As the Technology Coach for the HS, everything that "plugs in or goes bing" (as my former principal used to say) falls into my domain. But sometimes, the boundaries seem to get stretched, blurred, bent and twisted out of shape so that other non-tech things seem to end up on my plate, for better or for worse. Case in point . . . over a year ago I was asked to lead a committee for examining how our school could move towards Standards-based assessment and reporting, and to eliminate some of the toxic grading practices of the traditional gradebook. The committee that I was asked to lead was focussed on separating a student's Approaches to Learning (AtL) grade from their Achievement grade, and how to assess the AtLs by creating a rubric that the whole school could use and adapt. I was chosen to lead this committee because I have a lot of experience in the classroom working in a Standards-based system, and I was already well-versed in separating the AtL behaviours from a student's Achievement. The committee did its job and fulfilled these two huge goals successfully, but I think that this was the starting point for my transition from being a Tech Coach, into an Instructional Coach . . . it all started here.
Last year, the school started down the road of transitioning to a Standards-based system for assessment and reporting with the hope that we would get there in a year's time. Ambitious for sure, and very challenging for the school community (teachers, students and parents alike) as predominantly, they were not familiar with this kind of system. But even the best of plans sometimes fail or take unexpected turns, and this school goal did just that. Our year-long implementation was forcefully changed into a 2 month implementation (but that is another story for another venue), which in turn forced the school to immediately implement a new online electronic gradebook which could handle Standards-based assessment and reporting. So you can see where I come into the picture . . .
So I am put in charge of implementing and testing this new system (Easy Grade Pro Web), training the faculty to use the new electronic gradebook, and distribute the new system to the end consumers . . . our students and their parents. All of this in the short span of a few weeks. It was a monumental task, which I jumped on along with Tech Services who had to install the new system. After getting the system up and running, I focussed on testing the system and nailing down how we were going to rollout, launch and train EGPWeb with the entire HS faculty.
In conducting the gradebook set up and training with the faculty in small departmental groups and through individual workshops, most of my time was absorbed by discussions revolving around Standards-based assessment and reporting rather than "things that go bing". We talked at length about the separation of the AtL Standards vs Achievement Standards, what the Achievement standards would be for each department or subject area, how these standards could be modelled in the gradebook, and the primary differences between a traditional gradebook and a Standards-based one. Everyone's need to have their gradebook online and fully functional was driving the training with EGPWeb. This in turn was forcing faculty to come to terms with Standards-based assessment, and I could not conduct the gradebook setup workshops unless departments knew what they wanted for their Standards of assessment. And so the story goes . . . I was in charge of getting everyone up and running with their gradebooks, which quickly morphed into me being the main go-to person for anything and everything related to Standards-based assessment.
For me, the change was rapid and in many ways natural . . . I worked with the faculty to get to where we all needed to be, in a very short amount of time. Looking back on that period of time, it was completely frenetic, full of energy (some positive and lots of negative) and brimming over with spite at times. There was a lot of pressure - internally to get this done right, and externally to move the faculty forward when they did not want to move anywhere. It was stressful - some teachers were simply not on board with the school-wide goal of moving to Standards-based assessment, so they resisted the training that I was trying to deliver. My principal was very supportive with getting these individuals to step-on-board, as the ship was sailing and pulling away from the dock (so to speak). We were all following directives that were coming from senior administration and the board, but some staff saw me as the frontman for everything Standards-based assessment, and took out their frustrations, anger and fear on me . . . not fun!
This is the part that I have been thinking about since last year . . . as the Tech Coach for the HS I have to work alongside and with all of my faculty. Due to the volatile and contentious nature of this whole project, my changing role came as an unwelcome surprise to me, and in some ways, undermines the relationships that I have built with the faculty as a whole. Many staff are now on-board with Standards-based assessment, but some others are still stuck in their familiar, traditional practices. Some of these folks relate me to this whole change (which they fear and loath), rather than to educational technology. This is where I lose. This is where we all lose. Something that has only loose connections with technology has negatively impacted my computing karma in the school. As a Tech Coach, the relationships that you build with your faculty are equally as important as your NOWledge, skills and experience put together. So is it really worth it? I don't really know at this point. Some faculty seem to be able to separate in their minds my role with tech and what I did for the school in terms of helping to bring in Standards-based assessment. But others cannot. And I am now being thrust into a similar role as the "guru" in the HS, as the MS follows our lead. I have coined a phrase to describe this somewhat helpless feeling of being stuck in situations like this . . . "guilty by competence". Which raises the question in my mind, do I really want to go through this again?
