Drove to the city of Georgetown today. This was my view along the way, somewhere near Coloma. 

Did a PD session for the elementary school that is slowly moving to Google Suite. I had a really nice intro lesson planned for the 90 minute session, but I decided to scrap most of it. 

Even though the school has just begun rolling out Google Suite, many of the staff have been tinkering with Google Apps on their own time. Love that! 

So I stopped about 10 minutes into my presentation and asked, “how many of you would rather spend this time asking me questions?” Almost all agreed, except for that one teacher...there’s always one. 

But, the others were excited to explore the things that mattered to them. There so many questions about nuts & bolts: 

• How do we create a shared calendar? 
• How can I use the quiz feature in Forms? 
• How can I turn off email notifications for Classroom? 
• How do the permission settings for file sharing work? 

As I hustle to complete my household chores and projects on this last weekend of summer break, I’ve been reflecting quite a bit. That’s what teachers do, right? 

Tuesday is district-wide PD, followed by staff meetings. Wednesday is teacher work day. And, students return on Thursday. Monday is still open, but I’ll be having conversations with some of the site admins. Those conversations will be centered on what I can do to support teachers remotely. 

This year, I have been involuntarily transferred to a middle school to pick up three classes, with the rest of the reserved for tech TOSA work. So, here’s the questions I’m pondering: 

• How does a TOSA support teachers at other sites while teaching periods 2, 3, & 7 at a middle school? 
• Should I take that yearbook stipend and tackle that project? 
• What’s the deadline for Spring semester enrollment into an EdD program? 

Care personally 

Challenge directly 

I’ve been thinking about this chart a lot lately. 

Really, I’ve been asking myself a lot of questions about this chart and how it relates to my role as a TOSA. What does this look like in all interactions: 

• as a colleague across the district?
• as a liaison to district office staff?
• as support personnel to site administrative staff?
• as an ambassador to parents?
• as a classroom teacher?

That sweet spot in the upper, right corner of the chart (“radical candor”) is crucial, in all aspects of education. But, what does that look like? 

Time to reassess strategies, focus on the remainder of the school year, and look ahead to 2018-2019. 

I won’t be traveling for Spring Break. No fancy trips or spectacular destinations this year. Instead, I’ll be doing all the glamorous stuff like cleaning the pool, painting a bedroom or two, replacing a toilet valve, and organizing the garage. 

And, because I can’t completely disengage from work, I’ll be mapping out plans for PD and assessing student growth.