Relevance Creep and Parent Advisory Boards with Ethan Delavan, TLIS
Presented by:
Ethan Delavan, TLIS, Director of IT at the Northwest School, joins the podcast to discuss managing "relevance creep" in independent schools. He shares his unique approach to technology leadership, including the development of a "Technology and Society" academic pathway and the intentional use of a parent tech advisory board to gain industry insights while maintaining curricular boundaries.
- Ethan Delavan, LinkedIn profile
- The Northwest School, independent day and boarding school serving students in grades 6 to 12 on an urban campus in Seattle, WA
- Technology Leaders in Independent Schools (TLIS) certification program, credential that validates the leadership, technical expertise, and strategic judgment required to lead technology in an independent school environment
Transcript
Peter Frank:
Dan, welcome to Talking technology with ATLIS,
Peter Frank:
the show that plugs you into the important topics and trends for
Peter Frank:
technology leaders all through a unique Independent School lens.
Peter Frank:
We'll hear stories from technology directors and other
Peter Frank:
special guests from the Independent School community,
Peter Frank:
and provide you with focused learning and deep dive topics.
Peter Frank:
And now please welcome your host, Christina Lewellen,
Christina Lewellen:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to
Christina Lewellen:
talking technology with ATLIS. I'm Christina Lewellen, the
Christina Lewellen:
President and CEO of the Association of technology
Christina Lewellen:
leaders in independent schools.
Bill Stites:
And I am Bill Stites, the Director of
Bill Stites:
Technology at Montclair Kimberly Academy in Montclair, New
Bill Stites:
Jersey.
Christina Lewellen:
Hey, good morning, Bill. We're starting
Christina Lewellen:
out today, just you and me. How are you doing this morning?
Bill Stites:
That's a great way to start things off. I think,
Bill Stites:
you know, yeah, just me and you hanging out, just without Hiram,
Bill Stites:
or with me, with you and without Hiram, you know, it's just, oh
Bill Stites:
no. I'm just kidding. Of course,
Christina Lewellen:
I wanted to follow up with you. For those of
Christina Lewellen:
our listeners who kind of follow our life stories and our
Christina Lewellen:
journeys together, you had mentioned at one point in the
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pod that you were moving Sean, he was heading down to warmer
Christina Lewellen:
weather to start his first job. So now I feel like we need a
Christina Lewellen:
real quick Sean Stites update. How's he doing?
Bill Stites:
So interestingly, I literally just got off a
Bill Stites:
FaceTime call with him just before we jumped on here, and he
Bill Stites:
informed me that he just got a call from his boss, and they
Bill Stites:
want to move up his arrival. We were supposed to get him down to
Bill Stites:
Florida the end of February. Now we need to get him down to
Bill Stites:
Florida by the beginning of February. So I've got to make a
Bill Stites:
few calls please. I got to start rearranging some things, because
Bill Stites:
I'm going to be driving the boys south, and need to make sure
Bill Stites:
things are going well. But it's ever evolving. Getting that
Bill Stites:
first one out the door,
Christina Lewellen:
it's exciting. I'll tell you. Over
Christina Lewellen:
the winter break, we moved my daughter from one apartment to
Christina Lewellen:
another in the same complex. It was a different building, so
Christina Lewellen:
essentially we had to put everything in a truck and drive
Christina Lewellen:
it around the block. And there were reasons for all of that,
Christina Lewellen:
but we got her moved to a new apartment within the same
Christina Lewellen:
complex, and as we were driving home, my husband and I said, Is
Christina Lewellen:
this the era that we're in where we're just like the movers, and
Christina Lewellen:
really it's like a little bit of karma, right? Because I probably
Christina Lewellen:
have made my parents move me about a billion times throughout
Christina Lewellen:
my life, and so now I'm in this era where all I do is pick up my
Christina Lewellen:
children's stuff and either move it in and out of a dorm room,
Christina Lewellen:
now in and out of apartments and now in and out of big girl
Christina Lewellen:
apartments, like it's just,
Bill Stites:
I can remember that era. What from my junior year of
Bill Stites:
college until I think I was three or four years out of
Bill Stites:
school? I moved every year for six years.
Christina Lewellen:
It's that era. Yep. 100% my daughter, who
Christina Lewellen:
goes to j mu, has been in the same apartment for two years,
Christina Lewellen:
but she has to move out of it in the summer. Yeah, even though
Christina Lewellen:
it's not like a dorm, like she has to move out of the apartment
Christina Lewellen:
and then go straight back to the same exact apartment. It's just
Christina Lewellen:
crazy pants. All I do is move children. Yeah, 100% Thank
Christina Lewellen:
goodness for those big storage bags. They used to call them the
Christina Lewellen:
IKEA bags. Right now they're everywhere on Amazon, and
Christina Lewellen:
they're these huge plastic bags. Oh, yep, those things are a gift
Christina Lewellen:
that just keeps on giving.
Bill Stites:
We have the IKEA branded versions of those.
Bill Stites:
That's how Sean went from room to room within the same
Bill Stites:
fraternity house for three years. It's just throw it all in
Bill Stites:
the IKEA bags, load it up in their basement, and then bring
Bill Stites:
it all back up once he moves back in. So know it well,
Christina Lewellen:
you know, as we wrap up this little
Christina Lewellen:
conversation about children moving, I got to give one big
Christina Lewellen:
shout out to I have a friend that I've known for probably 15
Christina Lewellen:
plus years. We used to work together, and she, at one point,
Christina Lewellen:
left her apartment in Northern Virginia to move home to care
Christina Lewellen:
for her parent, who was getting older, so she moved back,
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basically to her childhood area and to her childhood home, and
Christina Lewellen:
so she had a whole apartment full of stuff she did not need,
Christina Lewellen:
but she knew I had four girls in high school, and this woman,
Christina Lewellen:
bless her heart, put all of her apartment stuff in a storage
Christina Lewellen:
unit, and my children shop out of the storage unit. Every time
Christina Lewellen:
they have a new apartment set up, they're like, does Sarah
Christina Lewellen:
have any stands? Does she have any lamps? And Sarah's like,
Christina Lewellen:
Yep, go ahead. It was literally one of the kindest things anyone
Christina Lewellen:
has ever done for my girls is basically put all her apartment
Christina Lewellen:
in a storage unit, and then the girls just kind of pick at it
Christina Lewellen:
every time they need something for a new apartment. It's
Christina Lewellen:
amazing.
Bill Stites:
It's better than having to order it up on Amazon
Bill Stites:
and hope it gets to them when they need it.
Christina Lewellen:
Well. Best wishes to Sean as he continues
Christina Lewellen:
to now move even faster, and best wishes to you, dad and also
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mom with this transition. Hope it goes really well. Yeah, I
Christina Lewellen:
appreciate it. So today we are pivoting now to our guest. I'm
Christina Lewellen:
super excited about this one, Bill a good friend of Atlas,
Christina Lewellen:
someone who has been as I think of my early days coming into the
Christina Lewellen:
Atlas community. Ethan Delevan is like a bright bundle of
Christina Lewellen:
sunshine from day one, always a smile, always willing to help.
Christina Lewellen:
And so I am thrilled to welcome Ethan to our podcast. Ethan,
Christina Lewellen:
hello. Hello and welcome to talk and tech with ATLIS. So glad to
Christina Lewellen:
have you here.
Ethan Delavan:
Hello, Hello, thanks for having me on it's
Ethan Delavan:
pleasure. So Ethan,
Christina Lewellen:
you are the director of it at the Northwest
Christina Lewellen:
school, and you've generally been a Pacific Northwest person
Christina Lewellen:
at least as long as I've known you. And I'm not sure if that is
Christina Lewellen:
a full journey placement in this country, but we're about to find
Christina Lewellen:
out. I would love to learn a little bit about your journey.
Christina Lewellen:
Have you always been out in the Seattle area, or is that a
Christina Lewellen:
relocation thing for you?
