IT Innovators in Education Need Rest, Too

Virtual or hybrid education has been a blessing during the COVID-19 pandemic. When it’s a risk to gather and parents may not feel comfortable sending their children to a classroom, technology has allowed classrooms to take place virtually.

Making sure teachers can teach and students can learn and that they have the devices and network connectivity they need is an enormous challenge, especially in a district like Highline Public Schools in Washington state.

Mark Finstrom, Chief Technology Officer, said he and his staff were able to get things up and running and keep things going as smoothly as possible with a help desk active from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. and other efforts to make sure faculty and students at the district, which includes English-Spanish bilingual campuses and even is working on English-Vietnamese education, had what they needed.

Finstrom was proud of his team’s work, but started noticing the importance of something else – rest.

“That entire team was trying to give 20,000-25,000 people a seamless start to the school year, and it worked. But we burned out,” Finstrom said.

As Finstrom remembered to balance his managerial skills with his technological ones, he began to start meetings with check-ins with his team not about devices or technical issues but instead about how their personal lives are going before getting to the work portion of the meeting.

“I was trying to make the experience for the families and students and the teachers best I could. Who’d I forget? Myself and my team,” he said. “I’m now rebuilding, basically, some relationships with my own team. They suffered, because I fell into that funk and forgot about them. Some of them have even expressed that I didn’t care if they worked tireless endless hours to make sure kids were in school. That wasn’t the intent, but that’s how it came across.”

His team faces another challenge next month when students likely will begin returning to classrooms and bringing new devices with them. Yet, Finstrom is confident he and his team once again will rise to the occasion, while keeping their own mental health as a high priority.

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Twitter – @MarketScale
Facebook – facebook.com/marketscale
LinkedIn – linkedin.com/company/marketscale

Follow us on social media for the latest updates in B2B!

Image

Latest

DXpedition
Icom Powers 3Y0K : Ham Radio’s Most Ambitious DXpedition to Remote Bouvet Island Part 1
July 11, 2025

Bouvet Island sits at the edge of the world. It is frozen, uninhabited, and almost impossible to access. Fewer people have set foot there than in space. That level of remoteness is exactly what makes it so valuable to amateur radio operators. The island ranks tenth on ClubLog’s list of Most Wanted DXCC entities,…

Read More
entrepreneurial success
The Hidden Key to Entrepreneurial Success: Build Momentum Through Personal Branding and Authentic Networking
July 10, 2025

What if the biggest pivot of your career started with a conversation?  In this episode of Professional Quotient, host Jason Winningham welcomes Fanny Dunagan, CEO and Content Strategist of PathLynks, LLC. Fanny shares her journey from high-pressure consulting in Singapore to founding her own media and branding company — and why learning to network…

Read More
Q2 2025
RM Q2 2025 Wrap Up
July 9, 2025

Rogue Marketing continues to lead with intention in a space often driven by noise. Q2 2025 reflected a strategic focus on substance, where each initiative supported long-term brand growth. The team transformed internal recognition efforts into enduring brand assets and refined event strategies through immersive, results-driven experiences. Website launches during the quarter balanced visual…

Read More
amateur radios
Hamvention Spotlight: Emergency Preparedness Led PrepHam Paul to Amateur Radios and a Rising Voice in the Field
July 9, 2025

PrepHam Paul (K5VLP) celebrated his first visit to Dayton Hamvention by marking a major channel milestone. He hosted a giveaway of the  IC-2370B mobile radio from Icom to thank viewers for helping him reach 10,000 subscribers. His passion for emergency preparedness, rooted in his experience as an Eagle Scout and later studies in emergency management,…

Read More