The Kenan Fellow / Mentor partnership has permitted me, and the other Kenan fellows working with Home Base, the opportunity to interact with the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction. This has permitted us a unique view and a unique opportunity to interact with a very large, multidimensional organization.
As teachers and district employees, we usually work within our local environment reacting to local efforts, initiatives, pressures and visions. It is very hard to have a bird’s eye view of how an organization as large as DPI functions. We did not reach a true bird’s eye view of that large organization but we did have access to one window for brief periods. It would be totally false and exaggerated to say that I now totally understand an organization as large as DPI. That said, this partnership has offered me a wider view of how educational divisions interact. In the case of Home Base, this fellow / mentor partnership has offered me a broader view of how an organization rolls out a new product.
We were directly responsible to two DPI mentors but we interfaced with a core of other workers within DPI Learning Systems, within the Center for Urban Affairs at NCSU, within Pearson’s School Systems (Power School, Power Source, Schoolnet) and even with the North Carolina Community College System.
There are many wheels that turn education. Working at the district level, I frequently see what accomplishments occur because of teacher and principal initiatives. Geographical references come into play when schools refer to what ‘downtown’ or ‘the county’ requires, expects or has accomplished. Our LEA makes similar references to the external forces of ‘DPI’, ‘the state’ or ‘Raleigh’.
I have been to the city of Raleigh off and on for DPI training and for state conventions for my profession. Nonetheless, I used to always get lost getting into or out of the city of Raleigh. Now, both figuratively and literally I feel less lost and more able to get around ‘Raleigh’. It has been highly educational to add new viewpoints to my understanding.
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jamienotter.com