If You Had Asked Me About TCEA 2014

Carolyn Foote at TCEA14 (@technolibrary)

This is not a "bash the conference" post. It's not designed to be negative at all.  So as I progress please keep that in mind.

This is my 4th or 5th TCEA conference that I have attended and it has gotten B I G! This morning I arrived about 30 minutes later than usual and it felt like a SXSW morning. Parking garages were full and traffic was crazy. What the heck is going on with this conference?

That last question actually came to me a couple of days ago as I was looking at the session offerings for my one day I could be here. This is a tech conference and tech still dominates the sessions. However, there are more sessions with teachers presenting the use of technology in their classroom. And there are sessions with teachers talking about PBL. Lots of sessions with the letters PBL in them.  

So is this an education conference with a heavy emphasis on technology or is it a technology conference with a heavy emphasis on using technology in the classroom.  In keeping the phrase "technology is the invisible tool," I would say it is both and it is neither. The TCEA conference has become an educational conference, period.

Education Conferences need educators attending. (Well, duh). But I would extend that one step further - we need teachers to attend education conferences. This week we have 5 or 6 teachers from my school here at TCEA. They submitted session proposals and their proposals were accepted. Because we don't have to pay for transportation and lodging our district is able to pay for these teachers to attend. But what other "costs" are involved in this endeavor.

The cost of having a teacher out of the classroom is, almost, incalculable.  There are the hours spent planning for a substitute. There is the cost of paying a substitute. There are the headaches administrators and other teachers in the school have to endure because the regular teacher is out of the classroom.

Headaches? If you have to ask then you probably haven't been a teacher. Students act silly (at best) when their regular teacher isn't there. This ends up requiring hours by assistant principals and principals dealing with discipline issues. Then there are the subs who don't show up and teachers are covering other teacher's classes and losing their conference periods. I'll stop there but I could write a whole post about what happens when a teacher isn't in school.

I'd like to get back to my premise that we need teachers to attend the conference. I'm going to make another bold statement: teachers, in state-led assessment states, should NOT be allowed out of the classroom for the two months leading up to the assessment. I'm serious. I know that is not enforceable, but it's how I feel. If we are going to be serious about closing the education gaps then we need teachers in their classroom meeting their students' needs. (Excuse me while I get off my high horse...)

We need teachers in the classroom. We need teachers attending conferences like TCEA. So where do we go with this dichotomy? We need to change the dates of the conferences. No three or four day education conferences should occur between January 1st and the end of the school year! Now THAT is a bold statement. We need no excuses for teachers not being where they need to be.  (How'd that horse get underneath me again?)

Getting back to the TCEA conference - we need to move the dates that we are here in Austin filling our brains with all kinds of wonderful information.  And I would suggest either the early Fall or during the Summer. One problem with Summer is the TCEA - ISTE connection but that is an option. I think the Fall might work best, though.

Having an education conference in the Fall would allow teachers to take things, that they have learned, back to their classrooms.  It still doesn't solve the issue of teachers out of their classroom but it gives the teachers time to get their classroom back to normal and teach/reteach what was lost because of their absence.

The TCEA conference is a pretty darn good conference. We need to make it an event that ALL teachers can attend without push back from their school or district and we need to make it something that has a minimum impact on the teacher's wallet. It's too late to change the dates for 2015, but let's work on changing this for the 2016/2017 school year.

That Left Out Feeling

http://www.flickr.com/photos/letsbook/

     Ah, summer.  That time when teachers pack up their classrooms and move to the pool or the beach.  They are out there hiking, fly fishing, and sailing.  Isn't it great only working about 40 weeks of the year!  That's 12 weeks of kicking back and doing nothing.

     If only that were true.  Yes, there are some teachers who will take an elaborate (and well-deserved) vacation during the summer.  But most will find time to relax and reload with their immediate families.  They will do some much needed yard work or house repairs.  They will work on that one project that they've been meaning to do since last summer.  It really isn't that glamorous.  And, more and more, teachers are spending a huge part of their summer getting smarter.

     Many are taking graduate classes.  Many are taking part in conferences and professional development (PD).  Some of this training is required by their district.  And some are just teachers wanting to be the best they can be and recognizing that learning the latest techniques or being involved in conversations about the latest in educational topics will help them attain that goal.

     And, that's where this post is coming from - I'm envious of many of those educators who have been able to attend really great conferences or PD's and have shared what they have experienced on twitter (got to follow that hashtag!), on Google+ (gosh I wish they hadn't shared that with me - wish I were there too), or in a Blog Post (Wow!  They really brought that conference to life.  That must have been awesome!)

     Wouldn't it be great if airlines gave away "tickets to anywhere" for educators to use during the summer to attend these events?  All we would have to do is show our teacher ID and the attendance confirmation and "poof" we were on the next flight out.

     This summer's big sigh, for me, was ISTE12.  It seemed like everyone I know was there.  And, they were all romping around in my old stomping grounds - San Diego.   They were kayaking, visiting the zoo, and watching the sun set over the ocean.  And, most importantly, they were discussing the latest topics and learning from each other.  They now have shared experiences which make them seem closer sounding in their tweets.  They sound like old buddies on Google+.  Heck, as I see it, the entire future of education was decided by these few hundred people.  And all this was happening 1300 miles from my home.  It might as well have been happening on Pluto (and, as we know, that's not even a planet any more!)

     So, I will re-tweet their hash tags with a smile.  I will give them a + on a well written account of what they discussed at their silly conference.  And I will leave a pleasant comment on their very descriptive blog post; thanking them for telling us all about it and telling them how much I enjoyed the post.  Even though I want to tell them that I hate them!  What right do they have for traveling to places I can't afford to travel to?  Why do they have to enjoy themselves and then tell us about it?  

     Well, I'll show them!  I'll be there at EdcampDallas and I'll be there at TechForum Austin.  And then I'll save my pennies and I"ll head to Educon 2.5.  And, after that I'll be at TCEA 2013 and SXSWEdu 2013!  And finally, next summer, ISTE comes to San Antonio!  I'll be tweeting the heck out of those conferences.  They'll see!  Then we'll see who's envious.  Those guys will really feel left out of the loop.  I'll tell them about my speaker proposals, and my acceptance of the proposals , and my travel plans, and my parties that I accept invitations to, and my tweetups, and .......

      Hey, things are looking up already!  What a great summer....