Changing Culture

Rome wasn’t built in a day. That can also be true for changing a culture in school. We have just finished our 3rd year of 1:1, 24/7 connectivity and are coming to an end of our partnership with Digital Promise and Verizon. It has been an amazing journey to see where we began to where we are today.

In the beginning we jumped, rather dove, into this without having all of our plans (at times it felt like any plans) in place. Some of it was our own fault and some was out of our control. We quickly learned that certain protocols needed to be in place to get off the ground successfully.  Fortunately, I had a partner at another school in our district that was part of Digital Promise and Verizon opportunity. We immediately realized that we needed to plan and work together to create a system for success. Regina (my partner) and I complimented each other and we put our individual strengths together to create from the ground up a plan for what we needed to accomplish. Since this was new to our district we didn’t have a lot (or any) policies in place.

We created a system to handle distribution of the iPads, including parent consent forms and insurance. We planned for parent meetings to teach about our new partnership and understand what is being expected from their students and themselves. We built a digital citizen program for all of our students and teachers to start a conversation that has continued on. We knew that we needed a common language to help everyone; administrators, teachers, parents and students so that we all sere very clear of the expectations. We also created professional development for our teachers to help them start changing the way they teach.  This was all before our students ever touched their iPads.

There was excitement, panic, nervousness and opportunity bubbling through the school. We weren’t the only ones in this. We were part of a bigger family; there were a total of 8 schools that were part of the Digital Promise/Verizon schools. We are not alone! We met virtually weekly to discuss, plan, learn (and even vent) with each other. We were all on this adventure together. Having a group of 8 learning coaches, Digital Promise and Verizon support helped us create a map of where we wanted to go.

Early on, Marco Torres told us if we don’t have a plan have a process. We took to heart that sentiment and at first we created a process for our parents, students and teachers.  As time went on Regina and I, along with our district, created more of a plan of where we were heading. We have continued to define, refine and develop our process and protocols to support our teachers and students in their learning goals.

At first it was overwhelming with issues that arose. At times I felt that I was just putting out fires as soon as they started. But a marvelous thing happened along the way. We slowly began to change the culture. It wasn’t overnight but a constant steady pace. You don’t see it happening and then you look back to where you started and you see the remarkable difference. The transformation wasn’t overnight and didn’t come without a few bumps in the road. We are still ironing out some of those wrinkles. The amazing thing is that none of our teachers can remember (or want to go back) to what it was like before we started this journey. Having our students be able to create, document, research, connect and learn anywhere has been worth all of the growing pains. We don’t talk about the iPad anymore, it is just a tool that is being used to further anything and everything in and out of the classroom. It is just an integral part of our school.

We are fortunate that the people of our city feel strongly about education. They just recently passed a referendum to financially support our schools for years to come. With that, our district is expanding our 1:1 program to the other schools in our district. Regina and I are already working with our district to plan for the successful rollout to our other schools.  We are passing along the lessons learned to create a fluid and self-sustaining system and hoping to avoid the mistakes of our growing pains.