Part 12: Leading in a Time of Crisis – a Conversation with Senior Director of Instructional Technology Michele Dawson
“Prior to the shutdown in the schools, we surveyed all of our teachers on what their comfort levels were with technology, and then we developed differentiated support and an online learning platform just for them. ”
Today on Getting Unstuck
Most of us are living in an unprecedented time. Not since World War II, have we experienced something that can literally impact every person on the planet. Getting through the COVID-19 pandemic is taking incredible resources and resourcefulness. It is also forcing us to look at one another and work with one another differently. And one place of work where that is extremely evident is in schools
What follows is one conversation in a series of conversations we’re having with educators across the country on how they are leading their schools in this time of crisis. Because these educators are extremely busy helping their schools and communities to pivot, we’ve intentionally limited these conversations to approximately 15 minutes.
It’s our hope that these conversations will provide nuggets of solid advice and emotional support to other educators on the front lines of change.
In this episode we hear from:
Michele Dawson: Senior Director, Instructional Technology
Compton Unified School District, Compton, CA
“We have all these online programs that every teacher is already required to use, but we also have a strong social / emotional support team at the district so that teachers can call them for help. We've assigned our neediest teachers coaches that can work through some of the the technology issues but also answer questions about how they can best support their students and themselves during this time.” — Michele
Listen for how the district is:
Ensuring that students and teachers have a way to access the online learning platform to keep that continuity of learning.
Changing the mindset of how you design online learning.
Providing online learning professional development support for teachers.
Maintaining the spirt of collaborate design thinking to ensure personalized and differentiated online instruction in the future.