Make Time for What Matters Part 1: Using Technology to Improve Efficiency & Develop Strong Relationships
Part 1 From a School Social Worker Perspective
Introduction
As a school social worker, I believe that there should be a positive relationship with tech coaches. First, technology has allowed me to be time efficient and accurate with record keeping. Through the use of technology, I have been able to connect with all community stakeholders at the micro, mezzo, and macro levels. Most importantly, students feel connected because I use various platforms of technology where they can easily schedule an appointment or share valuable information about themselves, and in return, a strong and healthy relationship is formed between student and school social worker.
Support Provided to Students
As a school social worker, I found technology to be useful and a proactive approach to assist students, teacher, and the school community. For instance, I have developed various forms of daily check-ins with students by creating Google Documents and Google Forms. Personally, I believe that Google Forms is more useful to use because the information gathered could be turned into Google Sheets, which provides lots of quantitative data.
Support Provided to Teachers
The use of technology has allowed me to be time efficient. I have noticed I have developed keen executive functioning skills, which allows me to be more present within my school community. For example, I use Google Calendar to keep my life as a school social worker organized. I use Google Forms to do check-ins with students and I obtain percentages without spending excessive amount of my time. When I complete goal updates for students IEPs, I am able to do them with accuracy and by having substantial amount of data.
Support Given to the Community
Technology has allowed me to connect with community stakeholders and share resources with them. In the past, I created a Google Site that shared with parents about bullying, Second Step, and Erin’s Law. Parents learned about the incentive system and how positive reinforcement was being used at the school.
Conclusion
Eric Santos and I created a Google Slide the provides further details on how to become a Google Certified Educator. The certification process will allow you to learn how to use various tools. Additionally, in the Google Slide I provide concrete examples on how school social workers can use Google tools within their practice.
