L_V_NG W_TH V_C_NC__S

The students returned to the classrooms in our district today. We are "living with vacancies," not filling many of the positions left vacant by retirement or other causes, so we are entering this year with fewer people to get the job done, but still with the absolute need to get the job done for the thousands of students who came into our 17 buildings today.

Having seen over the summer months some of the effects that this can have on an organization as large as ours, including fewer offerings of flex training sessions, fewer people to work on new initiatives, and a much smaller crop of new teachers being inducted, I was a little apprehensive about what this would look like when the school year began in earnest.

In my own position, two of us are working to do the work previously done by four people. I am happy to welcome Glenn Yetter, who has stepped into the other AIC position and hit the ground running. With really only four work days under our belts this year, we have already logged close to 50 instances of tech integration, thanks in large part to Glenn's ability to drop in, during in-service days, on many of the teachers in classrooms newly outfitted with SMART Boards, and give them an on-the-spot, 20-minute basic training that will enable them to be comfortable getting started with the new equipment. His idea filled a need created by the constraints of our budget, which affords us the ability to offer only about half of the training sessions we'd offered in previous years, and requires teachers to earn half of the flex hours previously required of them. One of the training sessions we had not been able to offer early enough in the year was on SMART Boards and Notebook software, but Glenn has been finding ways to get the two of us in front of the teachers who need training to get started with the newly installed equipment in time for the new school year. Now perhaps we can all pursuade him to publish a weekly reflections blog and share some of his secrets!

We have also trained close to 70 teachers in three flex sessions we've offered since mid-August, putting us on a great pace to help even more teachers than last year integrate technology into their classrooms. It has been an exciting start, but it has not been without its roadblocks.

We have several new systems, new hardware in most buildings, a new operating system on newly reimaged computers, and new printing procedures in place that have replaced classroom printers with print stations. These changes have not been without the usual expected snags, and when combined with the way a decrease in employees means everyone is taking on more jobs, there have been plenty of extra questions and requests for immediate help sent our way so far.

I've not only done extra work, but I've caused extra work for others myself. Today, for example, I dropped the ball with something I'm usually on top of, neglecting to get the teacher web pages turned on for the participants in my training session. This led to another person who caught the oversight taking on unexpected work, which she did quickly and efficiently. While I won't make that mistake again, I'm sure I will make others, as will we all at some points this year. We've got student clubs and activities without advisors, so others are taking on more roles to help out. We've got fewer staff in almost every area, so everyone will be working with more tasks and responsibilities than we've been used to in the past.

Our situation is not unique to our district, but can be found everywhere. We got here because our assosciation, consisting of teachers who are among the lowest paid in the county and are working on two consecutive sub-par contracts, could not afford to take a pay freeze for a second consecutive year. We are here because our school board could not afford to raise taxes in a difficult economy in an election year. We are here for many reasons, but we are not the only ones here, and we are all living with vacancies. I began to fear what this phrase would mean when students walked in to our buildings today.

What I saw, however, was very encouraging. Yes, there had been a lot of talk about the printing difficulties, and the things we'd lost in the changes to different systems, applications and programs. And yes, walking through the halls during class time clearly showed that our classrooms were filled with students and very few empty seats. But I also saw and heard positive messages from teachers. I witnessed professionals being kind to each other and understanding of setbacks caused by our increased responsibilities. I saw a more visible teacher presence in the hallways at the high school, and district-wide colleagues in after school training sessions who were willing to work through adversity without complaint.

Our teachers are willing to overcome obstacles and achieve the same -- or greater -- results with fewer resources for our students, because we don't believe in doing anything less. This makes me proud to be a part of this group of outstanding educators, and keeps me motivated to do anything I can to help.

So how can the Academic Integration Coaches help you? Please click our help request and let us know how... and we'll come to you!

Have a great school year, everyone.