08/25/04 Comfort Zone

This entry is a rambling of various ideas generated by my first day in my new job. Hopefully this can provide a place for me to refer back to after I have more time on the job. At the present time, I don't have enough information about my job to develop an AR plan. While I started today, the first week (until September 7th) involves inservice and workshop trainings so I won't officially be "on the job." The following week is devoted to setting up remedial math lessons and rooms--so that will be limited also.

I've completed my first day at my new job. I've very tired and wondering how I can possibly juggle this new position (which is actually two positions), the OMET program, and my family responsibilities. I know that the year will go quickly, but I'm already feeling pulled by my own desires versus my responsibilities. So, I'm definitely out of my comfort zone. My environment is much larger and functions much differently than my previous environment. Beginning any new job can be both exciting and stressful. I've entered a new CoP and must find the place where i fit in. I'm anxious to get this transition period over so that I can get down to the business of doing my job. It's difficult to leave a place where you've been for 17 years. You know where everything is, you know how to get supplies, who to "tiptoe" around, when to requisition new equipment. I can't wait to get to that stage in this new job. You feel as if you lose time because you don't know all you need to know. My initial impression is that this is a great place to work. Co-workers are friendly and extremely willing to help. I'm so impressive. There appears to be a high level of expertise in this environment and I'm looking forward to availing myself to this expertise and at some part adding to it.

To perform this job successfully I must work within two different departments with two different supervisors--The Non Public School Division (NPSS) of the IU and the Instructional Media Services Division of the IU. There could be some conflicts at times, but I get the sense that these supervisors have a great relationship and will work together well. In additional to the instructional technology services, I'll also be providing remedial math services for three non public schools for two days each week. There is potential for me to conduct action research related to remedial mathematics and technology. My role as an instructional technology specialist will require me to provide curriculum support related to technology to the IU's teachers in the non public schools, and provide curriculum support to non public school teachers who work for the schools themselves. This opens up lots of possibilities. The director of NPSS has also expressed an interest in the role of technology in reading instruction. She plans to share a national report related to technology's role in this area. This could be another potential AR project for me. The NPSS is currently launching a study skills program for their teachers provide training in various methods of integrating study skills into their practice. I will be attending a training on this tomorrow. I attended a training on the AIMS Digital Curriculum today. This too could be a focus of my action research. The Digital Curriculum is a resource for content related video clips, photos, encyclopedia articles, and sounds. An added component allows teachers to create assignments using selected resources geared specifically to their lesson objectives. One of the difficulties of using the Digital Curriculum as a part of my AR would be that not all non public school IU teachers have access to a network - however, they could download the content to use offline. At this time, the non public schools have not purchased this resource from the IU. The NPSS are also implementing action research to their teacher supervision model. I'm wondering if it's possible for me to do action research on implementing action research as a supervision/evaluation model? I have made a note that if teachers are going to be completing action research we'll need to assess how technology can help--digital cameras, digital video recorders, ipods for audio recordings, etc. This is very interesting to me--it excites me, I'm just not sure if it's a practical project for me since I'm new to action research myself.

I'll need to revisit this entry next week after I've become more involved with my new environment.