Staff meetings are traditionally a time where teachers grade papers, and your administrators stand and speak. There is nothing wrong with this model, but there are ways to make it more effective. Using one, or all of the following suggestions will model 21st century learning, encourage digital citizenship skill development, and boost your staff engagement. I encourage you to read through these 5 suggestions and try one of them out!

  • Use Google Hangouts (video chat)
    • Instead of having everyone come down to the media center, have them stay in their rooms or meet as a grade level. Join in on Google hangouts to conduct a meeting from anywhere in the district. This is a great way for your team, or your administrator to be in more than one place at a time.
  • Use Google Hangouts (text chat)
    • Send out daily reminders to your staff and encourage conversation regarding topics like, technology sign-ups, classroom recess's, and field trip planning. Build a behind the scenes community in your building with this tool where everyone is connected instantaneously!
  • Host a Twitter Chat
    • Let everyone go home after school and host your staff meeting from home. Determine a specific hashtag to use for your staff meeting (#RRstaffmeeting) and begin the conversation. Ask questions as if your were informing your staff at at a regular meeting and require participation as attendance. 
  • Use Movenote
    • Movenote is a great tool that allows you to video yourself presenting slides. Your face will be recorded along with the slides you are presenting. This is a great change as teachers can view it at their own leisure. Be sure you have a follow up to ensure staff have watched it.
  • Avoid Time Wasting
    • Just like a teacher, your staff meetings can be scaffolded. Bring important conversation questions to light before hand by posting them to Padlet or a Google Doc. Get everyones minds working before you come together to avoid awkward silence. If a conclusion is not reached, move on and make it a requirement to hash it out using poll everywhere or a Google Form.