Today is an exciting day. I’m here in beautiful Salt Lake City. We’ll take some B-roll of the mountains, and we’re driving around here joined by Christopher Larsen, the technology director at Granite School District here in Salt Lake City. 60,000 plus devices. Thanks for being on.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah. So this is our first time on the road. So if there’s any tech technical module issues or anything like that, give us some grace here. But I had to shove everything into a big suitcase. So yeah, I loved your story. We did a quick 25, 30 minute, you know, intro call a few months ago and it worked out. We were opening up our new Salt Lake City office and I was already going to be here like, You know what? This is what I would love to do. A First part Origins your story starting from, you know, you’ll get into it, but starting, you know, kind of at a teacher level, working your way all the way up to a massive district. And then the second part, we’re going to talk about what you’re really passionate about with personal development and what you guys have really done here, which really excited me a lot. So appreciate it.
Cool. Yeah. No, I’m happy to be here. I’m happy to kind of celebrate and share the great things my team and the teachers in our district are doing for kids. And it’s exciting work.
That’s awesome. So let’s start from the beginning. When did you know you wanted to be in education? When did you figure out that was maybe a skill set of yours? And can you talk us through that journey? Maybe high school, through college and then…
Yeah, probably not a traditional pathway. I was a business marketing major. I had a course called Business Spanish. I speak Spanish. We were asked to volunteer to translate parent teacher conferences at an elementary school, and I discovered that I really loved working with elementary aged students and their families and changed my major to elementary ed with an ESL endorsement.
And what’s ESL?
ESL English as a second language and never looked back applied for jobs.Granite has a a very high multilingual learner population, and so there were more jobs down here. I went to Utah State University. I started teaching in fifth grade and loved what I was doing. The technology part kind of came up. I didn’t know that I was that interested in that. My school got new tech, and I think because I was a young new teacher, they assumed that I was the guy to try it out. I had classroom iPods. I tried those. I had some classroom cameras, and I started to really get excited about the connections my students were able to make with the content when I was using tech in engaging ways.
And when you talk about student iPods, like, yeah, what was that mostly towards like the was that just like in a normal classroom setting? Was that ESL?
It was in a normal classroom setting. This was probably the 2011 school year. Back when I was starting and yeah, I was given a cart. No one really quite knew how to teach with them or how to use them. There wasn’t a lot of guidance at the time, not because- I don’t mean that as a criticism, just that it was new and everybody was learning the potential of technology in the classroom at that time.
When did you graduate and become a teacher? Like what was your first year?
My first year was 2010, 2011 in the classroom.
Yeah. So that was like so you only did a few years teaching and then you accelerated pretty quickly into technology
Right, I, I immediately found that I wanted to make a just don’t get me wrong, teachers make a huge individual impact on students I found that I really liked.I was able to help my principal with our school improvement plan, and I found that I was really passionate about making those kind of system level goals and building up a culture at our school of how do we tackle getting better at what we do, reaching more students. And that led me to being interested in going into admin. And so I did go into admin very early in my career.
Yeah, And like when I think about someone who like a teacher, they’ve got a lot on their plate to begin with teaching. And I’m assuming that stuff is just done on top of your normal workload. Was that a principal or an administrator who was kind of breathing that like, Hey, you got some talent in this area, You want to work on a task force? How did that look?
Yeah, I’ve been very lucky in my career too, to have really strong mentors. And so I think my principal saw something in me and asked me if I wanted to be one of the leaders in developing our school improvement plan. And she was right. I was very interested and I grew pretty passionate about that kind of work.
What does that like, work look like for the improvement plan? Like, what does that cover? Does that cover like a little bit of technology, a little bit of transportation, logistics? Like, I just yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know much.
In education, I find that the improvement efforts are ever changing. And back then it involved us finding a need as a school and then setting goals and creating a plan for what we needed. So the plan we looked at was related to professional learning, having each of us shadow each other and learn better teaching techniques. And our goal was to improve our reading scores at the time at that school. Our improvement structure is similar still in granite, where principals have the autonomy to identify the need based on assessment scores and data, and then create a plan that they think will have the most impact on whatever they’ve targeted.
Yeah, I love that. So that’s 2010 2011 time you’re starting to work on that. What are your next steps? Because obviously I don’t know if you did, you have a bachelor’s degree in early education and, I’m sure that took additional education to go.
Yeah. So I went back to school at Utah State University through a distance program. So I was able to keep working full time and then I was taking credits on the side. I had an opportunity in Granite to be an intern assistant principal at one of our junior highs. So that meant I took a year off of teaching and I went and I was an assistant principal at a junior high for a year. And then after that I was seeking out administrative jobs. I wasn’t hired my first year, but I really feel that that led me here because in that interim year I worked at our district STEM school. Yeah, we have a kind of a district charter where half of the students are on special permit, so they open enroll to attend our STEM school. And I taught sixth grade there and it was probably my favorite year of really of teaching. And I had a really awesome grade level team. We were able to do a lot of innovative things and really dive into my passion for tech in the classroom.
