TeachersFirst Sends Three Educators to ISTE
RESTON Va., July 27, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The annual conference of the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) is a high-profile event for those who care about the use of technology in the classroom. TeachersFirst.com is an enthusiastic supporter of ISTE, and this year TeachersFirst conducted a contest to help some educators attend the event, held in San Diego from June 24-27.
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The contest, called "Thinking Teachers® ISTE12," was presented through the WeAreTeachers website. Applications were received from hundreds of teachers who would not otherwise have been able to attend; they wrote brief essays about why they thought they'd benefit from the experience. Two applicants won by accumulating votes online, and one winner was selected by TeachersFirst based on the quality of her essay. Their prize was paid admission to the conference and partial payment of their travel expenses.
Kelly Grennan Smith teaches seventh grade science at Cole Middle School in East Greenwich RI. She's been a teacher for seven years. Like all attendees, she was overwhelmed by the number of sessions and exhibits, but delighted at the opportunities available. She said, "I learned so much—from seeing a fourth grader tell how his class creates podcasts, to hearing a science teacher talk about using technology within the curriculum, to getting vendors to answer my questions about their products."
Ms. Smith mounted an energetic campaign to win the contest. Her students and the whole school supported her application, the local newspaper helped spread the word, and even the state's education commissioner tweeted her support. The effort was a great success: with more than 2,000 votes, she led all entrants.
Lisa Johnson is an instructional technology specialist at Hill Country Middle School in the Eanes ISD in Austin TX. Her eleven years of experience include four years teaching middle school math. She's an avid proponent of technology use, maintains an active Twitter feed and a blog about tech in the classroom, and has developed an iPad app that lists free apps useful to teachers and parents. She talked enthusiastically about her time at ISTE: "One unexpected bonus for me was extending my professional learning network. It was great to meet innovative, accomplished people in person, and then continue the relationships via email, Twitter, and Skype. There were many practical discoveries, too: I learned new uses for QR codes, and saw how students were documenting their learning by blogging, uploading photos, and sharing class notes. I even got to co-present a poster session on iPad 'app-tivities' for the classroom."
Ms. Johnson's innovative essay consisted of endorsements from other professionals who strongly recommended that she be sent to the conference. Her campaign garnered almost 2,000 votes, enough to make her the second-place winner.
Erin Downey is a teacher-librarian at Timberline High School in Boise Idaho. She taught English for five years and has been a librarian for two years. She said, "Before ISTE, I hadn't been exposed to professional development on that scale. I picked up lots of ideas about initiatives to take next year, and I feel like I now have the authority to recommend them to my colleagues. One thing that especially impressed me was taking part in several conversations about passion—about how teachers can help improve learning experiences for their students by sharing their own passions and their excitement about their own work."
In her essay, Ms. Downey emphasized the value of technology in engaging students and enhancing teaching and learning; she said she plans to help teachers in her school "transition from teacher-driven methods to student-driven ones."
Free service for teachers
TeachersFirst is a free, ad-free service for K-12 teachers, offering abundant original content and more than 13,000 classroom-ready reviews of web resources. It is provided by The Source For Learning, Inc., a nonprofit whose products and services enhance learning through the strategic use of technology. The Source for Learning is an ISTE Corporate Member, in a group of corporations and associations that are key supporters of the International Society for Technology in Education.
Candace Hackett Shively is Director of K-12 Initiatives for The Source for Learning. She commented, "It's exciting to see the energy and dedication of the professionals who gather at the ISTE conference. We were delighted to be able to lend a hand to some teachers who wouldn't otherwise have been able to share in the benefits."
From its booth in the ISTE exhibition hall, TeachersFirst originated a live webcast, providing a forum for attendees to share what they were learning from the conference with those who were unable to attend. A video archive of that webcast is available here. Also at the conference, Ms. Shively and colleague Louise Maine offered a well-attended presentation titled Now I See! Visual and Analytical Routes to Literacy through Infographics.
Other resources offered by The Source for Learning include preschoolfirst.com, teachersandfamilies.com, growuplearning.com, and sflmedia.com, which provides educational video clips with links to related resources from TeachersFirst.
SOURCE TeachersFirst
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