Interview a school leader in technology - A.K.A. James Frye

James Frye's Journey to becoming the Instructional Technology Facilitator:
Mr. James Frye earned my Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Educational Technology while working as a teacher at Newton-Conover High School.  During his time at Michigan State University, where he earned his masters degree through their hybrid distance program, Frye had the opportunity to work with some of education’s finest entrepreneurs and learning innovators -- perhaps one of the most well known being Punya Mishra, co-creator of the TPACK Technology Integration framework. James Frye was inspired by their work to learn deeply of the importance of technology in the classroom -- and in his own words "my eyes opened to the fact that, as contemporary educators, we still have a long way to go to make the most of the resources we have available to us."

Mr. Frye elegantly states "Technology integration does not mean using a tool for a tool’s sake.  Twitter and Pinterest, while they do provide excellent access to resources for teachers, sometimes lend themselves well to Use It and Forget It syndrome.  This happens when a teacher finds a new tool, and they find a way to design a lesson around that tool so that they can use it, rather than using that tool to improve or enhance their lesson.  Pedagogy is and should always be king.  The role of technologies are to simplify the instructional process, provide data to improve instruction, and to globally connect students with scholars, researchers, dignitaries, and, last but not least, reliable information.  If a teacher uses digital tools to move through the instructional improvement cycle continuously, collecting data and pouring over that data using tools, then students will have the tools in their toolbelt necessary to be innovators and purveyors of our shared future.  With sound instruction comes great responsibility!" 

James Frye's goal is to facilitate this paradigm shift for the students of our schools on an international level, and is my primary inspiration for doing the work I do every day.

What’s a day at your job look like?

A typical day bears any variation of responsibilities, and each day is different from the rest. Primarily, responsibilities are to support our teachers and leaders by coaching them to hone their digital teaching and learning skill set, co-teaching in their content area and modeling best practices, and providing ongoing technological-pedagogical feedback to them. Mr. Frye spends a lot of time in each of our schools doing this.  He also offers professional learning experiences related to digital teaching and learning at each site, and on a district-level (such as our Digital Days conference, as well as the Digital Teaching and Learning Institute, and Digital Leadership Academy he plans to offer beginning in the fall). On a district level, James Frye serves as support for the Tech Team and our Media Coordinators; he also handles our website, Edlio, and most social media, our Learning Management System, Canvas, AMTR reporting, Gaggle e-mail filtering, and IAM account management.  

Outside of his ITF responsibilities, Mr. Frye assists in Accountability and have helped to coordinate Testing as needed.  James Frye will also begin an additional role as the Public Information Officer on August 3rd.  This will include being the primary liaison for all media and public relations, public events and programming.

What’s going on in N-CCS:

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Tech Team:

Since we have one ITF who serves Newton-Conover district, we have a Tech Team formed of two teachers from each school who fill daily digital learning needs in their buildings.  These teacher-leaders provide Instructional Technology professional learning at their schools and help to advance the use of Canvas, our website, and other digital learning initiatives at their schools.  In exchange for their work, these teachers also have the opportunity to attend and present at North Carolina Technology in Education Society conference each year, free of charge.

Digital Teaching and Learning Academy:

In the fall, Mr. Frye will be piloting a Digital Teaching and Learning Academy for 20 educators in Newton-Conover City Schools.  All interested educators will apply at the beginning of August across a two week span to be selected by a committee to be a part of the pilot group for the Academy.  It will be targeted at our Levels 1-4 staff as indicated by the Instructional Technology Survey, and will last for a semester.  It will primarily be facilitated online, but will have four synchronous meetings over the duration of the Institute in the Curriculum Room at the Central Office.  Topics covered will include NC State Digital Learning Competencies and Arizona’s Technology Integration Matrix, TPACK and SAMR integration frameworks, innovative strategies for engaging students in global communities, developing a Professional Learning Network, and of course, spotlights on digital tools.  The Academy will also feature speakers in our face-to-face meetings from across the globe.

Digital Leadership Academy:

The Digital Leadership Academy will be an ongoing of asynchronous, continual professional learning experiences spread throughout a year’s time.  Each leader in Newton-Conover will be required to complete the Institute.  The first semester of programming will align with a book study on The Principal 50.  Topics covered will include school branding and digital identity, unification via social media, organization and productivity, changing your school culture, recognizing and supporting blended learning in the classroom, blended professional learning, etc.  

