IL-TCE 2008

The Blog for IL-TCE 2008: Learning Without Boundaries, is up and active. You can re-set your link to the new site; IL-TCE 2008

You may also join us on our NING site.

Lights, Camera, AFI and NECC

Along with fellow STAR Discovery Educator, Carol Anne McGuire, I will be attending and having a small part in the American Film Institute's "Digital Filmmaking in the Core Curriculum" presentation on Monday at 11:00. I believe I will be making my screen debut with Sean Astin there, too.

Hey, let's do it again!

And watch for the IL-TCE 2008 Blog site later this month! Invitations to contributors will be going out soon.

Podcasts!

Just posted - the IL-TCE 2007 podcasts.

You can find them on the Conference Homepage, or right here!

Check them out:
IL-TCE 2007 Podcasts!

Check out podcasts from the following keynote and spotlight speakers: David Pogue, Tim Wilson, Larry Anderson, and Jason Ohler.

Why is This Man Smiling?

Why is This Man Smiling?
Originally uploaded by luke1946.

Why is This Man Smiling?
Originally uploaded by luke1946.

This face is easily recognized by all the "Red Shirt" techies from IL-TCE! Let's see who has the best answer to the question.

And once again, a big thank you to one of the finest tech support teams ever assembled under one roof! It's your hard work and dedication that have helped make IL-TCE what it is today, one of the premier Educational Technology conferences in the entire midwest, if not the country!

This is a re-post of a previous entry which was altered when I changed some Flickr settings.

Never Too Early!

Keynote Addresses, IL-TCE 2007

You can now link to the archived replays of the Keynote addresses. Use the link from the list to the right, or simply click on the link in this post.
The link is on the Conference home page as well. Enough options for you?

ICE - A New Look

DSCN2545.JPG
Originally uploaded by charlenechausis.

In case you haven't seen it yet, here is the new ICE logo, as featured at IL-TCE 2007. Look for it to start showing up on more and more ICE related items and sites.

An Education in Jokes - Pogue's Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog

An Education in Jokes - Pogue's Posts - Technology - New York Times Blog

Check out David Pogue's blog posting for today. I'm glad we teachers could learn him a thing or two. :) I am particularly inspired by comment #7 on his blog. The commentator clearly wasn't around IL-TCE last week to see the wonderful things that were going on!

Interestingly enough, we also had another PBKC moment in Pogue's digital photography workshop last Wednesday. David needed speakers so that we could adequately hear the audio on a video clip from his upcoming T.V. show. Being the geek that I am, I offered him my brand-new mini speakers that I had received from a recent Google workshop. I hadn't even tried them out myself. Much to my chagrin, these speakers appeared to not function, but a red shirted tech guy came to our rescue with "real" speakers. Back at my seat, I played with my new toy only to find that I needed to press the big button in the center of the device to turn it on. Oops. I was too embarrassed to point this out to an expert like David. A roomful of somewhat techie people and pressing the ON button eluded us!

Thanks Plus Global Goodies

Wow! What a conference! I thoroughly enjoyed the sessions and keynotes I attended. My favorite experience was David Pogue's preconference digital photography workshop. I don't think I've ever laughed so much while learning.

It was great getting to know some of this year's new volunteers as well as the veteran volunteers who loyally donate their time every year. Your professionalism and generosity is very much appreciated!

Finally, I've posted my preso from my session entitled Global Literacy for Today's Digital Learners here, along with documents relating to another presentation I gave at the NAIS conference in Denver on Saturday morning. Yes, I almost didn't make it to Denver; my plane was delayed five hours and I finally arrived there at 2 A.M. Whew!

Again, my thanks to everyone for provided such great learning opportunities!

Lucy Gray
IL-TCE Volunteer Coordinator

Flickr Group

The Conference photo group on Flickr is growing! As of today we have 427 photos in the group and 53 members who are able to upload to the group. If you have pictures from this year's conference, or from previous years, that you'd like to share, then be sure to join the IL-TCE Group and keep those pictures coming! Remember, Flickr is free to join.

The Best Experience You'll Have All Summer!

After all these cold and snowy days, it's hard to believe summer will ever get here.

On Thursday, I attended a session on the upcoming Summer Experience, a "Technology Paradise," presented by the Western Illinois University College of Education Staff on the campus of Western Illinois University July 25 and 26, 2007, for the "best Experience you'll have all Summer!"

(From: http://www.wiu.edu/otep/summerexperience/)
Summer Experience is two fun-filled, theme-oriented days of hands-on technology integration sessions geared toward K-12 teachers sponsored by the Office of Partnerships, Professional Development, and Technology in the College of Education and Human Services.

