Week Twelve - Personal Post
This week's digital concern is our school's book buying system.
Each year, our department updates or modifies its texts by course, and posts the required purchases for next year's course work on the MBS website, where students and parents go in August to buy the necessary materials for the coming courses.
As department chair, my job is to make sure the updates are complete by April 15. This is more complicated than it sounds. We have 17 teachers, many of whom will teach new courses next year in addition to their current courses. So I have to help them agree to each courses' materials - textbooks, novels, grammar and vocabulary workbooks - for classes that they teach, might teach, and/or might stop teaching.
Complicating this, I'm the only member of the department who is supposed to access the site. So I have to relay each course's texts to all current teachers and potential teachers, to make sure they want to keep the adoptions. Or I have to facilitate them discussing potentially adjustments to the adoptions.
This has further been complicated by the adoption among some teachers of noredink.com and membean.com. These grammar and vocabulary platforms are fantastic resources for student and teacher, but some of the department members do not want to move away from their old methods. Out of respect for them, we're going to adopt the sites on a provisional basis for all classes but assure the holdouts that it is not a required component. Then, next school year, I'll ask the technophobes to visit their colleagues while the sites are in use, to build their comfort. But I know that I'll be scaring some of them, and potentially diminishing morale, when they see these sites they don't want listed on their required materials!
It is all quite a stir, and I'm asked not to use the school's technology to inform the whole team as to the process. This is my second-least favorite part of the chair role, and I'll be glad when I've got all the wrinkles ironed out by the end of this week.
Each year, our department updates or modifies its texts by course, and posts the required purchases for next year's course work on the MBS website, where students and parents go in August to buy the necessary materials for the coming courses.
As department chair, my job is to make sure the updates are complete by April 15. This is more complicated than it sounds. We have 17 teachers, many of whom will teach new courses next year in addition to their current courses. So I have to help them agree to each courses' materials - textbooks, novels, grammar and vocabulary workbooks - for classes that they teach, might teach, and/or might stop teaching.
Complicating this, I'm the only member of the department who is supposed to access the site. So I have to relay each course's texts to all current teachers and potential teachers, to make sure they want to keep the adoptions. Or I have to facilitate them discussing potentially adjustments to the adoptions.
This has further been complicated by the adoption among some teachers of noredink.com and membean.com. These grammar and vocabulary platforms are fantastic resources for student and teacher, but some of the department members do not want to move away from their old methods. Out of respect for them, we're going to adopt the sites on a provisional basis for all classes but assure the holdouts that it is not a required component. Then, next school year, I'll ask the technophobes to visit their colleagues while the sites are in use, to build their comfort. But I know that I'll be scaring some of them, and potentially diminishing morale, when they see these sites they don't want listed on their required materials!
It is all quite a stir, and I'm asked not to use the school's technology to inform the whole team as to the process. This is my second-least favorite part of the chair role, and I'll be glad when I've got all the wrinkles ironed out by the end of this week.
Busy time of the year for you! I like how you will scaffold this transition by first allowing teachers to observe other teachers using the technology. Sometimes you have to do what's best for the students and it's not always an easy message to relay to the ones facilitating. At least you are providing support when making this move.
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