Instructional Technology Google+ Group:

James Frye explained "this year, in order to maximize the impact that I can have in reaching our teachers in a more timely manner, I have created a Technology Integration Google+ Group, where all Tech Team members and myself will be available to answer questions that teachers and leaders in Newton-Conover post there. This way, there is an archive of questions and answers for others to benefit from, and there is more immediate access to support.  I am very excited about this opportunity for our teachers!"

Canvas:

Our Learning Management System, Canvas, launched in January of last year, but our work with it is just beginning!  Canvas is an LMS that helps teachers to guide learning in online or blended environments.  We are using this for all of our district committees and meetings, from Executive Leadership to clubs in our schools.  This is a great way to unify our teachers, leaders, and students on an academic and extracurricular front, and we are so excited to be working in this medium together!

Edlio:

After months of work, our district’s new website just went live at nccs.k12.nc.us.  The goal of the site was to create a visually appealing interface that relied more heavily on those visuals and much less on text for organization and navigation.  This web solution is easy for our Newton-Conover community to be involved in, and we are so excited to have it available for you!  Coming soon: we will be working to embed our Canvas course home pages into our webpages.

Student Protection in the Digital Age:

In Newton-Conover, student protection is important to us. That is why we have created a module of blended professional learning surrounding the protection of children online.  This is a gateway for productive discussions surrounding digital citizenship in our middle and secondary schools.  We also have a tool and app approval process on a district level.  This is in place to ensure that every teacher who is using digital tools in their classroom are in federal compliance and have parental permission to use the tool, if necessary.

My reflections: This is was one of, if not the most, inspiring interviews I have ever conducted. James Frye displayed an incredible about of passion in his work. This passion is not only shown in him but felt through his work and devotion to incorporating technology in education. I knew that N-CCS is very supportive in incorporating technology, but I never knew of all the different things that were going on. After conducting this interview I found out that there is an opening on the Tech-Team at Newton and I put my name down. If I can have half the impact as Mr. Frye, all will be well in the world! :) I am very thankful for this assignment and the growth that I will hopefully see through it!

SHARE even the Pope gets Social!

Fun Fact of the reading: Pope Francis, the reigning head of the Catholic Church takes "selfies" to stay in communication with all the different people he meets around the world! 
 

Here is one I took from the internet, just incase  you do not believe me! :) 

What I love about the fun fact is that this is a perfect example on how many different leaders from small town teachers to CEOs to Company Presidents to the Pope all use technology to keep in touch with their people. For me that would be my students!

When sharing and staying in touch with people it is important to share fast, frequent, and informal. "At a fundamental lever, successful sharing connects to three things: strategic goals, common ground, and relationship focus." The content and message you want to share should always be related to the overall goals. Tip : add some passion to your messages. The example of a tweet in the book is from Padmasree "Lesson from last week: Dance like there's nobody watching, email like the world is reading. :)." Sticking to one specific message of story at a time will help serve the purpose in creating a message.  

The Science of Sharing:

1) Create a plan - Ask yourself these questions in this linear plan.

•  Why? - Goal 
•  What? - Relationship 
•  How? - Venue 

2) Curate Based on Listening  - Start with what you already know! If you are listening you will have a great starting point.

3) Switch It Up -  It is always good to switch gears and try something different. My suggestion is to stay with something familiar, but new. We don't want to reinvent the wheel, but maybe add some chrome to it! :)

4) Schedule It - Make yourself stick to a schedule. Pick a date and stay with it. If every Tuesday at 10:00am you tweet, then make that happen every Tuesday and stick to it!

5) Play to your strengths - The job of a leader is to motivate, so pick what you do best and use it to motivate others. Social media is a tool to help motivate, not replace it!

6) - Be Intentional and Recalibrate - I don't know anything in this world that never needs and update or a recalibration. Leaders are no different. Make sure that what you are doing is adding value to your message and intentions.

Reading Reflection 2

It's about that time to continue to reflect on my reading of The Engaged Leader : A Strategy for your Digital Transformation. I have had a very busy week, so I did not get as much reading completed as I wanted, but some progress is better than none.

When I have to take time away from a reading, I will usually go back and reread the last 2 pages from the previous chapter, and I cannot believe that I did not mention the last page in my previous post. So far that has been my most favorite page in the book. It states "Being an engaged leader in the digital era means knowing what your goals are and what tools to use to achieve them. It also means being brave and bold enough to step into the fray: listen to followers, share yourself with them, and engage them directly in new and amazing ways." Beautifully said! It is all about having a plan and demonstrating the courage to get there!

