Behind the Cube: Back-to-School Edition
At McGraw-Hill, our back-to-school season is largely defined by our efforts to support educators as they encounter these challenges, so they can get back to fostering relationships with their new students. For the past few weeks, we’ve been focusing our Behind the Cube employee highlight series on just a few of our team members that work particularly hard during the back-to-school season.
Today’s highlight: Andrea Taylor, School Integration Support
Can you describe your role at McGraw-Hill?
I started McGraw-Hill last year as a Tier 2 agent in Digital Technical Support. This summer I worked on writing up documentation and creating videos to make our products more user-friendly, and I currently work in Integration Support which means I help our auto-rostered and single-sign-on customers with their integration from 3rd party products and our software. I am on the phone often with IT admins working through the issues, which is perfect for me since I used to work in the tech department of a local district and worked closely with the tech department at a small K-12 as well.
What does the back-to-school season hold for you? How do you prepare?
Since this is only my 2nd back-to-school, and I switched teams, I wasn’t sure what to expect for back-to-school this year. Because I was in planning meetings for the new changes and features, I wanted to do my best to document the changes so that our customers would have that information up front. I worked with a few other members of the documentation team to work out any questions we had and finalize our documents.
Another thing I do to prepare for back-to-school season is buy some cozy chamomile teas to relax at night. This is a tip from another co-worker last year because it is a busy time of year.
What kind of support do you offer educators during the back to school season?
Last year, I worked with Digital Tech Support and helped teachers understand how their products functioned along with helping escalate software and technical issues. This year I work more with curriculum and IT administrators, but it’s all to keep things running smoothly for the educators.
What do you think educators need the most to have a strong back-to -school season?
I think educators need an understanding of how our products work and support when they can’t figure things out on their own. When it comes to our products, I’ve found from working one on one with teachers and admins that most often having someone to be patient and work through their issues is such a benefit to them. Sometimes things that seem complicated may not be. I also hope that some of our documentation and step-by-step videos can help alleviate confusion for many users.
What inspires you about working in the education industry?
I’ve worked in education software or in schools for almost my entire career. Working in schools has always been rewarding, especially when I worked as a registrar and with students and teachers on a daily basis at a K-12 for students with learning disabilities. It was there that I saw software change the way students were able to learn. Because of my experiences, I value the importance of what we do here at McGraw-Hill and how we are able to assist in education. I’ve always loved education and learning and am actually in school still myself, getting my masters currently, so obviously education is a very big part of my life.
For resources and support to help you start the school year with confidence, visit our Back-to-School Preparedness Page.
In addition to program and implementation support, it is our goal to support you on your professional journey as you perfect your craft. Here are just few resources on trending educational topics that you can utilize as you prepare to start the school year.