So what was happening at that time, at that sixth grade stem? Like what stuff did you have? Maybe the freedom to do that you didn’t previously?
Yeah, we had 1 to 1 iPads in the classroom. In the classroom. So it had been you know, I think people realized that iPods weren’t really a feasible learning device. iPads allowed for more potential as a device. So we had those. It facilitated all kinds of things. Even just taking video of the engineering projects we were doing, presenting using pictures of different stages of experiments, allowing students the opportunity to interact with real world phenomena because they had access to the Internet on their device. So it really opened up. That was prior to our district having Chromebooks.This would have been, I want to say, the 2013-14 school year and Chromebooks were kind of a brand new thing back then. And we had started to experiment with them as a district, but they hadn’t been implemented in the classroom.
Yeah, that was like the Dell Chromebook one. Yeah, the Samsung Silver Chromebooks that everyone had, the hits covers just deteriorated on those.
So at the time to give you some context, yeah, our tech director at the time, Patrick Flanigan, who I kind of stood on the shoulders of, he he started exploring our Chromebooks and looking into what they work. Are they a good device? We opened up things like Google Classroom. I think by happenstance I happened to be the first teacher to use Google Classroom in our district because my principal was friends with Patrick and we ran into him and he was like, Hey, we want to try Google Classroom. We’re going to turn it on. You want to turn it on for your classroom? And I tried it the next day with my sixth graders and fell in love with the ability to easily share things out and collaborate and even I still remember facilitating my class on how to solve. I just put everything in a Google classroom, and that was probably the easiest job that they had had because I was still kind of responding to my students, right? I shouldn’t have been doing that, but I was able to design things and help them have more kind of anytime, anywhere access to their learning.
I feel like Google Classroom was one of the first like where this remote support is capable now. Yeah, I think before that, you know cloud based was still pretty not new but pretty new when it comes to like a government and in the classroom. But it’s almost everybody on the podcast as they talk about like Google Classroom and then the Google App suite and just how that like it was the first time it really opened people’s eyes up. Like, things are changing, right? You know, it’s not just I’m going to get on a Word document and I forget to say if I do another 3 hours of work.
Yeah, I remember at the end of the school year being excited, like, I’d be really cool to have Chromebooks instead of iPads because they were a brand new thing. And I just thought I still was kind of taking my class down to the typing lab when we were doing writing assignments because the iPads were a challenge with that. But that was when I got an assistant principal job the next school year. So I left the classroom and from there I came into this position and I really probably get tired of my exposure to Chromebooks at this point. But now I joke they’re a great classroom tool, but we’ve we have a lot of them now. And we said, you know, eat, sleep and breathe Chromebooks now.
Yeah. So I mean, probably in your district, if you have 60,000 students, you have what, probably 80,000 Chromebooks.
Yeah, that’s about right.
And then with your teachers, are you guys doing Chromebooks for teachers or do they have like a more premium device or..?
Teachers have laptops. We’ve gradually been rolling that out. All of our schools, with the exception of a couple other and unique circumstances, have teacher laptops right now. Yeah, we tried. We do teacher Chromebooks in some circumstances, but teachers typically need a more powerful device for some of the programs they need. So yeah, our teachers have laptops. We’ve implemented those as a way to help teachers be more mobile in the classroom and move around. So the devices we provide them are a 360 device that they can fold in ink with and project with while they’re teaching.
And it really is a configuration. Every school’s got different needs. We know some schools, they do Macbooks for teachers because they’re more intuitive, you know, and it kind of depends on your base knowledge too. But, you know, I love that, you know, obviously in technology getting through COVID in that just being a really, really stressful time. And we were talking earlier how you’re too saying like I worked basically sunup to sundown every single day to get through that period. One thing I like to ask, on like origins, like mental health is a big deal. It really is, especially in technology. Have you ever seen the.. Have you ever watched Seinfeld?
Yeah
Yeah. You know, like when they ask the mailman, like why they’re all like, people who work for the Postal Service go crazy. Like, because the mail never stops. And I feel like that’s what it’s like for technology directors. Yeah, technology never stops.
I’ve never really considered myself like Newman, but I guess maybe…
I’m not saying you’re Newman.
