Professional Development
Online registration as well as the Conference Program are now available for this year's Delaware Instructional Technology Conference, April 9-12 at the Dover Sheraton Hotel and Conference Center. Exhibitors (DSEA will be there), the conference schedule and the ever-popular student event Tuesday evening are all there.
Attention specialists: Don't let your professional license expire
Many specialists are licensed by both the Dept. of Education and their
professional boards (such as school nurses), but some are not licensed by DoE.
They are only licensed by their professional organizations. These include speech
language pathologists, audiologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists,
and ROTC instructors.
DSEA recently learned of several situations in which members employed as
these types of specialists mistakenly believed that they did not have to keep
their license/certification current with their professional board if their practice
is limited to school settings.
This is not the case! You must maintain your license/certificate in these
areas in Delaware in order to practice in a public school district.
DSEA has assisted several members who found themselves in front of their
professional licensing board through the process to secure or maintain their
license but they still face investigation and possibly criminal charges for
the unauthorized practice of their profession.
"Hopefully the investigators will reach the same conclusion as the
licensure board that the individuals did not intentionally ignore the licensure
requirements" states DSEA General Counsel Jeff Taschner. "The clear
lesson that needs to be taken from these situations," he adds, "is
that every individual is charged with the responsibility of knowing and complying
with the state licensure requirements."
Please spread the word so that this does not happen again.
Call for Technology Presentations for Delaware's Technology Conference
The 17th annual Delaware Instructional Technology Conference will be held on April 9-10th, 2008 at the Sheraton Dover Hotel. The Call for Presentations is now available, and organizers from DCET (The Delaware Center for Educational Technology) are now looking for exciting, innovative presentations from Delaware's teachers and specialists..
Please consider submitting your presentation proposal. The deadline for submission is February 23, 2008 and notification of selected proposals will take place in early March, 2008.
Visit the conference website for details and the submission form, and please feel free to share this information with your colleagues.
Study tours available to Korea
The Korean Studies Workshop (KSW) for American Educators,
sponsored by the Korea Foundation, provides U.S. educators with fully-funded
study tours of Korea. The workshop is designed to enhance mutual understanding
between the people of Korea and the United States by inviting U.S. educators
to visit Korea and then share their experiences with fellow Americans upon their
return.
In the summer of 2008, up to 100 secondary school social studies educators
from the United States will be selected to travel to Korea for the 12-day workshop.
The workshop will include lectures, tours to cultural and industrial
sites, and meetings with Korean educators and students.
The deadline for the 2008 Korean Studies Workshop is February 22, 2008.
You can access the application at their web
site. www.iie.org/ksw.
Promotional brochures are available by request. For materials or if you
have any questions, please contact 1-800-270-4317 or ksw@iie.org.
Sony announces High School Video Contest
Sony Creative Software, developer of the Vegas video production suite, has opened up its first Technology in Motion: Vision of the Future video contest for high schoolers. The competition includes $20,000 in prizes per winner for original video creations. Free software and other materials are being provided to participating schools.
The competition is designed to serve as a complete multimedia program. Sony, as part of the promotion, is including with the entrance materials a "launch kit" that incorporates a teaching guide, tutorials on using Sony's Vegas Pro 8 software, and a free version of the professional video editing software itself.
Entries will be judged on originality and creativity. The requirements for the competition are that the projects be completed in Vegas Pro 8 and submitted in the .veg format. The theme of the entries is "how you think technology will change your future."
Finalists will be determined by a panel. Three finalists' videos will be posted on the Web to be voted on by the public for the grand prize. The three finalists will receive prizes at this summer's NECC convention in Texas. The grand prize winner will receive two Sony Vaio notebooks, a video camera, and accessories. Entries must be received by a teacher or other school representative (of adult age) by April 11.
Requests for the free software, tutorials, and teaching guide are due Feb. 22.
Entry information can be found here.
NEA offers PRAXIS Study Guide
As part of its commitment to seeing highly-qualified teachers placed in
every classroom, NEA has developed an
online tutorial for Praxis II Principles
of Learning and Teaching, one of several licensure exams required in many
states.
Delaware does not require that new educators pass the standardized Principals
of Learning and Teaching test before they can become licensed, but many states
do.
Check
it out .
For more information, contact
Kimberly
Anderson , NEA Student Program, (202) 822-7163.
Teaching Science in the 21st Century: Part 6 in a series from NSTA Reports
The sixth installment in NSTA Reports series is titled Virtual Professional
Development: The Good, the Bad, and the Future.
Written by Karen J. Charles and Jane E. Griffin, the piece begins Improving
science programs for students means improving professional development for their
teachers."
As curriculum materials and instructional programs evolve, educators need to
know how to use new textbooks and materials based on inquiry and on cognitive
research. They also need to know how to establish collaborative learning environments
in which teachers can learn and grow while studying these new materials (Nelson
2006). What does this mean for professional development? What are the new tools
and strategies that can meet the demands of a new workforce, one raised on 24/7
access to technology, to information, and to peers? Most of us are familiar
with the term online professional development, but we would say that our experiences
with it have been less than satisfactory.
This series offers opinion pieces by many of the leaders in science education
today.
To read the sixth installment in the series,
click here.
Salary supplements available through completion of content "clusters"
The list of Professional Development clusters available for teachers and administrators
is posted at the DEEDS (Delaware Educator Data System) web site. Approved
by the Professional Standards Board, these clusters allow educators to earn
2, 4 or 6% or their base state salary for up to five years, depending on the
rigors of the approved "cluster." Click
here , then scroll down to Salary and click on Clusters.
Click here for the list of our training,
workshops and professional development scheduled for 07-08.
Think Big !
The NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education (NFIE) now offers
certain grants on an ongoing, year-round basis.
Over 300 small grants of $1,000 to $3,000 are awarded each year to fund your
BIG ideas. The NEA Foundation's grants fund classroom innovations or professional
development for improved practice in public schools and higher education institutions.
Apply today.
Get an application here or call 202-822-7840.
The NEA Foundation and NEA Teacher Quality Department announce grants
of up to $100,000 for partnerships inclusive of a state affiliate and
at least one local affiliate and school district.
Act quickly to take advantage of this opportunity to develop bold new ideas
and incentives to attract and retain accomplished teachers in hard-to-staff
schools establish innovative policies and practices, and feature the leadership
of National Board Certified and other accomplished teachers.
To apply, go to The
NEA Foundation web site and submit a completed application as an
email attachment to rgamen@nea.org at
the NEA Foundation. You will also find the grant guidelines on the web site.
No paper involved!
DSEA offers Training and Professional Development
tailored to your needs
Talk to anyone who has attended DSEA training, and they'll tell you how beneficial
- and fun - it was. Training comes in all shapes and sizes, depending on need.
Requests come to DSEA staff through local
leaders , local Instruction and Professional Development committees, and,
of course, directly from you.
Many times our training is tailored for a particular situation.
Also available -
The Law and You
Dealing with Difficult People
Conflict Resolution
Mediation techniques
Managing Stress