#TechToberFest13 is Alive!

I have never planned a massive educational technology conference but decided this would be a good year to do it.  If you have not heard, October 10, 2013 is professional development day for all Lancaster City Schools teachers.  The teachers will be meeting at Lancaster for a day full of sessions focused on innovative uses of technology to improve teaching and learning.  Our students will be of school in observance of the Fairfield County Fair.

I have always wanted to bring a session-driven, #edtech topic day to all my teachers.  This will be our own mini-eTech (State of Ohio Educational Technology Conference) day.  I decided to take it a step further, however.  I thought to myself, why not invite other teachers and business people from around the state to the event to present or to attend?  After months of work, I have finally released the schedule of sessions and I have opened it up to anyone to attend, for FREE!.  

To view the TechToberFest registration website, visit http://lancaster-city-school-district.ennect.com/events/techtoberfest13.  You should review the Schedule Tab before you go through the registration process.  I will stop registrations when the sessions have maxed out.  

There are 70 sessions to choose from but sessions are filling up fast.  Please consider coming for a day full of the sharing of best practices in educational technology.  After all, the price is right.

Just a few more details.  Lunch is on your own.  I tried to get this provided by several vendors but could not swing it.  Also, beware of the Fairfield County Fairgrounds.  Traffic will be heavy in that area.

Use the Twitter #TechToberFest13.  You can follow me on Twitter @MrKevinSnyder.

Square Peg in a Round Hole

I have been debating with myself for the last month whether I should write this blog post or not. Obviously, I have now decided to write it.  I want to preface this post by stating that this post is based on my observations and experiences both as an educator and, more directly, as the parent of special needs children.  This post is not intended to take issue with the school district I work in, the district my children attend, or any one individual.  This post is intended to provoke thought, discussion, and hopefully action.  

Now that I have some disclaimers let me start with the idiom of placing a "square peg in a round hole." Wikipedia (I don't like to cite them but they are easy) states that this idiomatic expression describes the unusual individualist who could not fit into a niche of his or society.  I am using this expression to illustrate my experiences working with parents of special needs students, including my own experiences.

As many of you are aware, I work for a great school district and recently have been involved in leading a 1:1 iPad program for all high school students.  During the first two weeks of August this year, we held parent information meetings to tell our parents and students about the program before the school year started.  We also used this time to have the students set up their iPads so they would have them ready for the first day of school.  We made these meetings mandatory for parents and students and the turnout was tremendous.  Our auditorium and cafeterias were packed with parents and students eager to hear about the program.  The meetings were successful, after we worked out some technical bugs, and we had most of our students ready to go for the first day of school.

Now for the nitty gritty portion of this post.  Each evening, I was approached by at least one parent and asked if his or her student would be receiving an iPad.  At first I was surprised that I would be asked this question.  I asked the first parent why he would ask that question.  Of course we are giving each student an iPad.  The first parent told me that his student was in the MH (multiple handicapped) classroom and therefore assumed that his student would be excluded from the program.  I assured him that ALL students get an iPad and that we would help him and his student use it in whatever means possible to help his student learn  This first parent was surprised, maybe shocked, that his student would be included in the program.  Each succeeding night I encountered another parent or two who asked me the same question.  It struck me that these parents have become so accustomed to having their children excluded from the same experiences and learning activities as other children that they had difficulty believing their children would be included in a massive project like this. 

After talking with these parents it also struck me how my special needs child has been excluded from educational activities.  I first thought back to pre-school.  Private preschools would not consider her because of her disability.  We had taken our older daughter through this preschool and it was excellent. This excellent preschool would not take our square peg because she would not fit in the round hole as expected.  I then thought about my daughter and when she started special needs Kindergarten.  The school she was attended approached us before school started and stated that the students in the special program would not be attending school on for three days so the teachers could go to an inservice.  The other students would all be in session.  The school was surprised that I would object to this and that I pointed them in the direction of some laws which clearly stated that this would be in violation of the law.  In the end, the students in the program were in attendance that day with a substitute teacher and the classroom educational assistants.  

There are other examples I could cite but I think you get the point.  I bring all this up because we, as educators, need to look at our services differently.  I know we don't like to think of ourselves as working in a customer service industry but we better change that viewpoint.  In the era of school choice, it is imperative that we serve our customers (students and parents) as we would like to be served.  Or as the Golden Rule (Wikipedia strikes again) says "treat others as you would like to be treated."  If you, or your child were a square peg how would you feel if the school tried to fit him or her into a round hole?  More importantly, how would you feel if your child were not accepted into a good school or excluded from a program because of his or her disability?  How would you like to be treated?

This is just food for thought because I believe that the schools which do not adopt a customer service model will slowly lose students, causing a revenue shortage, leading to fewer programs, and eventually total failure.  I am glad my district has now adopted customer service as a focus area and has started the process of including all students.  In the end, student success equals our success.  Our success equals societal success.   If we fail to build quality customer relationships we will fail our students.