were simply not possible.
So as a PBLA Lead Teacher and Tutela member, I decided that starting a private group would be the most logical solution since it would enable us to share files and use the live conferencing for all our sessions.
I was able to put all the materials up on the screen and use the whiteboard to make things more interactive and interesting, and I could put up all the other instructors work so that we could discuss our assignments. If someone missed a meeting then they could just watch the recording. We often used the discussion forum to post comments on some of the questions in my lead teacher lesson plans.
I have to say, if it wasn’t for our Tutela group, I’m not sure how we would have been able to facilitate our organization’s PBLA training. Thanks to Tutela, it has worked out very well, and we will be continuing to use our group’s live conferencing to facilitate our monthly PBLA meetings starting again in September.
Simplifying the PBLA training process
Our program manager created a group on Tutela for YRDSB Instructors to facilitate the PBLA training and ongoing support for our instructors during implementation in the classroom. We currently have 55 members and as new people are hired they join the group.
In order to continue to provide additional and personalized support, one of the things we did was use the video chat room on Tutela for the four sessions per month.
I did not have a lot of previous experience with facilitating online conferencing aside from using Google Hangouts with my students. The BigBlueButton was easy to use and I especially liked the fact that we could personalize the layout, share resources in real time and have more than one person participate.