Ethan Delavan:
Well, that's complicated. I was born in
Ethan Delavan:
Seattle. Actually, the last school I worked at was down the
Ethan Delavan:
hill from the house I was born to. Oh, but my family moved away
Ethan Delavan:
when I was little, so I don't have many memories of Seattle,
Ethan Delavan:
and then I came back to the Evergreen State College for
Ethan Delavan:
undergrad, went to Boston, so round about your neck of the
Ethan Delavan:
woods, Bill realized I just not an East Coast kid, and moved
Ethan Delavan:
back to the Pacific Northwest, and have not looked back so here
Ethan Delavan:
permanently since 1995
Christina Lewellen:
the East Coast, West Coast thing is a
Christina Lewellen:
thing, Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah. Sometimes you meet people from
Christina Lewellen:
who are not from the States, and they're like, oh, America is
Christina Lewellen:
weird. Like, you guys are very diverse. I grew up on the East
Christina Lewellen:
Coast, and I married a West Coast guy, and so every time I
Christina Lewellen:
would go back to see his parents when they were still alive,
Christina Lewellen:
like, even the ocean being on the left when you were heading
Christina Lewellen:
north, right, you know, was super weird to me. I'm like, Are
Christina Lewellen:
We Going south right now? I think you're one or the other.
Christina Lewellen:
So I appreciate that you came out here. My husband also went
Christina Lewellen:
to Boston, being a West Coast guy, and he was not having it.
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, it's a really different culture. I
Ethan Delavan:
mean, I loved Boston, I loved being there, I loved everything
Ethan Delavan:
I learned. Love the city, but it was just sort of long term, not
Bill Stites:
where I live. There's definitely a pace
Bill Stites:
difference. There's a pace
Ethan Delavan:
difference, there's a basic sort of
Ethan Delavan:
appearance difference, and there's, like, some background
Ethan Delavan:
assumptions that are really different. And I just the trees
Ethan Delavan:
out here. I just got back. We were in the mountains for three
Ethan Delavan:
days, which is, you know, an hour away. Stunningly beautiful
Ethan Delavan:
mountains, incredibly tall trees, just amazing, amazing
Ethan Delavan:
outdoor activities that I couldn't stay away from.
Christina Lewellen:
Well, I'm definitely a fan of Seattle.
Christina Lewellen:
We've talked about that for sure, and I like the baseball
Christina Lewellen:
stadium. Bill loves the baseball stadium out there, even though
Christina Lewellen:
you're with East Coasters today, we are big fans of the Seattle
Christina Lewellen:
area. Tell me a little bit about how you got into independent
Christina Lewellen:
schools. Everyone has kind of an interesting path and lands in
Christina Lewellen:
indie schools. So how did you find yourself in this space?
Ethan Delavan:
You know, I was in undergrad for computer
Ethan Delavan:
science, essentially psychology and computer science, then did
Ethan Delavan:
this very interesting left turn into theater, and just blossomed
Ethan Delavan:
tremendously in theater. So stuck with that. That's what I'm
Ethan Delavan:
to grad school for in Boston, is theater education, which is sort
Ethan Delavan:
of how I got into education and then got an internship at the
Ethan Delavan:
Seattle Children's Theater. There are a few big, well known
Ethan Delavan:
children's theaters in the country, and Seattle is one of
Ethan Delavan:
them. So I got an internship here at Seattle Children's
Ethan Delavan:
Theater. Knew I love the West Coast, moved back and because I
Ethan Delavan:
didn't have a teaching certification, the theater
Ethan Delavan:
teaching jobs through the children's theater and
Ethan Delavan:
independent schools were the ones that were open to me. So I
Ethan Delavan:
started a residency at a little Elementary School here in
Ethan Delavan:
Seattle, many, many years ago, fell in love with the job, ended
Ethan Delavan:
up liking teaching more that I liked Theater, which was a huge
Ethan Delavan:
surprise to me. And then there were these Macintosh computers
Ethan Delavan:
off to the side, and they could do video. And I was like, You're
Ethan Delavan:
kidding? Me, a computer that does video and just got more and
Ethan Delavan:
more involved, ended up teaching acting for the camera, ended up
Ethan Delavan:
teaching filmmaking, ended up teaching web design to post the
Ethan Delavan:
films. Ended up teaching special effects, and it just snowballed
Ethan Delavan:
from there. I'm sort of in that era where the school said, Okay,
Ethan Delavan:
you're the techiest person around. Get over here, show us
Ethan Delavan:
how all this works, fix it and make everything okay. So that
Ethan Delavan:
was how I fell into that role. They said, just please stop
Ethan Delavan:
teaching theater and teach tech. So I did, and then they said,
Ethan Delavan:
Okay, stop teaching tech and teach all the teachers how to
Ethan Delavan:
teach tech. That's how I ended up doing what I'm doing, and
Ethan Delavan:
it's been an incredible evolution.
Christina Lewellen:
That's really cool. So do you still get
Christina Lewellen:
a chance to spend some time in theater in some capacity?
Christina Lewellen:
Because I feel like once a theater person, always a theater
Christina Lewellen:
person?
Ethan Delavan:
Oh, yes, you are not wrong about that. My kid got
Ethan Delavan:
in a theater. Was actually in a program for technical theater
Ethan Delavan:
right now, and so I got a chance to design sets for a couple of
Ethan Delavan:
musicals at their high school a few years ago. And that was an
Ethan Delavan:
incredible amount of work for no money and so much fun
Christina Lewellen:
you are currently at the Northwest
Christina Lewellen:
school. Tell us a little bit about that school. Who goes
Christina Lewellen:
there and why?
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, we are a middle school, Upper School, so
Ethan Delavan:
six through 12, we have about 360 students, and we also have a
Ethan Delavan:
boarding program, which is really amazing. So that's my
Ethan Delavan:
first time I've been at a school with a boarding program that's.
Ethan Delavan:
Wonderful. So a lot of diversity, very artsy School,
Ethan Delavan:
which is wonderful, and a very humanities oriented school. I'm
Ethan Delavan:
new there, so as of September, so I think it's the Northwest
Ethan Delavan:
School for the Humanities, Arts and environmental
Ethan Delavan:
sustainability. So a lot of environmental studies at the
Ethan Delavan:
school, a lot of amazing art teachers, and there are a lot of
Ethan Delavan:
distribution requirements just in the arts. So approaching
Ethan Delavan:
technology through the arts is a big deal there. But it's an
Ethan Delavan:
amazing school, really dynamic group of kids.
Bill Stites:
Given your background, is that what drew
Bill Stites:
you to that school or what brought you there?
Ethan Delavan:
I think so the two things that brought me there
Ethan Delavan:
were, first of all, they had technology education in their
Ethan Delavan:
strategic plan. And during the interview process, I asked them
Ethan Delavan:
about that part of the strategic plan and and I said, Well, what
Ethan Delavan:
have you done on this? And they said, we could use your help.
Ethan Delavan:
That was thing one. I was hooked. And then they said,
Ethan Delavan:
Well, we have this new program called Academic pathways that
Ethan Delavan:
were spinning up, and they described it, and I said, Well,
Ethan Delavan:
that's like majors, but for high school kids. And they said,
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, these pathways, most of them are interdisciplinary. So
Ethan Delavan:
for the pathway, you have a little foundation you have to
Ethan Delavan:
take, and then you take some scholarly connections, and then
Ethan Delavan:
some explorations around that particular pathway. So things
Ethan Delavan:
like environmental sustainability is one of the
Ethan Delavan:
pathways, and a student doesn't have to choose a pathway, but
Ethan Delavan:
might choose their way into environmental sustainability. Or
Ethan Delavan:
excellence in the visual arts is the second one. Or social
Ethan Delavan:
justice is a third one, the one that got me hooked technology
Ethan Delavan:
and society when they said that, I was like, I'm in. I want to be
Ethan Delavan:
a part of that development. That's cool. Oh, it's amazing.
