Environmental Scan

 This is going to be an odd post.  WHY?  BECAUSE I WAS JUST HIRED TO BE AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL LIBRAIAN!!!  Thursday of last week.  I am so excited!!  

So, I am going to kind of compare my 2 old campuses to my new campus. 

The district I work for has both WiFi and ethernet. The Ethernet is provided by Cisco. That is all of the information I was able to find out over the last 20 years.  When I first started with the district, we only had Ethernet. I was the first teacher on my campus to have a W.O.W Cart - Wireless on Wheels. It had 32 Chromebooks in it and it's own WiFi port. It was so cool for the kids. Eventually the district added Wifi to all of the campuses.  

For my students at my past 2 Junior High campuses I worked at over the last 20 years, the majority of them have Iphones and whatever internet that comes with their phones. Some have had limited plans, so once they run out of minutes, they are done for the month. The first junior high I worked at was a Title 1 school. The junior high I just left was not a Title 1 campus. Many of those students had their own laptops, Ipads, kindles and a lot more technology and internet access in their hands. The elementary school I am going to work at is a Title 1 campus. I am going to assume that it will be a lot like my first campus. The students will have some access, depending more on their parents' financial situation. 

From I have seen, Chromebook or Ipad usage at the 2 junior high campuses really depends on the teacher and the principal. If the principal is supportive, the teachers are actively using them. My older daughter use Ipads and Chromebooks more elementary school than she did in intermediate school. It seems that they are 1:1 or 2:1 on devices. Once you hit 5th grade, the usage drops. As the elementary schools combine and secondary schools grow, the usage drops. The 2 junior highs have had no where near 1:1 nor 2:1 devices for students use. It's more like 3:1 or 4:1. I was lucky and received a Chromebook cart and VR cart through district funded grants, so my classes were 1:1 and I did not have to share my cart. Other teachers had to share carts, which made it hard to plan and awful for testing. If the principal was anti-tech, like my last principal, it really tied your hands. Once I was pulled into the office and told within 5 minutes that 1) I was using too much technology in the classroom and 2) I was handing out too many packets. This was the year after Covid. But seriously, how could I be doing BOTH - too many packets and too much tech?? I just shook my head over this meeting. I was perplexed. Then when it came time for my evaluation, I had designed in interactive powerpoint over the mid-1800 Reformers and Reform Movements. It was a linked Google Slide, Harry Potter based, presentation, that had hyper-links to videos and assignments I had created via TeacherMade and Canvas quizzes. The students had to check in with me as the finished going through certain stores in Diagon Alley, so I could make sure they were on task. I also had a student who chose to work remotely on my headset the entire class. It was an a lesson I was so proud of and had worked 2 weeks on...  only to receive "proficient" on technology in Ttess. I was gutted. It his score cut me to my core. Then I realized he gave the teachers who lectured all day, everyday higher Ttess scores and bragged about who great teachers they were. The students were bored as hell in those classrooms. 

At my first campus, I was allowed to host WOW Wednesdays. On my own time, once a month, I hosted a class for other teachers who wanted to learn about and use technology and websites in their classrooms. I had at least 9 teachers who would attend. It was great to see other teachers using tech in their classrooms!  The last junior high, I was not allowed to do this.  I know at my new elementary school, I will be back to teaching other teachers how to use tech in their lessons. I am so excited to be back in a campus that wants to learn and use technology!!  Neither of the librarians at the junior high campuses taught technology to teachers nor students. Their belief was "That's what the Technology Dept for the district is for."  I believe that teachers need to see other teachers using the technology successfully and be available to ask/answer questions as soon as they come up.  I always created a "How To" or "FAQ" handout for the technology I taught. I know as a students in a tech workshop, I had to take detailed notes or I would forget steps and tidbits by the time I made it back to my classroom to use it.  

The area I will be librarian in is lower middle class. Most of the families live in apartments or rent their homes.  The parents are going to working class in lower jobs, not the oil companies executives from the last campus. They are going to be your gas station attendants, Walmart employees, grocery store employees, custodial type jobs. Spring is a suburban area with a lot of heat and humidity. The students all attend their local neighborhood elementary schools. My district does not have magnet academies until high school. Most of the teachers at the elementary school are limited in their technology usage. They think using the projector is using technology. Some teachers use Apps such as Dreambox, Boost, Epic! and PebbleGO!  I think the students in the elementary school will be using Iphones or tablets at home for any "homework" they might have.

I am so excited for the opportunities I have to come and feeling helpful once again!