Collaborating with Teachers
Nobody can be an innovative principal without at least a few highly innovative teacher leaders. I have two incredible trailblazers and several early adopters.
One of my key teacher leaders is my art teacher who was doing makerspaces (we called ours a Tinker Tank) and mini-robotics long before these were trends. We were so early to the 3D printer craze that many of our students consider that old hat. My IB coordinator is a former tech coordinator who is always willing to help so that learning using tech can happen. Without these two, and the several teachers who are willing to support the work and try anything with their students, the pace and quality of educational innovation would diminish.
I often say to teachers regarding tech resources, “Design, don’t just assign.” This means building mini-lessons and small group work into the rotations, so students are not just plowing through online tasks but are articulating the strategies they are employing and making their thinking and interactions visible. It isn’t a perfect science, but we have suites of tools for reading and math across each grade cluster (K–2, 3–5, 6–8).
We are seeing growth in the ways the tools measure usage, and standards mastery, and will look to triangulate these kinds of scores with standardized measures and classroom-based assessments in order to distinguish which instructional technologies are really helping kids, which kids they are helping most, and how we might better leverage the adaptability of tools to meet more students’ learning and growth needs more of the time.
When it comes to tech-related PD, I have found one-on-one sessions with teachers invaluable, but most important is cultivating a sense of ownership for instructional tech among teachers. I support teacher leaders for each tool, who in turn support their teams using it. I also model being a learner, looking at what’s what, going to conferences, sending teachers to conferences, participating in blogs, and spending a couple hours on the weekend looking at the latest.
This results in Tweets and email forwards to teachers, and since there is so much to digest, I have set up a structure I call “unemail,” a shared document where I archive what I am finding interesting but not urgent or compelling. Teachers are free to contribute to the unemail document anytime.
Creative Staffing and Funding
Because our local poverty rate has been in the twenties since I became principal, we don’t qualify for any Title I or significant state funding. Every penny I get from the district goes to staff salaries and benefits. We cannot afford a technology coordinator or tech teacher, librarian, or media specialist. That means that, for innovation to keep moving forward:
1. Classroom teachers and my leadership team take on the responsibility for all the infrastructure, technical, and instructional supports to put devices and online resources into the hands of the students. They also help plan and lead the professional learning for implementation. I write grants to compensate them, but in many cases, they are doing this on their own time while carrying a full-time teaching load.
2. We are always hunting for more funding, whether from DonorsChoose, grants, or fundraising campaigns. I have an incredibly supportive and responsive parent community who allow me to direct fundraising efforts toward technology, but I still spend a lot of time and energy finding and going after money to do what we want to do.
To me, innovation has to do with collaborative and creative problem-solving regarding chronic problems of practice resulting from archaic educational systems, limited resources, and the reality that every human being is unique as a learner. It means always being on the look-out for the next edge of growth for students, teachers, and the school as a learning organization. This often involves things that plug into the digital universe, but it could also encompass ancient discourse strategies that are new to teachers and students. The time we have with children is short, and we must not squander it. As a principal, I am always looking to the next best practice, tool, or opportunity to put in front of my teachers, with the hope that it will help children.