Ethan Delavan:
So we have our ed tech manager is also doing the coordination
Ethan Delavan:
for the development of the Pathways Program. She is off the
Ethan Delavan:
charts amazing, and has just done a great job with Ed Tech
Ethan Delavan:
and also developing the pathways. So it's a really
Ethan Delavan:
unique program, and it was really interesting to be in the
Ethan Delavan:
room to talk about this particular technology and
Ethan Delavan:
society pathway and be the tech person saying, don't forget the
Ethan Delavan:
and society part. It's the and society part that makes this the
Ethan Delavan:
right thing for our school, because it connects technology
Ethan Delavan:
and culture, and it brings in things like human centered
Ethan Delavan:
design. It brings in things like user experience design. And so
Ethan Delavan:
it gives the school a way to pull in technology education at
Ethan Delavan:
a school that is not known for that. It gives the school a way
Ethan Delavan:
to pull it in, in a way that's mission appropriate in a way
Ethan Delavan:
that's aligned with culture and in a way that a lot of faculty
Ethan Delavan:
are really excited about that pathway, not just the Tech
Ethan Delavan:
faculty.
Christina Lewellen:
That's interesting. So let's park there
Christina Lewellen:
for just a second. This pathway, this major, if you will, for
Christina Lewellen:
high school students, has given the school an opportunity to
Christina Lewellen:
kind of open the door to more technology than has been its
Christina Lewellen:
tradition in the past. It's kind of like a great way to have the
Christina Lewellen:
school evolve down a technological path that maybe
Christina Lewellen:
they weren't as comfortable with, familiar with et cetera.
Christina Lewellen:
Is that accurate? Do you think?
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, absolutely. I think so. How are we going to
Ethan Delavan:
pull technology into curriculum and program in a way that honors
Ethan Delavan:
environmental sustainability, that honors the humanities, that
Ethan Delavan:
honors how much arts education we do. And so finding a way to
Ethan Delavan:
not just go into STEM, one of the things I talked about early
Ethan Delavan:
on in developing this with the school, is STEM is a framing for
Ethan Delavan:
how you might approach technology education. It's not a
Ethan Delavan:
framing that we need to adopt. It's not a thing we need to say.
Ethan Delavan:
It's not a thing we necessarily need to get better at. But we do
Ethan Delavan:
need to think about what is the environment, the workplace
Ethan Delavan:
environment, the cultural environment that we're sending
Ethan Delavan:
young people into, it's highly technologized. So what do we owe
Ethan Delavan:
them? You know, as a school for the Humanities, for the arts,
Ethan Delavan:
for the environment, who are attracting those kinds of young
Ethan Delavan:
people who really care about those issues, what do we owe
Ethan Delavan:
them about the technologist environment they're going to be
Ethan Delavan:
going into? And the answer to that is we need to help them
Ethan Delavan:
understand how technology impacts culture.
Bill Stites:
This sounds absolutely incredible. I mean,
Bill Stites:
it sounds like a really interesting way to tackle and to
Bill Stites:
be completely frank, one I haven't heard of really done in
Bill Stites:
this way before. So it sounds like a great place to go. And I
Bill Stites:
can see why it would draw you there, in terms of what you do
Bill Stites:
there? You mentioned your ed tech team. What does the
Bill Stites:
department look like? What does your day to day look like? I
Bill Stites:
mean, one of the things Christina always wants to dig
Bill Stites:
into is what's in a title, what does it mean to be you there,
Bill Stites:
and what does it look like there with your support staff.
Ethan Delavan:
When I applied for the job, the job description
Ethan Delavan:
was, do you know TCP? IP, do you know servers? And I was like,
Ethan Delavan:
Well, yeah, but that's not really what gets me out of bed
Ethan Delavan:
in the morning. So in talking to the hiring team, I realized, oh,
Ethan Delavan:
there's a lot more to do here than just keep DNS running. I am
Ethan Delavan:
responsible for the network, backbone, the back end, all the
Ethan Delavan:
cloud services. At the same time, they hired a gentleman,
Ethan Delavan:
Omar Khan, who's amazing at having a great time working with
Ethan Delavan:
him, and he is the Assistant Director of IT for
Ethan Delavan:
infrastructure, so he does a lot of the back end stuff that's
Ethan Delavan:
really his passion. And we work together really well as a team.
Ethan Delavan:
We also have a computer technician and a database
Ethan Delavan:
coordinator, and that forms the core IT team. Then we have some
Ethan Delavan:
ed tech folks. Our ed tech manager was a long term sub.
Ethan Delavan:
She's done tremendous work. Our long term ed tech manager has
Ethan Delavan:
returned. She's an amazing computer science educator and a
Ethan Delavan:
really great thinker around how we might pull teachers into new
Ethan Delavan:
experiences and new ways of doing things, and then we have
Ethan Delavan:
one of our music teachers who also supports ed tech,
Ethan Delavan:
specifically in the media arts area, and I supervise a piece of
Ethan Delavan:
each of their jobs. And so that matrix reporting, where they
Ethan Delavan:
report to a division director for part of their job, and they
Ethan Delavan:
report to me for part of their job, it gets complex, and it
Ethan Delavan:
really requires me and the division directors to be on the
Ethan Delavan:
same page about what some of the organizational priorities are.
Ethan Delavan:
So that's a really big deal. That's important, that I work in
Ethan Delavan:
partnership with them and understand them as curricular
Ethan Delavan:
leaders. I've made a lot of efforts to make sure I
Ethan Delavan:
understand where they're coming from and what their goals are.
Ethan Delavan:
That's largely my team. This Head of School in Northwest I've
Ethan Delavan:
known him for a long time. We're friends. So when I was in the
Ethan Delavan:
interview process, I said, Well, you know how much I love
Ethan Delavan:
curriculum? You know how much I love organizational change and
Ethan Delavan:
organizational development? How is it I'm going to have an
Ethan Delavan:
impact here if my job description says director of it,
Ethan Delavan:
and he had a really good answer. He said, This is the kind of
Ethan Delavan:
school where you can have an impact in all different aspects
Ethan Delavan:
of the school if you show up in a way that's collaborative and
Ethan Delavan:
supportive. And I said
Christina Lewellen:
that I can do, yeah. So basically, the
Christina Lewellen:
title didn't really matter, right?
Ethan Delavan:
I mean, it is a school where collaboration is
Ethan Delavan:
absolutely key, and understanding colleagues and
Ethan Delavan:
where they're coming from, and being able to stay in discussion
Ethan Delavan:
in the long term matters.
Christina Lewellen:
It's so interesting because it sounds
Christina Lewellen:
like you guys are being super intentional in this moment that
Christina Lewellen:
we're in like, regardless of whether or not the school was
Christina Lewellen:
tech heavy to begin with, if that was one of its hallmarks,
Christina Lewellen:
it's moving that way, especially given that, like you said, we're
Christina Lewellen:
preparing kids to move out into a world that is very much shaped
Christina Lewellen:
by technology and AI and so it sounds like there's a lot of
Christina Lewellen:
intentionality around these discussions. So I'm curious if I
Christina Lewellen:
could just give you the mic for a second, tell us a little bit
Christina Lewellen:
about how you personally are sitting in this moment. I'd like
Christina Lewellen:
to know what you're thinking about it. You know, are you guys
Christina Lewellen:
focused primarily on AI? Are you taking a step back and saying,
Christina Lewellen:
Yeah, it's a lot more than just AI that we need to be thinking
Christina Lewellen:
and talking about. Where does your brain go in a lot of the
Christina Lewellen:
work that you've been doing in this new role,
Ethan Delavan:
I think AI was really the clarion call for
Ethan Delavan:
Northwest, in particular where they realized, Oh, we haven't
Ethan Delavan:
really been staying abreast of things as they change, and
Ethan Delavan:
Northwest did a pretty good job of addressing issues around AI
Ethan Delavan:
and appropriate uses of AI, and that's something that we're
Ethan Delavan:
still being really intentional about. We have a few different
Ethan Delavan:
committees addressing it right now, and some tremendous work
Ethan Delavan:
from our ed tech managers. But really what drew me to the
Ethan Delavan:
school was its readiness to address what I call relevance
Ethan Delavan:
creep, and we've all heard like mission creep, where the mission
Ethan Delavan:
of an organization, especially a nonprofit organization, can
Ethan Delavan:
creep away from its original stance because there's more
Ethan Delavan:
money just off in this direction, or that's the
Ethan Delavan:
preference of the individuals at that organization. And what I
Ethan Delavan:
realized after several different schools, I think I've been at
Ethan Delavan:
five different schools in the Seattle area since 1996 when I
Ethan Delavan:
started. And what I realized is that at each of the schools,
Ethan Delavan:
I've been helping them manage relevance creep, which is to say
Ethan Delavan:
that the school is a certain way. This is how we do it. This
Ethan Delavan:
is who we are. This is what we emphasize. This is our program.
Ethan Delavan:
But the world kind of creeps out from under them and makes a
Ethan Delavan:
change that's toward coding, or that's toward multimedia, or in
Ethan Delavan:
most recent case, that's toward AI. And then the school doesn't
Ethan Delavan:
have necessarily a really cogent way of staying abreast of those
Ethan Delavan:
changes, and they don't realize that. That the relevance of
Ethan Delavan:
their program is creeping away from where the world is going,
Ethan Delavan:
and so that it's been that difference that I've been
Ethan Delavan:
helping a lot of schools manage over the years, and that's the
Ethan Delavan:
mindset I came in to Northwest with, and it's something that I
Ethan Delavan:
think has resonated pretty well. I've talked to a lot of folks
Ethan Delavan:
there about relevance and how easily it can creep out from
Ethan Delavan:
under us. To your point about intentionality, we have several
Ethan Delavan:
different committees there that are addressing this. We're
Ethan Delavan:
building a student committee around AI use. We have a couple
Ethan Delavan:
of students, couple of juniors, that came to us with some real
Ethan Delavan:
concerns about how we've been addressing AI. And they a lot of
Ethan Delavan:
really good points to make. A lot of really good points about
Ethan Delavan:
student leadership as well. And so it's been really exciting to
Ethan Delavan:
be able to meet with them, bring them in, find out what their
Ethan Delavan:
thoughts are, find out how young people are thinking about AI and
Ethan Delavan:
thinking about technological change. That's been a really
Ethan Delavan:
exciting facet to the intentionality. The other piece
Ethan Delavan:
is that we have a parent tech advisory board, and in an
Ethan Delavan:
independent school, you've got to be a little careful about
Ethan Delavan:
that. That can easily get away from you. And this board predate
Ethan Delavan:
this advisory committee predates me at the school. What I made
Ethan Delavan:
clear to them at the beginning of this year is you don't write
Ethan Delavan:
curriculum. You don't tell us what to teach. You're bad at
Ethan Delavan:
that. We're good at it. What you do is you tell us what you see
Ethan Delavan:
from your vantage point. What is changing? What have you had to
Ethan Delavan:
learn in the past few years that you didn't learn in school? What
Ethan Delavan:
do you see coming down the pike? That is surprising, that is
Ethan Delavan:
concerning, that is exciting from where you are. So we have
Ethan Delavan:
folks from Microsoft, of course. We have folks from Amazon, of
Ethan Delavan:
course, and we have a really good mix of folks who have a
Ethan Delavan:
really different points of view about how urgent is this, which
Ethan Delavan:
direction should we go? How important will AI be? That's
Ethan Delavan:
been a really amazing perspective to have the student
Ethan Delavan:
perspective and the parent perspective at the same time.
Ethan Delavan:
Then we have several internal committees, with curricular
Ethan Delavan:
leadership, with Ed Tech leadership, and with a variety
Ethan Delavan:
of teachers who are willing to pilot new technologies. So yeah,
Ethan Delavan:
trying to bring real intentionality to let's not lose
Ethan Delavan:
our DNA. Let's be the school that we are, because we know
Ethan Delavan:
that we serve kids really well. But let's find out how we can be
Ethan Delavan:
relevant in a changing world, which is the core question that
Ethan Delavan:
I love answering with schools.
Bill Stites:
Ethan, I got to tell you, when you mentioned the
Bill Stites:
parent tech advisory board, I don't know whether I was going
Bill Stites:
to, like, gasp or like, drop my pen from notes that I was
Bill Stites:
taking. Yep, I was thinking about that. And, you know, it
Bill Stites:
was like, what would that look like here? And I'm like, Man, if
Bill Stites:
I brought this up now, I don't even know what direction it
Bill Stites:
would go in. I just want to dig in slightly on that. How many
Bill Stites:
people do you have on that? How frequently do you meet? Do those
Bill Stites:
parents become ambassadors for you to get out there? I mean, we
Bill Stites:
use students in that role early on, when we were launching our
Bill Stites:
one to one program, you know, to be like the myth busters and
Bill Stites:
really sell the message. What does that group look like in a
Bill Stites:
little bit more detail, if you don't
Christina Lewellen:
mind, yeah, I think we have to go into it,
Christina Lewellen:
because our listeners are all having a heart attack, like they
Christina Lewellen:
probably drove off the road Exactly. We're gonna have to
Christina Lewellen:
micromanage this a tiny bit. You're gonna have to have to
Christina Lewellen:
unpack it.
Ethan Delavan:
I'm there, and I was when I came to the school
Ethan Delavan:
and I heard they had such a board, I was like, Oh, that
Ethan Delavan:
could catch fire fast. Which is why I was really clear in our
Ethan Delavan:
first meeting that I need to hear about what you see. I don't
Ethan Delavan:
need to hear about what you think we should do. We're better
Ethan Delavan:
at that. And so bringing that clarity to the table allowed me
Ethan Delavan:
the space to just listen to what they were saying.
Christina Lewellen:
So it's really like a true Advisory
Christina Lewellen:
Committee, especially given where you are in the country,
Christina Lewellen:
like you're in a technological hotbed. And so it kind of makes
Christina Lewellen:
sense, oh yes, but do they stay in the lane of advising?
Ethan Delavan:
No, oh no. Did they cross the lane? You bet
Ethan Delavan:
they do. I mean, their parents at the school, they care about
Ethan Delavan:
what we teach. They have opinions about what the program
Ethan Delavan:
ought to look like. All parents at independent schools have
Ethan Delavan:
that, which is one of the things I love about independent
Ethan Delavan:
schools. So what I try to do is pre frame the discussion for
Ethan Delavan:
them. So for example, the last meeting was about the ISTE
Ethan Delavan:
standards, which is something that we're doing a fairly
Ethan Delavan:
intentional job of pulling in, along with global perspective
Ethan Delavan:
standards and social justice standards at the same time. So
Ethan Delavan:
we're weaving the ISTE standards into the DNA of the school. The
Ethan Delavan:
ISTE standards are really constructivist, pedagogically
Ethan Delavan:
speaking, and so they work well. And a lot of teachers are
Ethan Delavan:
saying, Wait, we already do this, but not necessarily with
Ethan Delavan:
computers. And so it's worked well. But what I wanted to hear
Ethan Delavan:
from the tech advisory board was, from where you are as
Ethan Delavan:
professional technologists, is this what you do? You are these
Ethan Delavan:
the cognitive habits you actually need to get your job
Ethan Delavan:
done. And so that frames the discussion around something that
Ethan Delavan:
isn't what the school teaches and allows them to stay in the
Ethan Delavan:
lane of I manage coders, or I have moved on to developing AI,
Ethan Delavan:
one of the folks on the panel is in higher education, and does
Ethan Delavan:
maker and Human Centered Design and Engineering at University of
Ethan Delavan:
Washington. So that's an amazing perspective to have as well. And
Ethan Delavan:
I tend to ignore the well, you should have more this, and you
Ethan Delavan:
should do that instead, and really listen for what is it
Ethan Delavan:
you're seeing that's surprising you, because those are the
Ethan Delavan:
signals that I'm after.
Christina Lewellen:
Yeah, that's really interesting. So it sounds
Christina Lewellen:
like you do a pretty good job of keeping the cats corralled, if
Christina Lewellen:
not herded, I guess. Oh yeah. So it leads me to the question,
Christina Lewellen:
then, what do you think? Or what are you hearing about? Critical
Christina Lewellen:
thinking? Because I think so often the media headlines are
Christina Lewellen:
capturing everyone's attention, which is, AI equals we're not
Christina Lewellen:
going to think anymore, which, by the way, is exactly the same
Christina Lewellen:
set of headlines we had when the internet came on the scene. And
Christina Lewellen:
so I'm curious what you're thinking or what you're hearing
Christina Lewellen:
around what critical thinking looks like in this current era
Christina Lewellen:
that we sit in.
Ethan Delavan:
I'm really glad you asked that, because that
Ethan Delavan:
came up in one of the early meetings we had with the tech
Ethan Delavan:
advisory board this year. Let me back up a little bit. The
Ethan Delavan:
question I asked is, What are some of the key skills you use
Ethan Delavan:
in your job, or that you ask your direct reports to use in
Ethan Delavan:
their job? What are some of the key cognitive skills? Well, they
Ethan Delavan:
said critical thinking, of course, and our ed tech manager
Ethan Delavan:
had the presence of mind to say, Hang on, when you say critical
Ethan Delavan:
thinking, What do you mean? And we had a discussion around what
Ethan Delavan:
is their definition of critical thinking, and so we could
Ethan Delavan:
contrast it to our definition as educators of critical thinking,
Ethan Delavan:
the piece that jumped out to me as a key difference and kind of
Ethan Delavan:
a bell weather of the time that we're living in, is they said,
Ethan Delavan:
Can you choose the right tool to get done what you need to get
Ethan Delavan:
done, which is not an aspect of critical thinking that I would
Ethan Delavan:
have surfaced as an educator or that I was told as a student,
Ethan Delavan:
right? I was told, here's your pencil, here's your piece of
Ethan Delavan:
paper. Now think critically, and then we're going to talk about
Ethan Delavan:
your writing, and whether it shows that you've thought
Ethan Delavan:
through the issue or the symbolism or the reasoning, this
Ethan Delavan:
whole new facet of can you choose the right tool to achieve
Ethan Delavan:
your goal? Is a major facet of critical thought that wasn't
Ethan Delavan:
really as important before, but is critical at this juncture.
Christina Lewellen:
That's super interesting, and that also makes
Christina Lewellen:
a lot of sense sitting where I'm sitting, when I speak to
Christina Lewellen:
schools, a lot of times I represent what a CEO or a
Christina Lewellen:
business would want to hire from their student population, like,
Christina Lewellen:
what is it that we're looking for? So it's kind of cool that
Christina Lewellen:
you actually have a formal advisory committee that's
Christina Lewellen:
helping you sift through some of these things. Do you think that
Christina Lewellen:
that feedback is making it into this other thing we talked about
Christina Lewellen:
earlier, which is that you're trying to walk this path of
Christina Lewellen:
being a more technologically driven, responsive adapt school.
Christina Lewellen:
Is it helping kind of answer that question around what
Christina Lewellen:
schools need to be adaptable in this moment? Does that kind of
Christina Lewellen:
inform that? Or are those two relevant and adjacent
Christina Lewellen:
conversations, but they're, you know, at least informing the
Christina Lewellen:
work you're doing. Yeah, I
Ethan Delavan:
wouldn't be continuing with the tech
Ethan Delavan:
advisory board if it weren't helping us be intentional. I
Ethan Delavan:
mean, the three major pieces that have come out for me are
Ethan Delavan:
the critical thinking piece and the sort of, can you choose the
Ethan Delavan:
right tool the speed at which project management has
Ethan Delavan:
increased. One of the questions we asked them, I think it was
Ethan Delavan:
the second meeting, is what will be obsolete in five years? And
Ethan Delavan:
they said, five years, try six months. And we were like, oh,
Ethan Delavan:
okay, that changes the discussion. And then finally,
Ethan Delavan:
the sense of urgency that some of them, not all of them, but
Ethan Delavan:
some of them, feel about how quickly things change in the
Ethan Delavan:
world, especially in the workplace, how quickly they're
Ethan Delavan:
going to keep changing, and how adaptable young people need to
Ethan Delavan:
be. And then some of them have opinions about, well, we should
Ethan Delavan:
be teaching this instead of that, which we take with a grain
Ethan Delavan:
of salt. We know that we teach critical thought really, really
Ethan Delavan:
well. We've had colleges tell us that about our students after
Ethan Delavan:
they've been in college for a bit. So we know that we do that
Ethan Delavan:
well. We know that there aren't major underlying changes. Need
Ethan Delavan:
to make as a school, but that parent perspective about
Ethan Delavan:
workplaces, especially technically driven workplaces,
Ethan Delavan:
is really valuable to us in terms of how we can be
Ethan Delavan:
intentional about addressing technology curriculum early on,
Ethan Delavan:
when I started the school and started talking to the
Ethan Delavan:
curricular leaders, I said not every school has to be the tech
Ethan Delavan:
school. We can be the kind of school we want to be and still
Ethan Delavan:
prepare our students for a highly technical future, or a
Ethan Delavan:
future that's built on a lot of technology, and we can choose to
Ethan Delavan:
do that in a way that we think is collaborative, humane,
Ethan Delavan:
supportive, and honors the whole child, and not just their
Ethan Delavan:
ability to earn money or get a job or be an effective worker.
Bill Stites:
So Ethan, one of the questions that I have is
Bill Stites:
about the makeup of that advisory board, and I just want
Bill Stites:
to dig in just a little bit more on that membership, because I'm
Bill Stites:
wondering whether all of those people are in the field of
Bill Stites:
technology, or do you have people that are, you know,
Bill Stites:
parents, that are in other areas of work, that are really just
Bill Stites:
concerned about things and may not necessarily have the level
Bill Stites:
of expertise that others on The board, again, particularly given
Bill Stites:
the area in which you exist, that are contributing to those
Bill Stites:
conversations, either in a positive sense, or because
Bill Stites:
they're like, No, I heard this or saw this on the internet, and
Bill Stites:
I think we should be stopping that, like, what's the makeup of
Bill Stites:
that look like? I think it's a
Ethan Delavan:
great question, and that's something that I gave
Ethan Delavan:
some thought to early on and made sure that we had as many
Ethan Delavan:
voices in the room as possible. I mean, not a lot of parents can
Ethan Delavan:
commit to a monthly meeting. And we do it hybrid. So we do it
Ethan Delavan:
part online. You can zoom in, or you can attend at the school a
Ethan Delavan:
lot of and we hold it at a time 330 when the parents, a lot of
Ethan Delavan:
parents are there picking up their students anyway. So it
Ethan Delavan:
just makes sense. So we tried to make the logistics as easy as
Ethan Delavan:
possible, to get as much diversity as possible, and made
Ethan Delavan:
it hybrid, to get as much actual attendance as possible. And
Ethan Delavan:
definitely at the meetings where there are more of the parents
Ethan Delavan:
there, the discussion is a lot more nuanced, and they can
Ethan Delavan:
really push and pull each other, and I don't have to do quite as
Ethan Delavan:
much redirection. So that's really nice. And I think you
Ethan Delavan:
make a good point about thinking intentionally about, do we just
Ethan Delavan:
want the techie parents here? I'd mentioned that we do have
Ethan Delavan:
someone from higher education on the board, and then most of the
Ethan Delavan:
rest of the parents are in technology. They're at Microsoft
Ethan Delavan:
or Amazon or companies like that, even though they may not
Ethan Delavan:
be in coding. So business development is one of the
Ethan Delavan:
things, one of the areas that has come up for us recently
Ethan Delavan:
where it may make sense to have someone on that advisory board.
Ethan Delavan:
I'm always to your point, Bill thinking about the development
Ethan Delavan:
of that board. Do I have diversity? When I started at the
Ethan Delavan:
school, I think there was one woman on the board who came
Ethan Delavan:
every so often, so I made an intentional effort to reach out
Ethan Delavan:
to a lot of our female parents, to round out the perspective a
Ethan Delavan:
little bit, and also working on, you know, we don't have enough
Ethan Delavan:
people of color on that board, and that's another facet of
Ethan Delavan:
diversity that's really important to us at Northwest so
Ethan Delavan:
I think that the More you can have diversity on that advisory
Ethan Delavan:
board, the less redirecting them back to don't tell us how to
Ethan Delavan:
design curriculum I would need to do right because then they're
Ethan Delavan:
playing off of each other, and they are offering each other a
Ethan Delavan:
bit of perspective that mitigates a little bit of the
Ethan Delavan:
you ought to do it my way, feel in the room and really helps
Ethan Delavan:
them understand. Just because we do it that way at Amazon doesn't
Ethan Delavan:
mean it's right. Doesn't mean that's what we should teach
Ethan Delavan:
everybody.
Christina Lewellen:
I'm not sure that you realized when you
Christina Lewellen:
hopped on this podcast today, Ethan, that there was a hornet's
Christina Lewellen:
nest you were about to step into, yeah, with this parent
Christina Lewellen:
advisory idea, but I will do a call to arms for our listeners.
Christina Lewellen:
Y'all, if you guys have this type of group that a parent
Christina Lewellen:
advisory, especially in the realm of technology, you must
Christina Lewellen:
reach out to us. Please, please, please, when you get to a safe
Christina Lewellen:
spot and you can pull your car over, shoot us an email at
Christina Lewellen:
ATLIS, because I really want to know about this. I'm wondering
Christina Lewellen:
if maybe we should have a separate, like panel
Christina Lewellen:
conversation about this. Because at first it gave me a heart
Christina Lewellen:
attack, and I'm not even a tech director, certainly gave Bill
Christina Lewellen:
one. But then, the more that you talk about it, the more it makes
Christina Lewellen:
a lot of sense. You know, everybody wants to be consulted
Christina Lewellen:
and have buy in, and if you give them the framework in which they
Christina Lewellen:
can operate, which is, ie, you don't get to do curriculum, you
Christina Lewellen:
might end up with some really great feedback. And sometimes I
Christina Lewellen:
do think that we lose sight of the fact that we work at
Christina Lewellen:
schools, but we are educating our little humans to go out into
Christina Lewellen:
the world. And schools are a weird environment. Sometimes it
Christina Lewellen:
doesn't always mirror what's happening in corporate. It in
Christina Lewellen:
the working world. So I love all of this. We will pivot away from
Christina Lewellen:
the parent advisory so that everyone's blood pressure can
Christina Lewellen:
just go back down. But I do love the idea of talking to more
Christina Lewellen:
people who do it. What I'd like to ask about Ethan, if I can
Christina Lewellen:
pivot us away, is that you obviously were already here in
Christina Lewellen:
the ATLIS community when I showed up seven years ago, and
Christina Lewellen:
you obviously are part of what I lovingly call the first gen,
Christina Lewellen:
which is that you're a tech director who taught himself how
Christina Lewellen:
to be a tech director, because that's not what was in your
Christina Lewellen:
world, right? So I'm curious about your early days, your
Christina Lewellen:
involvement with finding the community. So I know that there
Christina Lewellen:
were these ad hoc gatherings in different places of finding
Christina Lewellen:
other tech directors, until Atlas really put a stake in the
Christina Lewellen:
ground on that front. But you've been around since early days of
Christina Lewellen:
Atlas, and I'm sure even before that, with other ad hoc groups.
Christina Lewellen:
So tell us about how you became involved in this broader tech
Christina Lewellen:
director community.
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, as you were talking, I was thinking back,
Ethan Delavan:
like, who was I involved with, and this was at a time where a
Ethan Delavan:
lot of schools had a contracted it person, so they had some
Ethan Delavan:
managed service provider who came in and made sure the
Ethan Delavan:
network was running, but didn't really offer a lot of guidance
Ethan Delavan:
around how to design curriculum, around technology, or how
Ethan Delavan:
technology impacts classroom management, and a lot of those
Ethan Delavan:
really educational issues that come up when technology comes
Ethan Delavan:
into the picture. So I really got into technology through the
Ethan Delavan:
media arts. And the first technology curriculum I had the
Ethan Delavan:
chance to kind of single handedly design was a media
Ethan Delavan:
production a media literacy, media production curriculum. And
Ethan Delavan:
it was at this I don't know if you all remember cable access.
Ethan Delavan:
Did you all have that? Like Open Access cable? Like cable TV
Ethan Delavan:
companies had to have one channel that was open to the
Ethan Delavan:
community, right? Like that went the way of the dodo, as far as I
Ethan Delavan:
know. But it was
Christina Lewellen:
epic in its time. Yes, just for you young
Christina Lewellen:
listeners, it was iconically terrible.
Ethan Delavan:
Yes, it was iconically terrible, but it was
Ethan Delavan:
there. It created access, right? And it created the possibility
Ethan Delavan:
that anybody could pick up a camera and tell their own story.
Ethan Delavan:
And so I got involved with what was called youth media at the
Ethan Delavan:
time. And there was a group in Seattle called 911, Media Art
Ethan Delavan:
Center that had been around for a long time. Got involved with
Ethan Delavan:
the board, got involved with developing some of their
Ethan Delavan:
education programs. And that's kind of how I cut my teeth as a
Ethan Delavan:
program designer, a curriculum designer, and then ended up
Ethan Delavan:
building that for a couple different schools, where they
Ethan Delavan:
could create multimedia literacies with Video Editing,
Ethan Delavan:
Sound Editing, electronic music, that I actually did some media
Ethan Delavan:
production myself. I had a documentary that was on our
Ethan Delavan:
local PBS station, as well as a few other markets around the
Ethan Delavan:
country, and that was my foot in the door. I got involved with
Ethan Delavan:
the National Association for media literacy, education. I was
Ethan Delavan:
coming at it from the production side, where I was like, Hey,
Ethan Delavan:
let's go make a movie, and they were coming at it from the
Ethan Delavan:
critical media literacy side, hey, let's understand the
Ethan Delavan:
messages that we're seeing on television, because they got it
Ethan Delavan:
started the television era where the messages were coming at you
Ethan Delavan:
and you couldn't pause and you Couldn't search you had
Ethan Delavan:
essentially three choices in the television pick one, and it's
Ethan Delavan:
just this stream of information that you need to critique as
Ethan Delavan:
it's happening. And so those critical media literacies ended
Ethan Delavan:
up informing how I taught media production. So I taught a lot of
Ethan Delavan:
how do you craft a world? How do you create images that are
Ethan Delavan:
persuasive. How do you know that it's persuasive? How do you
Ethan Delavan:
deconstruct an image and how it persuades you into thinking a
Ethan Delavan:
particular reality about the world? What are media as
Ethan Delavan:
constructed world views got into a lot of that stuff and then
Ethan Delavan:
broadened out into coding, game design, web design, and that
Ethan Delavan:
national media literacy Association and the 911 Media
Ethan Delavan:
Arts Center and cable access were some of those early
Ethan Delavan:
incubators for my thinking and my community. And then I went to
Ethan Delavan:
ISTE. I can't remember exactly what year it was. I think it was
Ethan Delavan:
the year before ATLIS formed, and it was this, like temporary
Ethan Delavan:
city in the middle of Chicago. It was so overwhelming, I had a
Ethan Delavan:
hard time finding my people there. But once ATLIS formed in
Ethan Delavan:
2014 in the Bay Area, I was one of two Seattle people there. The
Ethan Delavan:
other Seattle person was from the northwest Association of
Ethan Delavan:
Independent Schools. He was their Tech coordinator at the
Ethan Delavan:
time. He sent an email out to the listserv, and I was like,
Ethan Delavan:
oh, I need to be there. And got a ticket, got a hotel room, and
Ethan Delavan:
have not looked back since it is the go to organization for
Ethan Delavan:
people in my position. And it has just been incredibly
Ethan Delavan:
supportive. And I thank my lucky stars for ATLIS every
Bill Stites:
day, when you talk about community, and
Bill Stites:
particularly the ISTE conference, I mean, I've gone to
Bill Stites:
a number of those conferences. I think we may have been at the
Bill Stites:
same Chicago one, because I took a whole crew of people to that
Bill Stites:
one when we went, and it was very informative. You can learn
Bill Stites:
a lot. You know, it sounds like with what you're doing with the
Bill Stites:
ISTE standards and trying to adopt those in it's definitely a
Bill Stites:
good connecting place. But you know, it was the idea of finding
Bill Stites:
your people and finding those that are really supporting the
Bill Stites:
work that we're doing in independent schools, focusing in
Bill Stites:
on that, which is where ATLIS really shines. And what I'll say
Bill Stites:
Ethan is, I think our community, you and I, when you jumped on a
Bill Stites:
plane and came out to the East Coast, and we hunkered down here
Bill Stites:
at MKA, and we started working on the T list program, and
Bill Stites:
that's where, again, you talk about supporting the community
Bill Stites:
and the work that we do. I think the T list is an excellent
Bill Stites:
example of that, and I just like to get what you think about the
Bill Stites:
participation in that process, and really what that brings to
Bill Stites:
independent school. It directors technologists, ed tech people,
Bill Stites:
and helps us to achieve in developing our relevance in
Bill Stites:
schools. Absolutely.
Ethan Delavan:
And I remember that first meeting around
Ethan Delavan:
developing the T list exam very fondly when I thought about
Ethan Delavan:
going out there and doing this, I was like, Wait, we're gonna
Ethan Delavan:
sit in a room. Oh my gosh. So there it is.
Christina Lewellen:
Phil is showing us his little fidget
Christina Lewellen:
toys from that meeting. I still have some on my desk too. Yeah,
Christina Lewellen:
I
Bill Stites:
remember the little unicorns. The unicorn was the
Bill Stites:
question that was composed where the answers were all like,
Bill Stites:
nothing needed to get changed. Like we all wrote the question.
Bill Stites:
We heard the question. We were like, we don't need to do
Bill Stites:
anything with this one, because that was always our writing
Bill Stites:
process. Was trying to figure out what are the distractors,
Bill Stites:
and what was going to be the main answer and what we needed
Bill Stites:
to do there. And it was the unicorn.
Christina Lewellen:
We got a unicorn. Yeah. So basically,
Christina Lewellen:
when you nailed it, that was a unicorn, Yes, yep. When we
Ethan Delavan:
started that process, I was like, Okay, we
Ethan Delavan:
sit around in a room and we talk about questions, okay, I'll do
Ethan Delavan:
it, but this isn't going to be very much fun. And then I got
Ethan Delavan:
there and I was like, This is awesome. Just digging into what
Ethan Delavan:
is my process and really thinking through, what are my
Ethan Delavan:
steps when someone comes to me with this kind of question, or
Ethan Delavan:
when this sort of line gets breached, or when one of the
Ethan Delavan:
curricular leaders or the head of school says we have to go
Ethan Delavan:
this direction, what's my process? What do I have to do to
Ethan Delavan:
maintain student privacy and cyber security. What do I have
Ethan Delavan:
to do to maintain the integrity of the department? What do I
Ethan Delavan:
have to do to be true to the mission of the school? And so
Ethan Delavan:
thinking through all of those things really brought home that
Ethan Delavan:
being a technology leader in schools is different than just
Ethan Delavan:
being an IT director, and that being a technology leader in
Ethan Delavan:
independent schools is different still, and just going through
Ethan Delavan:
that process of designing the assessment for the T list really
Ethan Delavan:
brought home and helped structure my thinking around how
Ethan Delavan:
am I going to approach this and Help Me form committees like we
Ethan Delavan:
have a data flow committee at Northwest, which is composed of
Ethan Delavan:
several different departments, because one, the IT department
Ethan Delavan:
can't do it alone. And I would not have thought of convening a
Ethan Delavan:
data flow committee before I went through the exercise around
Ethan Delavan:
the T list, because it gave me the sense of, oh, I'm
Ethan Delavan:
structuring process around effective technology
Ethan Delavan:
implementation, and who do I need to bring in? What do I need
Ethan Delavan:
to explain? What do I need to listen for? What do I need to
Ethan Delavan:
identify that I don't know, and how I'm going to find it out so
Ethan Delavan:
that I can come to a decision and an implementation plan
Ethan Delavan:
that's right for this particular school at this particular time.
Christina Lewellen:
I loved that with the T list. I was there too
Christina Lewellen:
that weekend for a bit, and I believe I had to jet off to
Christina Lewellen:
something else when I left you guys to do some item writing.
Christina Lewellen:
But what was really cool about it, and it was very disciplined,
Christina Lewellen:
obviously, we had a psychometrician firm on board,
Christina Lewellen:
and they walked us through it. They taught us how to do it.
Christina Lewellen:
This was the first certification we had, started from the ground
Christina Lewellen:
up. But what you're talking about Ethan, I think, happened
Christina Lewellen:
to everyone who was in the room that day, and then happened
Christina Lewellen:
later to all the people who sat for the exam, which is that you
Christina Lewellen:
walked in going, Wait a minute, what is it that I do and in the
Christina Lewellen:
process of actually thinking through those steps and
Christina Lewellen:
wrestling, what are the best practices here? What is the
Christina Lewellen:
better approach? What is the first step versus the second
Christina Lewellen:
versus the fourth? That scenario based test writing is the
Christina Lewellen:
hardest work to do in industry. So I give you guys a lot of
Christina Lewellen:
credit, because you just. Jumped in, and you were like, Sure,
Christina Lewellen:
we'll figure this out. And with a great guide, you guys got down
Christina Lewellen:
the path. But what was different is that when y'all walked out of
Christina Lewellen:
that room, I think that everyone's head was just a
Christina Lewellen:
little bit higher in that you were like, yeah, actually, this
Christina Lewellen:
is a profession. We have professionalized this in the
Christina Lewellen:
process of writing this exam, and now everyone who sits for it
Christina Lewellen:
is also kind of walking away from it going, man, yeah, I do
Christina Lewellen:
do all that, and it's not the kind of exam you can study out
Christina Lewellen:
of a book, right? Tlis. You have to have the breadth of knowledge
Christina Lewellen:
and experience. It's a combination of the two, because
Christina Lewellen:
it's a scenario based exam. So you can't just wing it. You
Christina Lewellen:
definitely have to have your process and your strategy
Christina Lewellen:
grounded in the foundation of what we teach at ATLIS and what
Christina Lewellen:
our body of knowledge says is best practices. But I just love
Christina Lewellen:
that you highlighted how even walking out of it, you stumbled
Christina Lewellen:
into it right, as all of you did, and then you walked out of
Christina Lewellen:
it with a new lens on the work that you do and that you now
Christina Lewellen:
apply that to your work every day. I think that that is quite
Christina Lewellen:
common in the realm of T list, and it's still in its early
Christina Lewellen:
days, which is just a testament to you and Bill and everyone who
Christina Lewellen:
was in that room. It was pretty incredible to watch, definitely
Christina Lewellen:
a highlight of my career. And I know of Peter's too. Peter Frank
Christina Lewellen:
on the team. He was right there shoulder to shoulder with you
Christina Lewellen:
guys. And we talk about it all the time, how proud we are of
Christina Lewellen:
that project, because it's just really game changing.
