LIS 60001: Access to Information, Summer II, 2010
Assignment 4: Information Awareness Report
Due Date: July 26, 2010
Allison Morgan
Information need: What exactly is the job description of a middle school level department chairperson?
a. I came up with this question through a personal experience currently happening in my life. I am a middle school science teacher and the science department chairperson just resigned her position. I am interested in taking this position and have applied to interview for it next month. When I started to think about what the job entails, however, I did not have a clear-cut description. In order to properly prepare for the interview, I wanted to do some research so I can become knowledgeable about the position.
b. I began the process of answering this question by brainstorming all that I know about the department already. The department chairperson also happened to be my mentor for my first two years of teaching. Consequently, I witnessed some of the work that she did for the department. Since I am a teacher in the science department, I attended several meetings that she held and kept each resource that she gave to each teacher in the department.
The next step I took was going to my principal to inform him of my interest in applying for the position. He told me to think about goals that I have for the future of the science department in terms of where I see the department heading and a plan for assessment and technology.
Upon discussing this with my principal, I immediately thought of grant-writing. I think this would be a positive goal and I would be interested in writing grants for the department myself, as well as encouraging the department to write grants as well. To find out more about grant-writing, I went to talk to my aunt, who has just recently been employed with Kent State University as a Nursing Skills Lab Coordinator. She just recently wrote and received a grant for her department. She also attended a grant-writing workshop so I knew she would be educated about it. My aunt discussed this with me and gave me two specific websites to check out on grants (see section d) and she also gave me a binder with the presentation on grant-writing from the workshop she attended. I thoroughly read through the information and visited those websites that she suggested to gather more information.
The school system I teach in is cutting down on the technology curriculum at the middle school level for next year. I thought that this would be a great opportunity to incorporate technology back in the school through the science department. I thought about our science department being a leader and advocate for the rest of our school in technology, especially since they are so closely related. To assist in thinking of ideas to implement technology in the science department, I went on the internet to search for ideas and models of how different school systems incorporate technology into their science programs.
My final step was going on the internet to research what other schools are doing in their science departments. I looked at elementary school, middle school, high school, and even college science departments to get ideas.
c. When searching on the internet I used terms such as department chairperson, department head job description, science department goals, science department chairperson, grant writing, education grants, Ohio education grants, technology in the middle school classroom, and using technology in science. When discussing this with people, I asked the following questions:
What does the science department position entail?
How much leniency is there in the school to try new ideas?
How should I properly prepare for this interview?
Do I need to know everything that the whole science department teaches?
Should I be familiar with lessons taught in fifth through eighth grade in science?
Can I delegate responsibilities (such as grant writing) to others in the department?
How do you go about writing a grant?
Where should I go to find out what grants are available?
d. Before I spoke with anyone about the upcoming interest in this job opportunity, I decided to do some research on my own. I visited the following websites to find information about being a department chairperson in a school system.
www.nsta.org: National Science Teachers Association: This is an organization that I belong to. There are countless resources on this site and it is very helpful for science teachers. This site had great resources for incorporating technology into the science classroom. This site did not, however, have much information or resources for science department chairperson. I had to break it down more specifically, for example “technology and science” to get helpful resources.
www.amstat.org/outreach/caucuspowerpoints/JimRosenberger.ppt: The Role of a Department Chair Powerpoint: This is a powerpoint presentation I found online from a professor at Penn State that outlines the roles of a department chairperson.
http://paid.uci.edu/chairs%20retreat%20files/B.%20Role%20Of%20the%20Department%20Chair.pdf: The Role of the Department Chair: A site that gives advice to new chairpersons and explains the role of the chairperson. This site also gives several other resources for information regarding the University of California’s policies on expectations of chairpersons, personnel manual, and codes of conduct to use as an example and for reference.
www.grants.gov: A website source for finding and applying for federal grants.
www.grantsoh.com: News, tools, resources for Ohio grants
www.grantsalert.com: Specified education grants
After visiting several websites, I consulted three people to get their input on the science department chairperson position:
Randy Ebie: Middle School Principal
Carolyn Nybell: 7th Grade Science Teacher, Former Science Department Chairperson
Mary Crump: Kent State University of Ashtabula Nursing Skills Lab Coordinator
e. Overall, I was extremely satisfied with the information that I found. After researching online and talking to several people, I believe I am prepared for this interview and have a better understanding of the job expectations of science department chairperson. When searching online, unfortunately, I did not find much useful information on specific school district websites. My search results returned more job postings than actual job descriptions.
I have concluded that I can be well-prepared for this interview as well as have a positive influence as a science department chairperson now that I know more information about what is necessary to complete this job successfully each year.
The most valid information that I received was through talking to people. With my personal resources’ professional experience, I have gained a great deal of comprehension from them. I will continue to look for more information to get organized and prepared for this interview, and the position if I get it.
f. My search came to an end when I realized that I had enough information to illustrate to my interviewers that I completely understand what I would be doing. I also think that I am prepared to show my colleagues that I can do a superior job if selected. I think my knowledge gap has been fulfilled at this point in the process. I understand that there will always be lessons to be learned and opportunities to better myself in my career.
g. Through this experience, I have learned a lot about myself. I realized that I am capable of doing many tasks at once. I also learned that there is so much information out there to learn and use as resources. I had a great experience discussing my situation with professionals and understanding the information they had to offer me.
I had many opportunities throughout this experience to link to other information resources from where I began my search. If searching for information properly, it is exciting to find the amount of information you need without getting “stuck”. When beginning my search, I did do some brainstorming, but as I came across more and more information, I thought of new terms to search and new connections to make between this job opportunity and my teaching job.
In conclusion, I was happy with this opportunity to better my career by finding information in so many useful ways.
