I’ve worked as a School
Psychologist in the K-12 public school setting for the past 7 years. For the
past year and a half, I’ve also been pursuing a doctorate in Educational
Technology through Morehead State University. Although I’ve long mused about
writing a grant, the confidence that I’ve gained since returning to graduate
school pushed me to finally take the leap. I reached out to one of my favorite
special education teachers to see if she was interested in joining forces. She
jumped at the opportunity, since she had long talked about wanting iPads for
her classroom. I chose to work with this teacher, because I knew she would make
the most of the grant funds if we were so lucky as to be awarded them. She
routinely brought her personal iPad Mini to school and let her students use it.
She also worked with other teachers in the building to use an iPad in very
innovative ways to accommodate a student with a severe visual impairment.
Additionally, she was the only teacher in the building who used a set of iPods
purchased with previous grant as classroom clickers. Until she began using
them, they sat idly in a storage room gathering dust. If she and I were to be
awarded this grant, hers would be the first one-to-one classroom at her middle
school and, maybe, the district as a whole. As we await word as to whether we
will receive this grant, I can’t help but to reflect upon the lessons I’ve
learned thus far.
The Beauty of Collaboration
One of the joys of serving as
a School Psychologist is the opportunity I get to work with numerous faculty,
staff, and related service providers as well as students. I routinely observe
in teachers’ classrooms, review IEPs, examine ongoing progress monitoring data,
and meet with challenging students. My role lends itself to building a certain
degree of trust with my teacher colleagues. They often come of me for input,
and they are also comfortable with critiquing my work. I believe that the trust
that we have for one another was a key element for authoring a successful
grant. My largest role in the process was to write the grant, outline how we
plan to monitor its progress, and determine what affordable, research-based instructional
tools we would use throughout the cycle. The writing of the grant was what gave
my teacher colleague the greatest anxiety, so having me there to take that on
relieve some of the pressure. As I wrote the grant, I sent her updates and
drafts so that she could approve what I had written. Ultimately, she is the one
who will have to implement the grant with fidelity in her classroom, so her
buy-in and comfort with the process was essential. I was more than happy to be
the principal author who will then periodically monitor the grant’s
implementation and help with the reporting of data. Although I had more work on
the front-end of this endeavor, so she will be the one pulling up he sleeves on
a daily basis throughout the yearlong grant cycle. I am happy to play my
all-too-familiar supporting role.
Challenges, Surprises,
& Advice
CHALLENGE:
Collaboration can be hard work! The grant application was due over Christmas
Break, so the teacher and I had to work on it remotely (though phone, social
media, and email) right up until the deadline. Although the timing was not
ideal, we sacrificed some of our vacation time and made it work.
ADVICE: One piece of advice I have
for anyone looking to team up on a grant application is to CHOOSE A NATURAL
LEADER!!! I cannot emphasize this enough. Actions speak louder than words. If a
colleague takes pride and puts great effort into his/her daily work, he/she
will likely adopt that attitude with the grant.
SURPRISE:
Lastly, I was and continue to be surprised by the sense of accomplishment I
feel for having taken the plunge and authored this grant. Even if my colleague
and I are not ultimately chosen to receive funds, I am confident that I will
put myself out there again at some point. The application process was a lot of work
and somewhat stressful, but the process is now demystified for me. I can do
this!
Going Forward
In the
coming weeks, I hope to receive positive news about our grant application. If
we are blessed enough to be awarded the funds to establish our district’s first
one-to-one iPad classroom, I look forward to updating the readers of the TED
Blog on our progress as well as the inevitable challenges and rewards of
bringing our grant proposal to fruition.
