A Roadmap for New Administrators

– Terra Graves –

Just to refresh your memory (or if you didn’t read last month’s piece), I got a new job as a department administrator and coordinator of a district-wide digital curriculum, communication and collaboration project. An excerpt from January:

At the most basic level, we are trying to get 240 district-level folks, 240 administrators, 3,500 teachers, and 64,000 students to live in Microsoft Teams. At the highest level, we are trying to provide equitable access to learning and create innovative learning environments to produce future-ready graduates.

This project will also support the 1:1 program implementation at three new schools (one elementary and two middle schools) opening in fall 2019, and three more schools opening fall 2020. These schools will serve as models for what we want all of our schools to become eventually. Since its inception, my department has carried the philosophy: “Pedagogy first. Technology second.” While much of this project entails training on the technology tools (Microsoft Teams, OneNote and Class Notebook, Accessibility Tools, Forms, and Sway), all teachers and administrators at these schools will receive professional learning through our existing 21st Century Educator Badge Program.

At the time of publication last month, we were just about to begin our Microsoft training extravaganza. Now, all district-level departments (Curriculum and Instruction, 21st Century Learning, English Language Development, Gifted and Talented, Special Education, Social Emotional Learning, etc.) have completed three full days of mandatory Microsoft training, including Teams, OneNote/Class Notebook, Accessibility Tools, Forms, and Sway. Part of these days included a half day with me to learn about the District’s vision for this project, begin planning for the creation of digital resources for teachers, and the first domino to fall in this project is our Curriculum and Instruction Department. They will soon embark on an immense task: repackaging curriculum resources into OneNote notebooks so that teachers can have easy access to all of their instructional materials in ONE place.  

A word about the word, “mandatory.” Don’t we all just LOVE it when we are forced to go to a training? I’ll admit, when I am facilitating a class of any kind, I prefer when people have a choice about attending. A captive audience is very different from a captivated one. While the intended outcomes of this project will certainly benefit everyone in the district, the steps we need to take will require a lot of effort, cooperation, and willingness to change our delivery systems. Some people are ready and excited for the change; others, not so much. Change is hard enough when it’s something you want. It’s harder when you’ve been told to do it. I felt encouraged when one of the training participants said, “I’m glad this is mandatory, because it will actually happen.” The overwhelming support we have from district leadership is making all the difference in our forward progress. When something is mandatory, it removes the element of choice. I believe in choice. Choice is usually motivating. Too many choices can be debilitating.

Our three new schools will open next year as 1:1 schools (every student gets a device they have access to in school and at home). Principals of these new schools had the luxury of hiring folks who WANT to work in that environment. They are motivated and ready for change! This is the driver of my project deadlines: provide the teachers at these schools with digital curricula, ready to use with students on the first day of school in August.

The new schools will be the first benefactors of this work. Many of the Global Elements for Effective Flipped Learning (GEEFL) confirm that we are setting them up for success. Below, I share my thoughts on a few of them:

Element	Best Practice	Relevance to our new 1:1 schools project
	To the extent possible, make the physical space flexible to accommodate a variety of deeper learning strategies.	My department has been advising our capital projects department on what technology should be standard in all new schools and what furniture should be purchased. The exciting thing about this is that we can really elicit change in how students experience school. The challenge is to educate the non-educators about why flexible spaces are so important to learning. We had to explain why there needed to be furniture on wheels (a huge nightmare for the legal department). We had to explain why there needed to be more than one large monitor, or several medium sized monitors for students to work in small groups and be able to share their screens. This is a huge paradigm shift for most people. They think school is teacher-up-front-students-follow-along. Not anymore.
	Choose technology tools which work both in your school and on students’ devices.	The Office of IT (where my department lives) has worked very hard to determine the best device for students at 1:1 schools. There are so many things to consider: price, functionality, support/repair needed, durability, Windows platform, etc. While it would be nice to allow schools to pick the device, this limits the type of support IT can provide. Because we have named Microsoft Teams as our official digital learning platform, it makes sense to go with a Windows device. As much as I love Macs and Google apps, Microsoft is taking the lead for educational products and services. (Never thought I would say that.)
	Provide a device/internet for students who do not have access at home.	We are also investigating the “cheap” wifi options for families, and an option for families to borrow wireless hotspots from the school for the year. Internet access is no longer a luxury. It’s now included on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (not officially). Challenge: Do a Google search for “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Internet” or “Maslow’s Hierarchy and Social Media”. It’s very interesting.
	Plan simple workflows for video creation that work within your existing IT infrastructure.	Because we have determined what the platform and supporting tools will be for these schools, it makes educating and supporting teachers in their video creation workflow much easier. Microsoft Teams has a Conversations function, which allows teachers to hold a video meeting, screen share, and record it all in one place. It also stays in the team Conversations (or channels) for all time. Students can also have a threaded discussion directly underneath the video. WOW! Amazing! This will very effectively facilitate a flipped classroom.
	Explain the definition of Flipped Learning to students and parents.	As part of our 1:1 school roll-out, we created a Parent/Student Device Handbook and Agreement which explains the importance of digital learning, how to take care of the device, what to do in the event of damage, expectations for bringing it to school, how to access their assignments, etc. Explaining the concept of Flipped Learning will be included in this document and will be part of the orientation videos parents and students must watch prior to receiving their device.
	Understanding that the role of an educator moves from lecturer to facilitator.	Knowing that the teachers being hired at these new schools WANT to be a part of this new digital learning environment, we are already several steps ahead in the professional learning process. Every teacher at these schools will be trained not only on the technical pieces, they will participate in our Practitioner Badge course (I have mentioned this course in my FLGI blog series, “Becoming a 21st Century Educator.”) At the Future of Educational Technology Conference last month in Orlando, FL, I heard a speaker say, “Pedagogy is the driver. Technology is the accelerator.” Absolutely true!

Thank you for tuning in for the second piece on my journey as a new administrator.  I hope that my discussion about how the GEEFL support my work will allow you to use them either as a guide for changing your practice or confirming your existing practice as a flipped educator.