Have you ever been put into a role which has really changed how you work with faculty and how they perceive you? How do you handle the negativity surrounding "the job" when it really has nothing to do with you and what you are doing? How do keep your role compartmentalised and within the boundaries set out by your job description . . . and not be sucked into the vortex of work?
Last year, the school started down the road of transitioning to a Standards-based system for assessment and reporting with the hope that we would get there in a year's time. Ambitious for sure, and very challenging for the school community (teachers, students and parents alike) as predominantly, they were not familiar with this kind of system. But even the best of plans sometimes fail or take unexpected turns, and this school goal did just that. Our year-long implementation was forcefully changed into a 2 month implementation (but that is another story for another venue), which in turn forced the school to immediately implement a new online electronic gradebook which could handle Standards-based assessment and reporting. So you can see where I come into the picture . . .
So I am put in charge of implementing and testing this new system (Easy Grade Pro Web), training the faculty to use the new electronic gradebook, and distribute the new system to the end consumers . . . our students and their parents. All of this in the short span of a few weeks. It was a monumental task, which I jumped on along with Tech Services who had to install the new system. After getting the system up and running, I focussed on testing the system and nailing down how we were going to rollout, launch and train EGPWeb with the entire HS faculty.
In conducting the gradebook set up and training with the faculty in small departmental groups and through individual workshops, most of my time was absorbed by discussions revolving around Standards-based assessment and reporting rather than "things that go bing". We talked at length about the separation of the AtL Standards vs Achievement Standards, what the Achievement standards would be for each department or subject area, how these standards could be modelled in the gradebook, and the primary differences between a traditional gradebook and a Standards-based one. Everyone's need to have their gradebook online and fully functional was driving the training with EGPWeb. This in turn was forcing faculty to come to terms with Standards-based assessment, and I could not conduct the gradebook setup workshops unless departments knew what they wanted for their Standards of assessment. And so the story goes . . . I was in charge of getting everyone up and running with their gradebooks, which quickly morphed into me being the main go-to person for anything and everything related to Standards-based assessment.
For me, the change was rapid and in many ways natural . . . I worked with the faculty to get to where we all needed to be, in a very short amount of time. Looking back on that period of time, it was completely frenetic, full of energy (some positive and lots of negative) and brimming over with spite at times. There was a lot of pressure - internally to get this done right, and externally to move the faculty forward when they did not want to move anywhere. It was stressful - some teachers were simply not on board with the school-wide goal of moving to Standards-based assessment, so they resisted the training that I was trying to deliver. My principal was very supportive with getting these individuals to step-on-board, as the ship was sailing and pulling away from the dock (so to speak). We were all following directives that were coming from senior administration and the board, but some staff saw me as the frontman for everything Standards-based assessment, and took out their frustrations, anger and fear on me . . . not fun!
This is the part that I have been thinking about since last year . . . as the Tech Coach for the HS I have to work alongside and with all of my faculty. Due to the volatile and contentious nature of this whole project, my changing role came as an unwelcome surprise to me, and in some ways, undermines the relationships that I have built with the faculty as a whole. Many staff are now on-board with Standards-based assessment, but some others are still stuck in their familiar, traditional practices. Some of these folks relate me to this whole change (which they fear and loath), rather than to educational technology. This is where I lose. This is where we all lose. Something that has only loose connections with technology has negatively impacted my computing karma in the school. As a Tech Coach, the relationships that you build with your faculty are equally as important as your NOWledge, skills and experience put together. So is it really worth it? I don't really know at this point. Some faculty seem to be able to separate in their minds my role with tech and what I did for the school in terms of helping to bring in Standards-based assessment. But others cannot. And I am now being thrust into a similar role as the "guru" in the HS, as the MS follows our lead. I have coined a phrase to describe this somewhat helpless feeling of being stuck in situations like this . . . "guilty by competence". Which raises the question in my mind, do I really want to go through this again?
Have you ever been put into a role which has really changed how you work with faculty and how they perceive you? How do you handle the negativity surrounding "the job" when it really has nothing to do with you and what you are doing? How do keep your role compartmentalised and within the boundaries set out by your job description . . . and not be sucked into the vortex of work?
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