No, no. I mean, I guess I can relate to that. I think with anything that for me I’m passionate about what I’m doing and I really enjoy the work. I enjoy working in schools and trying to do things to better the outcome and impact we have for students. So it can be hard to turn that off like like you said, the mail never stops or the Yeah, you know, when your passion I think about your work it can be hard to to balance that. So yeah it’s definitely a student who need access to their work after school. You know teachers need access to be grading things after school. So it has to be a conscious choice to turn it off. Yeah, the balance, that kind of stuff. Yeah.
Yeah. So for you, do you have any personal disciplines or some things that you do more like a morning routine or something that you do to kind of keep yourself in shape, keep your mind in shape that way. You know, you’re on top of your game.
I have three kids at home, so I have twins that are second graders and I have a sixth grader. So I get home and the home chaos starts, you know, as soon as I walk in the door. I love my kids. Obviously, they’re excited to see me.They have their own homework. So we get dinner out of the way. We do their homework. I- hobby wise, I really and I find like music is helpful. I listen to a lot of music. That’s another one of my passions, but I don’t get a lot of maybe hobby time or time to myself. But, but I enjoy my family at this point in life. And maybe the free time will come at some point.
Yeah. Yeah, I’ve got..
We all say that until we die.
Yeah, I’ve got. I’ve got four kids, so I know exactly what you’re talking about. I work and I go home and work and. But the work at home is a little cuter, but.
Yeah, I see. Maybe the more direct rewards at home, like working directly with my own kids.
Are your kids in Granite schools?
They’re not. We live in Jordan School District, which is a neighboring district.
Yeah. Might be good to have some separation too. Sometimes I don’t have to deal with the bureaucracy.
Yeah, it’s fun. I’m able to try things out with my kids. Like, well, this latest tech tool. Yeah. How does it go over with second graders? How does it go over with sixth graders? My kids probably have a love hate relationship with being the guinea pigs in some of those experiments, but it’s fun.
I’m like one of those parents who only the newest gaming system we have at home is and N64. So we as a family get the other Bugs Super Smash Brothers and stuff.
I’m the nerdy parent who’s still playing, you know, Minecraft with my kid or Yeah, Animal Crossing or so I guess I do play a lot of video games.I think that’s maybe the intersection of work and and play for me. But yeah, yeah,
Yeah, That’s amazing. So for you, how long have you been in the position you’re in now currently?
This is my seventh school year in this position.
Okay. So while I mean for technology director wise, that’s a while. That’s a long time.
Yeah, it feels, it feels like it is compared to maybe people that have been before, but I’m still excited by what I do. I think one of the things I love about my job is it’s never the same. We problem solve all the time. And I love problem solving, but every day of the seven years there’s been a problem that I hadn’t heard of, you know, something new. And somehow the problems keep evolving and reproducing and so it’s never boring and there’s always a challenge. And I also found that, like naively, I think that I thought making system wide change was going to be something that could be done quickly. And what I found is that it’s very slow and incremental, and I feel that I’m finally starting to see some of the work that my team has been putting in. We’re starting to see the fruits of that out in schools and that’s exciting.
Yeah, I love that. So to close out every section I always like to ask during the origin section is where it’s three piece of advice you can give someone who wants to eventually be in a technology director role and are, you know, I’m a I’m a learning infrastructure role where a three piece advice you could give them on their journey to get there.
I think try to have as many diverse experiences as you can. I think that like I mentioned with the STEM school, I wouldn’t have been prepared for this role if I hadn’t had that experience teaching at a STEM school or have an experience teaching that I’ve taught at both kind of schools that are in less impacted parts of our district and in more highly impacted parts of our district. I worked in customer service in a call center for four years in college, and I think that I built skills that I still use every day for communicating things out and dealing with challenging problems and helping people move forward, helping people build skills. So I think don’t pigeonhole yourself into a very specialized idea. I think you should look at what skills you need to develop and find experiences to help you get there. So when I wasn’t hired the first time as an administrator, that’s when I made the shift to the STEM school of, you know, I need to build more experience. I’m new in this career. I need to have a broader exposure to more things in order to be effective as an admin. And I, I think that that’s been something that I’ve benefited from is just trying to have a broad diversity of experience.
You know, I love that. I mean, you’re not the only one I’ve interviewed over the last year that’s had that same thing of like, did all this work, went to school girls education and then applied, didn’t get it. But almost every single time that people have worked their way up to these bigger positions, I’ve been like, okay, what’s next? Not just like, poor is me, woe is me. It’s how do I continue on and push?
And sometimes it might not seem that straightforward, but those experiences still give you an edge. And wherever you end up, you know, maybe because I had some business background that helps me with managing a large budget, you know, managing staffing and things like that, that if I would have been set on being a teacher from day one, maybe I don’t have those same experiences.
Yeah, I love that. Well, Chris, thank you so much for being on for the Origins section and we’re going to move on to personal development.
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