Attendees receive quality professional development on a variety of current and emerging technologies that can enhance student learning.

What this website doesn't yet say is that the folks from WIU will be taking their show on the road, and will be co-hosting a Summer Experience North on Thursday and Friday, August 2 and 3, at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire!!

We are still working on the details, but be sure to keep these summer dates open!!

thoughts from me about ILTCE07

This year, I presented a full day pre-conference session on Technology connections in Literacy*, attended Karen Thompson's Digital Tools Wednesday session (I am a return attendee to her sessions from past years) and spent Friday at the General Conference day. I was able to see the conference from many different sides. I am not trying to score any brownie points here with Brian (he is my ed tech director), but I honestly have to say that from every aspect - tech support, organization, content - the conference was first rate. Many hours of hard work went into the planning and implementation of this week and it showed. Kudos to all on the committee...

I hope that this blog keeps up as well as the flickr photo group, too. I would like to see educational technology in the classroom photos posted too! Thanks Luke for explaining how to group my photos...there is no stopping me now!

I joked with Brian and the other Technology Facilitators in my district that I planned on parking myself at the Apple Booth all day on Friday. I had found out the topics of hands-on sessions on Wednesday from Karen and knew that is where I wanted to be. (I was not able to attend Thursday, it was my son's 13th birthday (eeek) and I wanted to be available for the family, so I unfortunately missed Thursday's Apple Booth.) I not only was introduced to many new tools that I can share with my staff and use for my own professional development, I also met new tech friends, caught up with some that I have not seen in a while, and left this day feeling refreshed. So refreshed, I went home and registered for NECC! How I will pay for it, get to Atlanta, is another blog entry all together!

As a Technology Facilitator, I can understand my role in educational technology as one of coach, too, as Darlene blogged earlier. It is important that I am dedicated to my staff and students in providing opportunities for educational, meaningful, and curriculum based technology experiences. This conference and my membership in ICE & ISTE allows me to do that. I have made a late, but worthy New Year's resolution to get more involved in these powerful organizations.

My hope for all attendees, presenters, exhibitors...realize the impact you make in Educational Technology and keep your motor's running...

-Tracy
*My pre-conference session website: http://www.glenview34.org/ly/konnectedkidshome.html

It's about the learning and sharing

Each year after the end of the conference I reflect on how things went this past week. But first I take one night to unwind with my family, catch up on mail and laundry, watch those favorite TV shows I missed that were recorded on the DVDR, and sleep in on Saturday morning. So now after a day of relaxing, unpacking, and vegging out, I'm thinking about all the people I connected with, the new ideas that are spinning in my head to take back to my district, and how incredible the conference turned out thanks to so many wonderful volunteers and presenters. I still have blogs to read, digital handouts to view, podcasts to listen to and of course can't wait to read the compiled suggestions in the evaluations so we can make next year even better. The numbers don't lie, so I know which sessions were your favorites, but I'm glad we were able to provide a variety of sessions for everyone. So even those rooms where presenters only shared with a few, those few learned something new. It's all about the learning and sharing. I hope some of you that attended this year will consider submitting a proposal to present next year with the projects and ideas you will be taking back to your schools!! Thanks again to everyone who attended and everyone who worked to make IL-TCE 2007 the best ever. Let's keep this blog going for awhile to share all that we experienced. If everyone shares one new idea, website, or tip here on this blog, everyone will have learned and shared even more. Which session was your favorite and why?

infinitethinking, attaboys and keynotes in bed

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Home and Dry downstate (where, sonofagun, it's still snowing here, too.)

A couple of "small story" things: Everyone was talking about how cool and hands on the Apple and Google Booths were, but for me one cool thing was watching Cristin Frodella from Google give up her tiny amount of free time to answer an attendee's question on Google Apps. The answer became a crowd gathering impromptu session in a corner of the Salons hall on both Google Apps and infinitethinking.

More than one attendee watched the keynotes from the comfort of their computers (at least one of which was still in bed because they overslept.) It was cool, and it was convenient, but we're not going to tell you what you missed. Ya' shoulda been there.

My thanks to Brian, Jordan, Chris, Joe, Mindy and Miss Judy and All of the other ICE Volunteers. All of your hard work paid off. It was smooth. It was educational. It was fun.
All of the ingredients for a tremendous event.