In the reading this time listening was the main focus. It was entitled Listening at a Scale. Too many people in today world listen to respond rather than listen to understand. This chapter has taken a moment to really break down what it means to listen. Now this doesn't mean literally listening, but rather paying attention to what is being said either directly or indirectly. "The key is that you listen with your eyes to many people all at once, anytime, and from anyplace." How can one listen with their eyes? Well, they have to be involved with digital tools and resources.  David Thodey, the CEO of Australia's telecom giant Telstra, is the model of listening with our eyes. He gets up early every morning and reads what is being said about his company. He pays particular attention to his enterprise social network on Yammer to review the overnight activity. He isn't just listening to fancy critics, but what real people with real problems are speaking about. He not only looks over these, but will usually post discussion in response to keep them moving along. Thodey is engaged and active in listening therefore giving him the knowledge needed to make better decisions.

When reading different post, it is important to remain aware of the source. Find a small group that you trust the most and rely on them. These should not be your best friends, but someone who is honest and trustworthy. It is also a great idea to follow specifics. Twitter is a great source to use for this because you can search a specific # and filter comments only based around specific ideas.

The last step in listening is assigning guardrails when listening. It is important to not have any distractions. If distractions are present, listening is not the main priority and listen will not last long.

Overall, I am really enjoying this book! I hope to really stay on pace or actually finish early! I enjoy reading the material and seeing how I am or can use the idea in my own life!

The Engaged Leader - Introduction

The Engaged Leader
Introduction:
After the 1st paragraph I was sold on this book! It starts off mentioning Ginni Rometty, CEO of IBM and easily one of the most powerful women in the world. She has a twitter account, but has yet to post anything! I immediately thought "that's me." I have a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account, but I do not post on any of them. I only follow others. Then I thought, what if the world was made up of only people like me, followers? As I continued to read about Rometty, I notice the way in which she is described and how she chooses to lead. "She maintains a laser like focus on her larger goals, recognizing that there's a big difference between a strategic embrace of the new digital world and superficial symbolism."  I completely agree with this statement. People these days seem to focus more on the superficial symbolism rather than their actual goals. Do I want my learners being superficial or obtaining the learning goals? As I continue to read about Ginni Rometty, I keep telling myself, I really need to meet this woman!

With all the technology of the world, it is truly difficult to know what tools are valuable and which are not. "Rometty and other similar leaders know the value of social and digital tools, and they use them wisely. They don't chase every bright shinny app or platform that comes along." Too many times teachers and leaders want to be cool or hip and they try these new tools without any knowledge of them being valuable. It is time to start being a Ginni Rometty and using valuable tools wisely. The Engaged Leader: A Strategy for Your Digital Transformation  defines a leader as someone who uses digital, mobile, and social tools strategically to achieve established goals as they relate to leading people and managing organizations. This just sounds fancy doesn't it? My favorite sentence of the entire introduction followed that definition. "If your palms aren't sweaty and your stomach isn't churning, then you probably aren't practicing engaged leadership." This made me laugh because since June 3rd, when class started, my palms have been sweaty and my stomach has been churning because I am not the most comfortable person with technology. I don't know all the tools and neat ways to teach content, so here I am. Expanding my knowledge and taking a leap of faith to become a better engaged leader in my community and school.

"Leaders now have a direct link to customers."How true is this? 100% True. The first example that popped into my mind when I read that statement was Chic-Fil-A. The customer service displayed at most Chic-Fil-A restaurants is phenomenal. The mangers are out speaking with the customers. They are taking trays and cleaning them to help with staff. This speaks volumes and that is a direct reflection of how well the business does. It sure isn't the prices on the menu. Don't get me wrong. I love the food, but I can find food equally as good at another restaurant cheaper, but I choose not to because of the direct link I have as a customer to their leader. My thought process behind this is, what if I take this approach to my classroom. I don't lower my standards (prices). I increase my link to my students. I make myself more available with the incorporate of technology. The days of simple email as the only form of communication are over. Email is great, but to have the full interaction or direct link, leaders need to embrace more than email.

The book is broken down into 4 chapters: Listen at a Scale, Share to Shape, Engage to Transform, and Transform to Organize. Sounds like an easy plan for a leader right? Simply listen, share, engage, and transform. I am really looking forward to reading more! Who knows, I might finish it early! :)