To further enhance the computer skills of local primary and high school teachers, the Jack Hayward High School hosted a ‘Teachers Workshop’ that began Monday and ended yesterday at the school.
Shantell Rolle, one of the co-ordinators and computer teachers at Jack Hayward High School gave an outline of some of the events that took place at the workshop.
“The teachers did a summer computer workshop for four days and they were being introduced to Microsoft Word, Powerpoint, Excel and some other programmes that they will be using in the classroom,” Rolle said.
“This computer workshop was held to heighten their abilities to work with the students in the classroom.”
The workshop was well represented by various primary and high school teachers in Grand Bahama who attended with the hope of gaining a headstart on what they will be doing in the upcoming school year.
About 25 persons were in attendance at the workshop on any given day, including teachers from public schools like Maurice Moore Primary, Walter Parker Primary, Eight Mile Rock High School and Freeport Primary.
“This is just a taste of what they will be doing come September. They had to put in 40 hours of training for their Computer Literacy Certifications,” said Rolle.
Because the sessions only lasted for half of the day, time was limited and lecturers were unable to introduce some other programmes that they would have liked to.
However, both the lecturers and participants were pleased with what was accomplished over the four days.
Cheryl Hurst, the second co-ordinator and also a teacher at the Jack Hayward High school, referred to the workshop as a means of ‘personal development’ for teachers.
She added that what was learnt by the teachers was going to be very useful as come September, all public school teachers will have to be computer literate.
James Hepburn, a P.E. teacher at Maurice Moore Primary School, had been looking forward to receiving training in computer skills that would enable him to better complete tasks without the assistance of others. And indeed he did.
“In P.E. there are a lot of tables to make up and a lot of things to do on the computer,” Hepburn said.
” I had to always be looking for someone else to do my work. Now I can really do a lot of this myself after coming here this week.”
Hepburn expressed his gratitude to the lecturers, confident that he was leaving with a whole new approach to computers.
“The lecturers did a very good job. I am much further ahead than I was when I came here. I can actually turn the computer on now,” Hepburn said with a chuckle.
By NICODIA WILLIAMS, Freeport News
