During the 2016-2017 school year, I was given the opportunity to be a part of the Campus Leadership Development Team on my campus.  We were asked to identify a problem that is reflected in our Campus Improvement Plan and propose a solution. The specific target areas that I thought would be within my realm of influence were:

• Student Engagement
• College and Career Readiness
• Technology Integration

It wasn’t long before I joined forces with my teaching partner to target these areas. Through a long and winding path, we eventually arrived at the conclusion that we, as a school, needed to adjust the way we do business. We had all been through 21st Century Learning and we had lovely signs declaring our classrooms 21st Century Classrooms, but really nothing had changed.

The faculty, for the most part, had an introduction to educational technology integration.  Unfortunately, all teachers were filtered through the same program, despite their level of comfort with technology and technology integration. What we observed was that our campus was still primarily using technology to digitize what had always been done,  rather than using the technology to create innovative ways to challenge students.

My partner and I decided that we must do something to begin to shift the paradigm on our campus.  We began creating an Innovation Initiative.  We spent a lot of time doing research before realizing that seeing the initiative through was going to require more knowledge than I currently had.  This is how I ended up a part of Lamar University’s Digital Learning and Leading master’s degree program. After completing the program, I will be able to “lead organizational change,” and lead while “supporting disruptive innovation.”

While completing the program, I will be working on finalizing the initiative that will bring the best innovation has to offer to my campus. I will lead a paradigm shift for teachers and students that will spark a change in direction for our school.  The goal of the innovation initiative is to provide personalized experiences for students, especially those who may be disinterested and disengaged.  This plan will allow us to increase college and career readiness and increase student engagement, successfully completing the goal of the Campus Leadership Development Team.