As I was finishing up my Master’s degree this fall, I was given an opportunity to leave the classroom and take a new position in the front office of my school. The position is a Digital Learning Specialist and it has been a great change and has afforded me a lot of new opportunities.
This position is essentially supporting the teachers of four schools (my middle school and its three feeder elementary schools). I’m helping train them on district supported technologies, solving software issues, and generally making sure they are supported in the classroom.
This position is not a a teaching position, meaning I don’t see students all the time at my school. This has come with pros and cons, some of which are unexpected. I miss building relationships with students in the classroom. It’s fun to have inside jokes and learn from students in my classroom. On the other hand, this has allowed me to meet and interact with a lot of people who I would not normally come into contact with. For instance, I’ve had more interactions with parents this year than almost any other year in education.
I was initially worried about the amount of elementary campuses I would be on, but they have been super warm and welcoming. I have really enjoyed helping out the elementary students and working with teachers that have a completely different set of issues that I’m used to. They tend to look at problems in completely different ways and it’s been an interesting new perspective to take into account.
This year has been great. It has challenged me in a variety of ways and I think I needed some of that in my life. Being in a classroom is predictable (as much as middle schoolers can be predictable) and shaking things up and try out something new has been great for me. From time-to-time I’m going to be sharing my projects I’ve worked on here, so stay tuned!