Learning and Leading - February 2011

in Action

We Treasure Our Members!

Jessica Medaille highlights special opportunities and a Web treasure hunt in celebration of Member Appreciation Month.

Carrier 3G

ISTE Member Development Team

Each February, we celebrate you: ISTE’s trailblazing, creative, and dedicated educators. This year, we’re sending you on a Web treasure hunt, where you’ll have an opportunity to win great prizes, including an iPod nano, Kindle Wi-Fi, or Kodak Play-sport video camera. In addition, all winners will automatically be entered into a grand-prize drawing for an iPad on February 28!

Visit our special site at www.iste.org/ memberappreciation to learn more about this month’s events, prizes, and other special, free resources for you.

Treasures Every Day

Virtual communities offer educators a new forum for collaboration. And even social media novices won’t need a treasure map to find them, because ISTE does the legwork for you by exploring and adopting new tools to keep you connected. You know how exciting it is to share great ideas with colleagues in your district. Imagine sharing information, best practices, and professional development with more than 20,000 ISTE colleagues.

Set up a profile and engage in the conversation on one or both of ISTE’s private Nings. The ISTE Member

Ning features year-round discussions, groups, multimedia, and member blogging. You can use the ISTE 2011 Conference Ning to get a jump-start on making connections, planning activities, and learning tips to help you make the most of your conference experience. Already a social networking butterfly? Vibrant learning and sharing happens daily among members of ISTE’s groups on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Second Life. Just search for ISTE. It’s the combination of member voices that unlocks this valuable treasure!

Another great way to join in is to

sign up for one (or all) of ISTE’s 21 special interest groups. SIGs are communities of like-minded educators that convene around common interests, such as teacher education, virtual environments, or digital equity. SIGs offer year-round professional development, opportunities to serve others, and thought leadership to the field. Best of all, SIGs are free with ISTE membership. Check out www.iste.org/ sigs for more information.

Without a doubt, nothing compares to connecting face to face at ISTE’s annual conference and exposition—a professional development experience like no other. ISTE 2011 will host 17,000 attendees this year in Philadelphia, and we hope to see you there.

And That’s Not All

Of course, your membership offers many more professional development resources: L&L, the ISTE Learning professional development community, webinars, books, podcasts, conference presentations, journals, videos on the latest ed tech topics—the list goes on.

Jessica Medaille

Senior Director of Membership Development

Jennifer Ragan-Fore

Director of New Media and Member Communities

Heidi Ellis

Membership Program Manager

Colleen Kimball

Member Communities Manager

Terra Sieberman Membership Coordinator

Susan Larson Affiliate Program Director

News

Networking Resources

About

Here are a few comments from fellow members, explaining why they think their ISTE memberships are as good as gold:

I wouldn’t be a happy teacher if

I didn’t have ISTE in my life. It’s been the most motivating and inspirational organization I’ve ever been involved with, and it’s able to feed me ideas and excitement unlike anything else.

—Gwyneth Jones, Media Specialist

I feel like I’m literally walking
among giants of the ed tech world
here. I kind of scramble up, climb
on their shoulders, and just see
the big picture from that vantage
point. And it’s an amazing view.
—Andrew Wheelock,
Tech Coordinator