Change Agent

Introduction

As a change agent, I will have three main priorities. The first priority will to consult with staff on how they can use the stratagem we develop together and highlight how it will help them in achieving their goal. Secondly, I will make sure to hold professional development regularly to reach all teachers. These will help to get everyone on the same page and make them aware that the goal is to integrate technology to their benefit, more specifically in regards to computer science, and not to replace their past curriculum completely. Third, it is extremely important for a change agent to keep up with new tools and strategies. This will come in the form of regular research, attending seminars and conferences wherever I can, discussions with other ITCs, and moving forward with as much training as the job allows. By becoming better connected with tools and other ITCs, it will help me keep my fellow staff members connected.

Process of implementation

Throughout my life, as both a learner and an educator, I have found it extremely important to include different modalities within the curriculum. After long lectures in college, I would find myself watching videos in order to marry the content and the need for a visual within the lesson. For my students, incorporation of interactive, visual representations has become a keystone aspect.

In order to solidify this concept for other educators, I think it is important to make sure everyone is comfortable with methods through workshops and readily accessible reference videos similar to what the ITCs 4 All program did during the pandemic. While a collaborative effort makes this goal more easily achievable, doing this on a site-based level also has the benefit of being more personalized to the culture of a school. For a K-12 school such as PACE West, these videos can also account for strategies to mitigate issues as assessed by the teachers there. By working with staff within workshops and individually, we can assess in what ways they could incorporate a purely physical exercise, a purely digital one, and how they can provide some autonomy for kids to explore what works best for them. Part of the education we need to provide is that freedom for children to learn what works best for them. By offering options, this will help carry them past K-12. While it may be hard to give specifics on personalized actions to make my vision a reality, there are plenty of examples I can provide.

For a physics class learning about the effects of velocity, friction, and acceleration, a physical lab portion can be extremely helpful when all students are able to complete the experiment. However, for the sake of discovery and independence, educators can use an online physics engine with a variety of variables so that students can complete labs or merely explore both in class and at home.

For a geometry class dealing with proofs, homework can be transformed into a formative activity by use of an application where students must include all parts of a proof in order to complete a task. A huge benefit of this method is that teachers will get feedback for where students struggled most and students will receive help where they might otherwise quit when they don’t understand.

To take accountability, I think it is important to conference after each activity I have been consulted on. To be truly successful, I believe it is often more important to learn from what may have failed and in what ways methods that succeeded can be approved upon. With teachers being as busy as they are, meeting them where they are and talking through in what ways we can use the results of activities to improve future ones can ultimately help build the integral trust. More formally, I will work with any supervising administration to help assess where they see issues and where they feel help may be needed.

One of the draws for technology in education for me has been the equitability. The concept that, as long as every student has equal access to technology, every student can accomplish their goals without social or physical inequities as immovable obstacles. In conjunction with coordinators for assistive technology, my first goal would be to make sure that every student has the proper equipment for their success. For me, that access is a moral imperative. From there, I will work closely with teachers to make sure that the technology we are implementing is accessible, such as alternative text and support for text-to-speech.

Another goal will be the inclusion of anonymity within exercises. While working with Canvas, their SpeedGrader application allows you to hide the names of students. While this may seem like such a small detail, it can help further the goal of countering unconscious biases. After grading, it is still possible to see the names of students to help those who may need it.

As an English teacher with an affinity for math and science and an immense appreciation for history in the social studies, education of each subject is not independent of everything else. Part of my focus as an educator is cross-curriculum. By utilizing technology, educators are already taking steps to push their students to interact with computer science and whatever subject matter they are instructing. This immediately helps in the vertical articulation of content as, regardless of grade level or subject, the Virginia Standards of Learning stress skills within computer science across the board. In any environment, it is of utmost priority to work closely with schools and their ITCs which feed into the school you work in or which you feed into to get their feedback. While there are some universal tools to address vertical articulation, direct communication with educators in a school ensures success.

The other benefit for vertical articulation by use of technology is that, when using a properly implemented program, there should be differentiation baked in. If students are struggling with grammar on an application like NoRedInk, the program will give reminders on which rules of grammar they should heed. A chemistry lesson can convey what the molecules in a reaction are physically doing. While reading a historical memoir, such as Night, in an English class, students can learn to research the historical events of the Holocaust and include properly cited sources and statistics. Within one exercise, the students will have encompassed English, history, mathematics, and basic computer science. By properly setting applications and rubrics to account for the standards of the grade levels preceding and succeeding their current grade level, educators can help them excel in the next level. By weaving this differentiation into cross-curriculum exercises, the age-old question of “why are we learning this?” can become increasingly evident while students excel.

As earlier highlighted, a large focus of resources will be teacher feedback and collaboration. I would also like to establish and maintain relationships with technology personnel, specifically those in assistive technology, to ensure my practices are as equitable as possible. Perhaps most importantly, the relationship with administration ensures that I am not only meeting the needs of the students, but if the school. Administrators directly receive much of the criticisms and praises of the school community which can help me directly to have an impact where they assess it is most needed. Another huge resource to draw from is the ITC community within PWCS. Aside from all of the publicly released resources which they have compiled, developing direct lines of contact can be incredibly important. While at Colgan High School, William “Billy” Watts was always a huge resource for educators. From day one when I came to the school for the onboarding process, he was involved with operating technology, answering questions, and sharing his knowledge. While he is no doubt someone that I would love to stay in contact with, between his wealth of knowledge and personality, I have no doubt that there are so many ITCs who have their own knowledge to share.

For teachers, I want them to see me as a fellow educator and a collaborator. There are bound to be instances where the applications I suggest might not fit their use case. In instances where that is true, the opportunity to explore different options and learn more together will further relationships and make me a stronger ITC. While my duties as an ITC and the fervor I have for technology may set me apart, it is important that fellow teachers see me as someone a dependable coworker they can relate to. The successes of a school anywhere are successes for the school as a whole.

For administrators, I want to be seen as a resource for any task. Within any workplace, there is never a task that is outside of your job description. Before I was formally an educator, I worked in a hotel restaurant. Although I was hired to wait tables, there were days when I was a prep cook, dishwasher, and room service. There were instances where the executive chef would laugh with glee purely because I would ask for something else to do.

While I am now an educator and no longer in hospitality, the same things remain true. I do not just like to be challenged; I have an insatiable hunger for knowledge. From every dish I prepared to the menial tasks of cleaning refrigerators and ovens, that job was the pinnacle of formative education. For administrators, I want to help their whole staff succeed at being the best educators they can be by being a utility man who will complete any task necessary with a smile on my face. When a task comes across an administrator’s desk, I want to be so integral that my name is the first they think of.