Friday, November 19, 2010
IETC
This year I have been lucky enough to attend the 17th annual Illinois Educators Technology Conference in Springfield Illinois. First, I have to start by saying I Love Conferences! I really do. At this point some of you are thinking I am completely nuts. But it is what it is. I think every teacher needs to walk away from the classroom, submerge themselves in with all kinds of Educators and find themselves again. Find the passion, the enjoyment, and the desire to try new things. I like conferences for the simple fact that you come out of them feeling refreshed and excited about heading back to classroom with new ideas. I have found that I enjoy tech conferences sometimes more than I enjoy art conferences. Don't get me wrong I love those too, but there are times when you attend conferences with those that teach the same subject matter as you and you have to play the who's the better art teacher game. I hate that. Tooooo much competition. With a tech conference you have a splash of everyone and it is great to see what people do and the things that they know coming from so many areas. I have been in a lot of different classes in the past two days and I have to admit that I am looking forward to coming back to school and trying some new ideas. I am also thinking about putting in for a session of my own here next year. With the way that schools are changing and headed to project based instruction, I think I can find something to talk about. I'm actually considering a new blog on 365 days of art and technology projects. A blog a day. That would be a challenge! But if I was successful, wouldn't that be a great presentation! Just an idea!
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3 comments:
I agree with you 100%. There is nothing like a good conference to recharge my battery and rekindle the fire. I have to say that I enjoy the larger conferences more. The quality of the workshops tends to be higher, and I feel that I am getting something more than I get on a daily basis with my lunch crew.
I have done plenty of local in-service type events but I have not been to a conference (tech or art ed) yet and it's on my to-do list. The whole business of "who is a better ______" is something that seems all too common among artists especially. The photography world is horrible for this especially! Since I teach technology based art courses I could prob justify a tech approach like what you did!
I would recommend a tech conference. It was really great. I also enjoyed going to the photoshop world convention. I thought it would be over my head, but they provide you with a lot of great references and talk at a very down to earth pace and level.
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