It's Over Too Soon

That was the headline in my Daily Herald this morning. I thought maybe they were talking about IL-TCE, but the picture of the sobbing basketball players told me different. People (usually fellow committee members and tech staff) often ask me what my job is with the conference and I am just as often tempted to answer "chief compliment collector." From the two keynoters, to the spotlighters, to the attendees and the vendors all I heard were wonderful things (except for the weather!) On a scale of 10 Dr. Larry Anderson gave us a 35 and one of his patented "It's aaaall goood!"
Planning has already begun for next year, but you can still reminisce or catch up on this year as soon as the podcasts, the archived videos, and classroom video contest winners are put up on the IL-TCE and ICE sites.
P.S. And a big congratulations to Tricia Fuglestad's 5th grade art students from Dryden School in Arlington Heights and Jessica Worst's 8th grade current events class from Barrington Middle School who won their grade levels in our video contest.

Thursday's Keynote

What a treat to attend the opening keynote in a ROBE!! It was a great presentation and thanks to ICE for making it happen. It was fun to see Joe, Charlene and Karen Thompson walking across the room. Of course, most special was 'being there' as Charlene accepted her well deserved award.

Marianne

Friday's Keynote Speaker .... A Tale well Spun!

Keynote speaker Dr. Ohler spun his tale well. His delivery was outstanding as he kept the audience's attention through a very animated presence. While keeping his act lively, he was able to deliver very pertinent content. He was more than entertainment on a stage to get people motivated.

My hope is that the attendees will pass Dr. Ohler's message along to all of our fellow educators. He hammered home the thought that Art is as important to our students as the 3 big R's. I don't want to pretend to be as eloquent as our keynote speaker, but basically the future requires our students to have skills that we might not consider important today. We can't just focus on the big 3.

To further discussion relating to Dr. Ohler's message, I highly recommend to my fellow tech educators to follow Scott McLeod's blog which is posted trough techlearning.com and his own site. His latest entryAssessing 21st Century Skills is very pertinent to all educators and especially those of us on the forefront of tech education.

Once again, thanks Dr. Ohler for a great beginning to our Friday. You were very thought provoking and you made an impact on my thoughts.

Scott Meech - smeech.net

Planting a Seed

Attending the ICE conference in St. Charles, IL and having a chance to talk with other educational technology educators I am even more convinced that we need to continue to plant seeds and water them. What does that mean? Rather than giving up when a new idea isn't embraced right away we need to think of how to get others thinking about a new idea, provide related information, relate it to best practices and look for other schools already implementing such an idea. I was a technology coordinator but now I am a technology coach. The difference is that I now concentrate on staff and students and not boxes and wires. We have other staff members who do that so I can focus on my passion of helping students and teachers discover how to use technology in meaningful ways to support learning. Schools need support staff to help with troubleshooting, managing servers, installing software and workstations. Schools also need technology coaches to assist staff members in using technology in meaningful ways once the hardware and software is ready to use. If you think this is important and want to plant that seed, Jamie McKenzie has a wonderful site discussing the coach.
http://fno.org/jan02/techcoach.html
Change can happen, we just need to approach it in a way that helps an idea grow. I hope more and more schools consider Technology Coaches too.

What a Great Day!

Today was the first IL-TCE general conference day and you could just feel the energy and excitement in the air ! We broke all attendance records today with 1600 attendees and an additional 350-400 exhibitors and volunteers -- 2000 people! It was wonderful - everywhere you went there were people talking excitedly about how great our keynote speaker, David Pogue, was. People were checking schedules for breakouts, visiting vendors (great idea to have cookies and coffee in the afternoon), and making plans to have lunch or dinner with colleagues perhaps not seen since last year.

Networking between colleagues is the best. I often see people at the conference who have moved to other parts of the state or left one job for another or who have retired but still enjoy attending the conference. I sense that I'm not alone in valuing the friendships that endure from one year to the next.

If you are attending the conference on Friday, take a few minutes to answer the ICE needs survey. So far we have 442 responses! Tables with laptops are setup in the Cyber Cafe, the registration area, the Atrium, and the area across from the elevators. Thanks to all attendees that took some time from their activities to respond. Remember that anyone who answers the survey will have their name entered in a drawing for a digital camera. You do not need to be present to win. Drawing is at the annual meeting at the closing session.

Tomorrow is going to be a great day! I am looking forward to hearing our keynote speaker, Jason Ohler. See you then,
Judy Satkiewicz, ICE President

Quality of Sessions

Congratulations to ICE for a great day of learning. It was fascinating to see all the excitement and discussion being thrown around by attendees. I witnessed some very excited members who were talking feverishly about new ideas they were going to incorporate into their classes.

Ken Tuley: Special Guest Star

During my presentation on Apple's Global Awareness initiative, I demonstrated how one can chat with people around the world using iChat. I used iChat and Ecamm's Conference Recorder to make a movie of this chat. Click on the title of this blog post to see the video !Thanks, Ken, for making a special appearance at our conference!

