I’m in a bit of a quandary right now.
photo: strategydriven.com
It’s (almost) the end of the year, and planning has started for the next. At this point, I’m feeling like I need to be more effective – to work smarter, and to focus myself so that I can focus others. In order to achieve this goal, I find that the first step is to focus on the bigger picture.
Like many others with the title ‘Technology Integration Specialist’ (or something similar), I came to this new (for my district) position last year in a round about way. For me, the idea of being the person to define a brand new position was too enticing to pass up. So, after several years in the classroom and several years in administration, I became the District Technology Integration Specialist. About 4 weeks before school started, the superintendent told me that I would also be teaching elementary kids Monday – Wednesday, reducing my time for interacting with teachers to two days each week.
Planning for next year has started, and I won’t be teaching any more (as of now). I’ve sent out Google Forms to see which apps should be put on the iPads going out to our next school with the tech upgrade. I’ve sent out a Google Form to obtain information on how people like to receive their PD. I’m glad I sent those out. The results are not what I expected (that’s a whole other post!).
I feel like this year has been kind of the shotgun effect. I tried many different methods of trying to spread the edtech word: weekly disctrict-wide emails, personal conversations, weekly Techie Lunches in my computer lab, random emails to people who would appreciate different resources I found on Twitter (thanks, PLN!), etc. Somehow I feel like the 80/20 rule can be applied here somewhere, and I’m looking forward to going through my survey results in a couple days when the window closes.
To be honest, our district is WAY behind where it could be. We are still proud to be moving into using PowerPoint instead of an overhead, and yet as the only connected educator in my district, I am on the Internet seeing classrooms like this one where 4th and 5th graders are backchanneling a Skype conversation with Twitter and GDrive, while others are preparing a blog post and still others recording the whole lesson.
So.
I put on my administrator hat, stepped back, and looked at the whole picture. I dug around on the website and found our Technology Vision Statement. The good news is that it’s decent (The bad news is that I had to dig for it). I then searched for other people in my position on the Internet. I found good stuff from Bill Ferriter, Kim Cofino, and Nancye Blair, just to name a few.
Then, based on my personal reflections and what I learned from others, I came up with the skeleton of a plan:
1. Start by communicating the big picture. Share the district’s vision for technology integration, and share instances of some other classrooms around the world who are practicing our vision to the nth degree. “This is what’s out there folks, and this is where you COULD be if you want to. And I will help you get there.” [I know, the whole buy-in piece is missing. I’d like to be able to work on this for a good bit of time with the staff as a whole, but I’ve been told that time is limited; this year alone, I had at least a day and a half of School Improvement time rerouted from tech to something else!]
2. Continue to build relationships with teachers. Fortunately, that’s always been pretty easy for me, and I can enumerate dozens of examples where the relationships I have nurtured have paid back huge dividends.
3. Model good teaching. Start where the student (in this case the teacher) is, set attainable goals, and keep planting those seeds for their next step while fully supporting and celebrating their current efforts. Realize that not everyone is going to jump in with both feet (as I tend to do!). Use baby steps, and have the teachers become familiar with that one puzzle piece before showing them another.
I’m interested to see what others have to suggest. I am passionate about education and helping people be the best they can be. I also strongly believe that technology can take us to levels we haven’t even dreamed of yet in education. Please comment or email with your insights!
Mr. Weld 2.0 