Liberates Your Staff
Overseer was
conceived as a productivity tool with the potential to simplify and streamline
many of the administrative tasks performed by teachers and administrators
within independent schools. The intent
is to free up staff for more productive tasks and give them space to focus on
the academic, spiritual, emotional and relational roles which are so central to
true education.
Successful implementation of Overseer demands teamwork - where each staff member sacrifices a
little autonomy or independence for the sake of a common endeavour, yet
realizes tangible benefits which provide the motivation for co-operative
effort. Clearly identifying the roles of
the Overseer team members as early as
possible can lay the foundation for a smooth implementation which will liberate
your staff for their primary responsibilities.
A Champion is
needed who can envision how Overseer
might best be implemented in a given school, and provide the motivation and
stimulus to inspire the whole team.
Then there are the practical roles for the key members of
the implementation team.
A school's Network
Specialist has the critical role of reviewing the computer resources available,
determining how to network computers, and then setting up the infrastructure
for the installation and management of software applications, as well as on-going
upgrades and support. This is a
substantial task, and Overseer is
just a small component of the overall effort required in this technical area.
The school's Secretary typically has the
vital start-up role of populating the school's Main database. A co-op
student or parent volunteer can sometimes help with this task. The secretary needs to take pride in keeping
the database current and accurate, without fear that other (administrative)
users will alter information without her knowledge. Her front-end labour in enrolling students,
setting up classes and teachers and implementing the report card designs
approved by the staff is vital to the smooth distribution of Grades databases for in-term use by
teachers.
The Principal,
as senior administrator within the school needs to co-ordinate timely staff
meetings so that critical decisions can be made regarding report card design,
assignment of students and teachers to classes and home rooms, finalizing
teaching assignments for all subject areas and components, and establishing
marking schemes for co-operative use.
The principal also has to ensure that any custom report card designs
used are available and installed at the beginning of the school year. All of these decisions must be finalized
before teachers can begin to use Overseer
Grades. It is helpful if the
principal has familiarity with Overseer's
capabilities, if not hands-on experience with it, so that he/she will be able
to tap its features for data mining,
generating reports needed by
Committees or the Board, and for tracking prospects and supporters as part of
the community development effort.
Teachers have a major stake in the design of report cards and the definition of suitable marking schemes for use within the Grades application. Their preferences need to be shared at staff meetings with a view to achieving early consensus. They will need to co-operate in sharing available computer resources and agree on dates for sharing copies of final term marks with heads of subjects and home room teachers for each class.
It is also advisable to identify a Staff Specialist in Overseer
who will accept responsibility for acquiring sufficient familiarity with its
features, installation and use to be able to assist staff with operational
support issues which may arise from time to time during working hours. In some schools, this role may be shared by
the Network Specialist if he/she is a
staff member.
Once implementation is complete, energy can be invested in refinements to the school's operational procedures. The continuing effort to maintain and update Overseer should be small compared to the benefits derived.