David Pogue - Outstanding

If you missed David Pogue... you missed a great kick off. Congratulations to the conference for a great start!

Lunch with a "Veteran"

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Wednesday Lunch I got my first chance to do more than say "hi" with someone most of you already knew.

I had the privilege of having lunch with ICE veteran Miss Judy Satkiewicz, who has been a member of ICE for almost 20 years. She has served in a number of roles, with a variety of conference and other committees. These days she's wearing the mantle of President.

What I learned? She thinks the work she does for ICE is payback for what she's gotten from ICE... like her first technology job. Don't take my word for it, ask her. She's a nice lady. Not a member yet? Bet she can help with that too.

Call for Photographers!

Alright, you're coming to IL-TCE 2007, you have your digital camera close at hand and you're taking pictures like crazy to help you remember the experience. Now you have an opportunity to share those memories with other conference attendees, presenters and exhibitors. Join the IL-TCE group on Flickr. All you need to do is register for a free account, upload your photos. Then join the IL-TCE group and send the photos to the group. It's that easy! If you would like an invitation to the group just send me an email (luke1946@yahoo.com) and I'll get it out to you.

Don't be afraid to jump into new things!

IL-TCE Day 1 - Workshops in Session

Day 1 of IL-TCE brought many educators to St. Charles for hands-on learning, collaborating and sharing!

Congrats to Pam Plumer for capturing this action shot on the first try during our "Thinking Outside the Camera!" workshop.

We had lots of fun discovering the settings on our cameras and exploring ways to use digital photography in the classroom.

Sometimes working with new technologies requires a "Leap of Faith." When you have like-minded educators to work with, you don't have to be afraid to jump into new things!

Volunteers Make it Possible

With the help of several volunteers and committee members, and after several of us received minor paper cuts, requiring band aids (Thanks Beth!), over 2500 tote bags were stuffed today with special flyers, the 2007 exhibitor guide and the 2007 conference brochure. These will be available to attendees starting at the Wednesday night Kick Off reception. Volunteers in their white and blue IL-TCE volunteer shirts will be available throughout the conference to help direct attendees and answer questions, and man the ICE survey stations. Consider getting involved and help make it all possible!

Things you can hear "on the street"

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Much of what is posted to this blog is, rightfully so, information on presenters and their tools and projects. There is another side to all conferences, the people side; the interactions and stories that help us get to know each other. In that vein, just a couple of quick notes:

From Sunday night: Sitting near the atrium, surrounded by young kids, in town for the weekend for a dance competition. One of them told us they didn't think they'd be going home for days, because of the snow. Luke told her that she should probably know that the hotel was about to be filled with several thousand teachers. She went running across the room shouting to her friends: "We have to get out here!!"

From Tuesday Morning: Dennis Durbin is one of the security guards who is watching our stuff overnights. You might say he has a special interest in this particular job. Mr. Durbin is a retired teacher from Richland. Three years ago he presented at the ICE conference.

WELCOME LETTER

Dear Conference Attendee:

Welcome to the 2007 Illinois Technology Conference for Educators: Thinking Outside The Box And Wires. We are sure that this year’s conference is going to be spectacular. Not only will it be filled with great presenters, presentations and information, but also we know that you will leave inspired to explore new ways of creating fun and exciting student educational experiences.

The Illinois Computer Educators (ICE), along with all of our corporate partners have made the Illinois Technology Conference for Educators (IL-TCE) one of the best and most respected educational technology conferences in the Midwest. We are excited to present this opportunity to obtain valuable educational content through hundreds of general sessions, well known keynote and spotlight speakers, two and a half days of workshops, an Administrators’ Leadership Institute, Administrator Academy workshops and a sold out vendor hall filled with the most high tech products and services. The conference is sure to appeal to everyone.

Be sure to attend Wednesday night’s Kick-Off Reception from 3:30 – 5:30 p.m. in the Pheasant Run, Expo Center! Enjoy appetizers, entertainment and a perfect chance to network with other educators throughout the state. You are sure to have fun while attending this exhibit-only event. Your conference badge is your entry ticket into the Kick-Off Reception.

Once more, we are very pleased and excited to have incredible keynote speakers. Please join us as we listen to New York Times columnist and Emmy award-winning technology correspondent for CBS News, David Pogue. Also speaking will be Dr. Jason Ohler, who is well known for the passion, insight and humor he brings to his presentations and writings. They will definitely entertain us as we learn about the latest trends in technology and education. As a special treat, we’ve added well known spotlight speakers Larry Anderson, Charlene Chaussis, Patrick Crispin, Vicki Dewitt, Adam Frey, Susan Silverman and Tim Wilson. We know you’ll enjoy their fantastic presentations on a wide variety of topics.

