Name Carolyn Gassmann

EPPSP Group 39
Butler University

The Experiential Program for Preparing School Principals

STANDARD _:
Number and Proficiency here:
11. Assist in the development and improvement of instruction through the use of technology.

Summary:
For the 2019-2020 school year I have served my school as an eCoach. This position serves to
assist teachers and staff within the building on various aspects of technology. In my district, the
responsibilities of an eCoach are delegated into three separate categories—Computer Science
Specialists, STEM Specialists, and Digital Learning Specialists. I serve as the final. Some of the
responsibilities of this position include preparing teachers and staff for the district’s first
eLearning Day, troubleshooting various problems that colleagues may encounter related to
educational technology and assisting them in solving them, training teachers on the digital
communication platforms of Canvas and SeeSaw, and searching for resources to share with
others about new and engaging technological resources to implement in the classroom.

Through the implementation of the district’s first eLearning Day in early February 2020, a lot of
the aforementioned responsibilities have been intertwined. For example, I have been looking for
engaging resources to share with teachers to give to their classes on this day, while also
helping teachers feel comfort in maneuvering Canvas and SeeSaw to share their lessons and
activities with their classes. The responsibilities of this role amplified following Winter Break, but
the preparation to serve my colleagues well began just as the school year did.

Reflection:
As I accepted the position of eCoach at the beginning of the school year, I anticipated the
responsibilities of this position to be quite simple, as the woman who served as the Digital
Learning Specialist prior to my acceptance told me that she did not have much to do in this
particular position—mainly attend a handful of meetings and occasionally assist with technology
issues in her hallway of the building. However, upon receiving more information about the
position and attending our first meeting, I quickly realized that there was potential to greatly
serve my building and assist them in becoming well-versed in various technological resources
that would benefit them and their students. So, I quickly began brainstorming.

In the fall of 2018, I attended a Dual Language conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The main
purpose of this conference was to learn more about strategies for teaching in a Dual Language
setting. However, one of the conference sessions I attended was on educational technology,
more specifically, computer- and tablet-based programs that get students engaged in their
content. When I was thinking of ways to meaningfully live the responsibilities of my role as an
eCoach, my mind instantly returned to this conference session. After spending some time
gathering and reviewing the resources from that presentation, I prepared some information to
share with my building staff at our weekly staff meetings. Through doing this, I am aware of
multiple teachers throughout the school who are using the resources presented in their own
classrooms with their students.

In addition to the excitement the above presentation brought me, serving as an eCoach has
reaffirmed the value of selflessness within education. There have been many occasions upon
which I have had to practice true servant leadership through this position. So many times
throughout the school year I have had a teacher peek into my classroom just as I am preparing
for the day to begin and tell me that their Sharp panel (SmartBoard) is not working, or that they
are having trouble working a certain program on the students’ iPads or Chromebooks. Because
I have accepted this role and truly believe in the importance of helping others, I would make
sure to help the teacher in my doorway before returning to the needs of my classroom.

One instance in particular in which this selflessness was truly put to the test was upon return
from Winter Break. At our all-staff professional development, we quickly learned that the district
had cleared all documents and programs from teachers’ desktop computers without a word to
anyone at the school, even the principal. When given time to work in our classrooms, I
discovered that one of the crucial programs, Microsoft Word, was missing from all computers. I
had initially intended to use this work time to prepare some work for the first few weeks of the
semester. However, after seeing teachers flustered by this technological inconvenience, I
researched how to put Word back on everyone’s desktop, typed up and sent instructions to the
staff on how to reprogram it, and sat with teachers who struggled with these instructions and
helped them put Word onto each of their computers. While this is not how I had intended to
spend my first afternoon back at school, I know that it eased some worry in a lot of teachers and
instead of making sure just my classroom was ready for the semester, through helping multiple
teachers recover this program, our whole school could better prepare for the upcoming
semester.

Finally, one of the largest technology-based pilots of the school year was the implemention of
our first eLearning Day. This is something that has been in the plans of the district for quite
some time, and this year they felt we were ready to test it out. Major planning for this began just
as the school year did. District mandate required all teachers in grades K-4 to use SeeSaw to
share activities and information with students and parents, and grades 5-12 were required to
use Canvas to do the same. Beginning the school year, I was not familiar with either of these
programs, but I have spent much time informing myself on the interworking of each tool. I have
held after school mini workshops for teachers to train them on how to best use these programs,
and I have sat one-on-one with teachers and helped them navigate the basics, as well as more
advanced features, of each. The pilot of eLearning Day in February certainly provided us with a
lot of data on what is working well for the district in terms of technology and where we need to
continue improving. I am thankful to have had the opportunity to work closely with the rest of the
staff to implement these programs and return the learned information to the district to better
serve our student population as we plan for future eLearning.
Serving as an eCoach has given me many opportunities to test out various technology-based
tools in my classroom, as well as share them with my colleagues. While I am grateful to have
become more well-versed in these tools, I am most grateful to have spent time serving the
teachers at my school to implement resources that were previously foreign and or daunting to
them. While there were many times I had to put the needs of other teachers above the work I
was planning on doing in my classroom, it was a beneficial lesson in leadership—that the
investment into the needs of others can benefit so many more people. If I selfishly prioritized my
class and my students, others would suffer, but by helping the other teachers, there were so
many more students and staff members who benefitted. To me, that alone is worth serving in
this role.

Artifacts:

Email to staff about restoring Microsoft Word:

Email to staff about uploading lessons at the start of eLearning: