This summer I am working in the middle school as a Curriculum Resource Teacher. It is a perfect transition position from a year of graduate school because I get to explore some bigger picture questions and help teachers make adjustments and improvements in their individual classes. At school, this position was previously called Technology Resource Teacher and was implemented as the school's 1:1 program was rolling out starting in 4th grade. Since then, people realized that focusing a position like this on technology communicates a sense that technology is something apart from the everyday work of teachers and an add-on, and not something that is embedded into our classrooms courses. So the name shifted to CRTs, from TRTs.
The title shifted, but the role remains focused on technology. CRT's assist with laptop roll out and network and hardware (computers, smartboards, projection systems) troubleshooting questions. So much so that more than once when teachers have seen one of us approaching a class, they quickly say " Oh, the computers are all fine, thank you!"
Thus, the question that remains is: how to you shift perception of the role of a group within a faculty? Is it enough to change the name of a position? How do you make shifting roles transparent and understood in a school (particularly a large k-12 school)?
