Ms. Apter, future principal

I can see myself as a principal of a school. I think of the principals that I have worked for and I see many of their leadership qualities in myself.  They were/are encouraging, motivating, influential, organized, good public speakers, calm, and the list goes on. I would just need to upgrade my wardrobe to a more professional look i.e. pant suits and blazers as I don’t think my capri pants and cotton t-shirts would work at network meetings.

When I think of my school and how we incorporate technology into our teaching, I think that my vice-principal and principal have had great involvement in making this happen. According to an article by Schrumm & Levin (2015), to develop Technology for Education in school the Principal must get involved at the very early stages and have: 

1. A compelling vision of how Technology will benefit the learning process 

2. Sell that vision to the larger community 

3. Collaborate with and get commitment from the Teacher leaders in the school 

4. Secure ongoing funding to ensure up to date Tech for Ed 

5. Providing ongoing professional development. 

6. Changing the school culture (make risk taking safe) 

7. Revising the curriculum (becoming student focused - to use ICT 24-7) 

8. Cultivating partnerships with key stakeholders such as: 

a. Industry 

b. Higher Ed 

c. Funders 

d. Parents (in the case of School Tech for Ed)

Let’s break those down a bit more.

1)    Having a compelling vision is knowing your end goal.  Why are you doing this?  What do you hope to accomplish?  There is no point of buying some new technology and it just sits in the storage room.  The technology needs to be purchased for a purpose and the purpose is to benefit the students’ learning.

2)    Sell your vision to the community.  At our school, the larger communities that need to be sold on the idea are the teachers who can see benefit in having this technology and the parent council who will provide us with some funds to purchase the technology.  When selling your vision, you need to be able to explain why this technology is this one is the one that will best benefit the students.  

3)    Collaborate with the Teacher Leaders.  This is where the school’s leadership team gets involved.

Let’s skip ahead…

5)    Providing professional development.  This is key!  Technology leaders must provide professional development in order to get the technology incorporated fully and appropriately into the classroom.  P.D. must be hands-on, interactive and engaging.  The technology needs to be present and teachers must receive the step-by-step training on how to do the basics. As we saw in the video about Longfield School (2011), teachers do not need to know the nitty-gritty right from the get-go.  This would be too overwhelming.  Further P.D. can be provided as teachers start exploring and discovering new things themselves and then they can teach others.

It is difficult to get all staff on board. In my school, it seems that the same teachers always resist and fear change. When hearing about a new initiative, they have already made up their minds without giving it a chance.  As a Teacher Leader delivering these initiatives and supporting the change, it becomes very frustrating.  How do we get all staff on board?  I attended a workshop this year and one thing the key note said was that you can’t make someone have fun.  You just can’t.  I have been in my role as PC4L lead long enough with many of the same colleagues that I know, before even presenting my ideas to my staff, who I will get push back from, who will participate fully and who will throw it to the side and not even try it.  Sad no?

One of my goals for next year as PC4L lead is to change that.  I have a plan…get those less than interested teachers involved! Will it work? I will let you know!