I want to start off by thanking Shelly, Kelly, Chris and Jason for putting together an amazing conference. I also want to thank the other presenters for doing an amazing job and taking the time to present. One last thank you to all of the people that attended the various sessions. Without you, we would be talking to ourselves.
I was bummed that I was unable to see many of the sessions live over the weekend. I was away at camp and needed the time on Saturday to finalize my presentation and deal with some technical glitches. I have been able to catch up and watch some of the recorded sessions and I have been blown away. This truly was an amazing collection of talent speaking on topics they were passionate. There wasn't a single session that I did not make me think about my teaching or my school in general. I have never been to a conference where every session proved valuable and a great use of my time.
I watched the chats as they scrolled by for the different sessions and was amazed by all of the different teachers from all of the world that were spending there time free time, and in some cases sleep time, on professional development. These were educators that wanted nothing better than to take time to improve themselves so they could improve their classroom or school. These are the educators that are going to change the world. It is was truly an amazing thing to see.
The other thing that got me really excited was the fact that this entire conference was put on by educators. I don't mean to say that it is shocking that educators could accomplish this. edcamps have been popping up all over the country and that proves that educator run conferences are possible and successful. These events are the things that are going to make a lasting change on the world of education. I say world, because this is a global issues. Teaching our students the fundamentals of education is the responsibility of the world. Technology has opened up the lines of communication and educators are taking advantage of these connections. There are plenty of talking heads talking about the problems in educations, but here was a conference that was talking about solutions.
The odds of getting Secretary Duncan into one of these conferences is next to none, but if we continue to work together and strive to make education better for everyone around the world, our voices will be too loud to ignore. It is going to be frustrating as we strive to see immediate change, but we have made amazing advances in a short period of time. As long as educators continue to band together at conferences, #edchats, #edcamps and other educator driven events, we will make an impact that will have a lasting impact on the future of education.
Keep fighting the good fight,
Nick
Thank you for agreeing to be a part of making the Reform Symposium a success! I so appreciate you taking what little of your weekend that you had to present. It means a lot to us!
ReplyDeleteI think pretty soon Duncan won't be able to ignore these type of events because they will begin to take over education. We are soon going to be too powerful a force to ignore. Maybe the secretary of education shouldn't be one man, maybe the secretary of education should be the PLN.