Last week, I attended the NSBA T+L Conference in Nashville, TN. My boss and I were fortunate enough to be able to take two of our Principals and a School Board Member along. What an opportunity! Three days of undivided attention on my favorite topic - technology in education!! While the conference was a good one and I certainly came away with some big ideas, the most important aspects of the trip were the conversations and learning opportunities with the Principals and School Board Member.
We are in a major push right now to increase funding for technology in our district, and while none of these three leaders were opposed to the idea, they now know enough to be advocates for our needs. The principals have a better footing to go back to their schools and ask questions. As budget planning gets going, we now have another school board member who can support us. One of the principals really captured her growth experience by saying, "I am used to going to conferences that are in my comfort zone. This one really made me stretch and I have learned more because of it." How many times do you go to trainings or conferences that are far enough outside of your comfort zone that you have to stretch? It is always easy to get excited about the things that we are already excited about - maybe we need to spend a little more time get excited about other things.
Now my challenge is how to spread this enthusiasm to the other leaders in out district without having to find a conference to take them all to. Stay tuned.
Create your own conference!
I'm sure that people are already thinking and doing tech in your district. I'd think that it could be key to find the instances where it is already happening and fan them to make them grow.
Invite leaders in your district to present at your own mini-conference about something that means something to them around the idea of tech in schools.
That would be my dream :)
Posted by: Tracy Rosen | October 26, 2007 at 06:08 AM