I attended the TIE conference this past week in Sioux Falls, SD. Educator's from all over the state and region descended upon Sioux Falls to gain knowledge in the world of Technology in Education. People's opinions of conferences are all over the place. Some love them, some don't. For me, I enjoy going to education conferences, especially ones geared toward technology. I like to see what's out there and what (if any) is new in the world of tech in education. The TIE conference is well done, especially the free nacho bar! Yum. I had a chance to present on Gamification: how to turn your classroom into a Video game! With so many of the presenters taking the approach of "here's a tech tool and here's how you use it," I decided to share an idea/concept, rather than just functionality of tech tools. I had a lot of fun sharing this with the people in attendance. The traditional tech tool sessions did have value though, as I mined a few new tech tools here and there to check out and explore. I'm really excited about one in particular, but I will share that later, along with other nuggets I picked up along the way. Build suspense!
The best thing about the TIE conference is not all the tech tools being shared or the new cutting technology being introduced or the nachos. It is without a doubt the ability to join together with so many educators to build connections, share ideas and get inspired about teaching. Here's the deal: it's easy to connect with people at conference but how often do you go to conferences? Not often. Maybe once a year. Maybe zero times a year. Twitter is like one giant non-stop educational conference. The connecting that can be done through Twitter is amazing. It's a treasure chest for any educator. So yeah, conferences are great to make connections with people, but keep that going through Twitter!
Conferences rock! We completed our first round of conferences yesterday. How did it go? Did you get sick of talking? Did you get sick of repeating yourself? Did you get sick of the parents just staring at you-waiting for you to say some more stuff?
Here are some scenarios you may have encountered:
Teacher: "Do you have any questions?"
Parent: "Nope."
Teacher: "Okay, sounds good. Thank you for coming."
(Parent continues to look at you, not moving)
Or, how about this:
Parent (without kid) sits down at your table and just stares at you, waiting for you to tell them about their kid, like the teacher has memorized what each kids' parent looks like. Teacher is thinking, "Who is your kid? You, the 42 year old mother, look nothing like your 12 year old son so I have absolutely no idea who your kid is."
Or, how about this:
After skimming over the list of grades for their child which includes ten grades of "A" and one grade of "B+" and the parent stops on that B+ and asks, "So, what happened here?" And the teacher is thinking, "Uh, they got a question wrong."
Conferences do get long but I think it's a good opportunity to touch base with parents, even those who do not have struggling kids. It's good to meet them in person, it's good for parents to hear how great their child is doing. It's good for parents to hear that their child is struggling but there's a plan as far as what we are going to do about it.
Yesterday, I saw a lot of evidence supporting the technology movement. About 90% of the conferences I had (90 total), the parents made some comment about technology. Many, many parents said how much they love getting the text messages notifications. Many, many parents said they wished all the teachers did it. So, why aren't you? Many, many parents said how much they liked my website, which shows they want the technology. It helps them. It helps them help their kid. If your website has nothing on it except the lesson plans, you are missing a huge opportunity to reach students and parents. It's the times, folks, we are in the Techno Age. It's a freight train in education. Let's get on board.