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, Peter was wonderful. I just loved working
Ethan Delavan:
with him. The group was amazing. When you talked about scenario
Ethan Delavan:
planning, I really felt more and more at home in that group the
Ethan Delavan:
more we talked through the scenarios, because I realized,
Ethan Delavan:
oh, I can be vulnerable here. I can bring up something that I
Ethan Delavan:
did wrong, where I really bombed that one, that'll make a good
Ethan Delavan:
scenario, right? Yeah, and it was okay in that group that we
Ethan Delavan:
brought up things that we had really fumbled and then talk
Ethan Delavan:
through. Well, then how would we approach this that is a good
Ethan Delavan:
catch, right? That really helps the organization land it well.
Ethan Delavan:
And so the ability to be vulnerable in that group and
Ethan Delavan:
just talk through some of the real struggles and some of the
Ethan Delavan:
failures we've had, helped us arrive at those best practices.
Ethan Delavan:
Helped us put our finger on that key answer. It's like, yes,
Ethan Delavan:
that's the right process. That'll actually get the school
Ethan Delavan:
where it's trying to go.
Christina Lewellen:
I love that you guys. It was very special to
Christina Lewellen:
watch, so I am forever grateful that you guys were willing to do
Christina Lewellen:
that. You know, Ethan, I just want to circle back on one thing
Christina Lewellen:
before we wrap up. You've just gone through what is the
Christina Lewellen:
equivalent in the business world of your first 90 days you
Christina Lewellen:
started a new school in the fall. You made it through your
Christina Lewellen:
first half of the school year. And so since it's so fresh,
Christina Lewellen:
could I ask you what you think about or how you approach your
Christina Lewellen:
first 90 days? So if folks are thinking about making that
Christina Lewellen:
career change and maybe in August, they find themselves at
Christina Lewellen:
a new school. How do you do that? You know, after you move
Christina Lewellen:
into a new community, and even if you knew the head of school,
Christina Lewellen:
I'm certain there's still a lot of analysis and listening tour
Christina Lewellen:
that has to happen. But you know, I'm just curious, what are
Christina Lewellen:
your thoughts about the first few months on the job when you
Christina Lewellen:
change schools?
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, I think that's a great question. I had
Ethan Delavan:
the advantage at Northwest that I knew of the school a lot. I'd
Ethan Delavan:
worked with folks who still work there, and I did find myself
Ethan Delavan:
doing a lot of listening. I attended a lot of faculty
Ethan Delavan:
meetings they didn't on paper need to attend. I did a lot of
Ethan Delavan:
talking to faculty in the lunchroom and just listening to
Ethan Delavan:
how they talked about their students, how they talked about
Ethan Delavan:
their curriculum, how they spoke about their time at the school,
Ethan Delavan:
their relationship with their curricular leaders, just to get
Ethan Delavan:
the vibe of the school, if you will. How do these folks like to
Ethan Delavan:
collaborate? What does technology mean to them? What
Ethan Delavan:
experiences have they had around technology implementations in
Ethan Delavan:
the past. How do they use technology in their classes?
Ethan Delavan:
What do they expect of the technology that they have in
Ethan Delavan:
place? Just to get a sense of what are some of the ways I need
Ethan Delavan:
to show up for this faculty and these students that they've
Ethan Delavan:
perhaps been yearning for or that they have come to expect.
Ethan Delavan:
What shoes Am I filling? My predecessor did a great job,
Ethan Delavan:
really stable network, and I'm really grateful for that aspect,
Ethan Delavan:
because it has allowed me to turn my priorities toward how
Ethan Delavan:
are we preparing young people for a quickly changing world, so
Ethan Delavan:
I've been doing a lot of listening, which isn't
Ethan Delavan:
necessarily structured, but really being aware of what am I
Ethan Delavan:
hearing that can give me clues about what the priorities are
Ethan Delavan:
going to be. And so that's been a big part of this transition,
Ethan Delavan:
creating a rapport with my. Team, making sure I understand
Ethan Delavan:
why they took this job, making sure I understand how they like
Ethan Delavan:
to work, where they might need support, and what gets them
Ethan Delavan:
excited about being at an independent school, what maybe
Ethan Delavan:
rubs them the wrong way with some of their colleagues with
Ethan Delavan:
certain policies for how things have been done, so that I can
Ethan Delavan:
get a sense of what those next items on the to do list are
Ethan Delavan:
going to be.
Christina Lewellen:
The National Association of Independent
Christina Lewellen:
Schools is heading to Seattle for its annual conference. So if
Christina Lewellen:
folks are coming into town for NAIS and they want to play
Christina Lewellen:
tourist for a hot second, what's your favorite
Ethan Delavan:
Pike Place Market is, of course, the obvious thing
Ethan Delavan:
to say. It's going to be really close to the conference. So
Ethan Delavan:
that's great. We've recently taken down the freeway overpass,
Ethan Delavan:
the viaduct that kind of cut the waterfront off of downtown. So
Ethan Delavan:
that's all down. The bike lane is open. The walking paths are
Ethan Delavan:
open. The aquarium has a huge new tank, which I haven't even
Ethan Delavan:
been to see. And if you walk to kind of the north end of Pike
Ethan Delavan:
Place, and walk down out of that upper level, there is a gorgeous
Ethan Delavan:
staircase that looks off toward the Olympic Mountains. So if
Ethan Delavan:
it's a sunny day, I would definitely, definitely recommend
Ethan Delavan:
that I'm
Bill Stites:
going to jump in Ethan, because I got to ask you
Bill Stites:
about two things, because I loved Seattle. Been out there a
Bill Stites:
couple times. Absolutely loved Seattle. One thing, and it's
Bill Stites:
probably a total tourist trap, but I absolutely loved with my
Bill Stites:
boys, was a Space Needle. We actually were looking to go to
Bill Stites:
the top of it, and then we saw how much it cost, yeah, but then
Bill Stites:
we did it because we were like, wait a minute, if you eat in the
Bill Stites:
restaurant, you get to go to the top for free, so why not just
Bill Stites:
eat the meal and put the money towards the meal and then pay a
Bill Stites:
little extra and go to the top. So that was absolutely fabulous.
Bill Stites:
And the one thing I loved when I was there was the EMP center. Is
Bill Stites:
that still there as a music lover, I absolutely loved it.
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, it's called the MO pop now it's right at the
Ethan Delavan:
base of the Space Needle. It's as weird looking as ever, and it
Ethan Delavan:
is amazing. It's wonderful. I've been there for a lot of
Ethan Delavan:
different events, a lot of different exhibits. Great place.
Christina Lewellen:
Yeah, my kids went there. When the
Christina Lewellen:
Coraline exhibit was there, they loved it because they grew up
Christina Lewellen:
with that, and they're big fans of the Chihuly Museum, which is
Christina Lewellen:
gorgeous and breathtaking.
Ethan Delavan:
Yeah, it's lovely. It's right there, like
Ethan Delavan:
you could do all three in one day. Space Needle. Chihuly,
Ethan Delavan:
MOPA, boom, well.
Christina Lewellen:
Ethan, thank you for those recommendations,
Christina Lewellen:
because those who are heading to the NAIS event, it's a beautiful
Christina Lewellen:
city. Bill and I are huge fans of the city, so you'll have to
Christina Lewellen:
forgive our fan girling over Seattle, because we love it out
Ethan Delavan:
there. I'm addicted too. So we're all good.
Christina Lewellen:
Thank you so much for making the time for us
Christina Lewellen:
today. Ethan, it's been a pleasure to dig into your
Christina Lewellen:
journey and all of your thoughts a little bit. So I really
Christina Lewellen:
appreciate your time and thanks for joining us pleasure.
Peter Frank:
This has been talking technology with ATLIS,
Peter Frank:
produced by the Association of technology leaders in
Peter Frank:
independent schools. For more information about Atlas and
Peter Frank:
Atlas membership, please visit the atlas.org if you enjoyed
Peter Frank:
this discussion, please subscribe, leave a review and
Peter Frank:
share this podcast with your colleagues in the independent
Peter Frank:
school community. Thank you for listening. You.