There is so much to do at IL-TCE ’07. You have an opportunity to learn from some of the best educators in our state. You also have a golden opportunity to meet and share ideas with other dedicated technology educators like you. We have put some of the best professional development experiences available into one conference.

As an added bonus this year, you will not only find many of the presentation materials on our conference website www.il-tce.org, but you will have the opportunity to share photos and thoughts through our Blog and Flickr sites. Additionally, you will be able to watch the Live Video events from the conference as well as listen to podcasts created at the show.

On behalf of the ILTCE Conference Committee and the Illinois Computing Educators’ Governing Board, and all of the volunteers who help make this conference a reality, we hope you enjoy IL-TCE ’07. Enjoy the conference, and get ready to start think outside of the box and wires! We hope you have an incredible time!

Sincerely,


Jordan Stephen, Conference Co-Chair
Director of Technology
East Prairie School District 73

Brian Engle, Conference Co-Chair
Director of Educational Technology
Glenview School District 34

Jason Ohler... Friday keynote speaker!

Be sure to check out Joe Brennan's post on the Discovery Educator's Network blog for Digital Storytelling... Jason Ohler, Digital Humanist!

Volunteer at IL-TCE!

Calling all volunteers! Receive free conference registration in exchange for your time. Click here for details and to fill out a volunteer application. Pass it on!

Speaking of stories...

The American Film Institute has put their years of experience working with K-12 students and teachers into a program hosted by Sean Astin called "Lights, Camera, Education!" It's been great fodder for my Digital Storytelling blog over on the Discovery Educator Network and I'm going to rely heavily on it for my two pre-conference workshops and "Makin' Movies" breakout sessions. I like AFI's emphasis on planning and teamwork (must be the old coach in me) and the fact that it is all applicable to any school subject. If you're a unitedstreaming subscriber, you have access to the video clips and the accompanying manual "The 21st Century Teacher's Handbook: Protocol and Materials Guide to the Screen Education Process." With or without access to the AFI program, I think every school has the potential to make use of the video editing software that comes with every computer to make learning come alive through digital storytelling.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it...

At IL-TCE 2006, keynote speaker David Warlick challenged educators to begin telling a new story. As educators, we have a responsibility to “observe, reflect and talk to each other… talk in the community and publish.” Emerging twenty-first century tools, such as blogs, wikis and podcasting, provide powerful technologies to transform practice and enable learners to communicate and collaborate with each other.

Since last year, I have witnessed an increase in the amount of "educational" blogging at our school. More teachers are working with podcasting technologies. Two teachers from my school, Dan Larsen and Andy Conneen, (presenting at the conference on Thursday) will be sharing how students are collaborating in the blogosphere, and how it may impact their "political" thinking.

Andy Carvin's Dec. 1 post "Understanding the Impact of Online Communities on Civic Engagement" to the PBS Learning.now website validates this approach to learning. Andy shares his comments on the recent study published by the USC Annenberg School on the impact of the Internet on American society.

Andy shares, "one of the most interesting results of the survey is the suggestion that online communities have a direct impact on civic participation. Just over one-fifth of online community members - 20.3 percent - take action offline for a cause related to their online communities at least once a year. Nearly 65 percent of online community members say they now engage in civic causes that were new to them when they started going online, while an additional 43.7 percent say they participate in social activism more since they’ve joined their online communities."

Case in point....on Dan and Andy's CitizenU's blog site, 285 comments were logged during President Bush's State of the Union address!

NEW IL-TCE 2007 SURVIVAL GUIDE:

For more information on making the most of your IL-TCE 2007 conference experience, please download our new IL-TCE 2007 Survival Guide at:

http://www.il-tce.org/gen/genSurvGuide.pdf

Lots of tips for attendees and presenters and the Top 10 reminders are included!

The All-Singing All-Dancing Pogue - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Here's a preview of IL-TCE 2007 workshop and keynote presenter David Pogue. I don't think he's bringing a piano with him, but hey, maybe he'll take requests if we find one at Pheasant Run! :)

IL-TCE Full Conference Schedule Available after January 8

The full schedule which includes over 200 General break out sessions, Exhibitor sessions and Poster sessions will be available online after January 8, 2007. Attendees will be able to search the site to locate sessions by Conference Strand, Target Audience, Grade Level Focus, Skill Level, Illinois Standards Addressed, and computer platform targeted. Presenters will be notified of the time and room they are presenting and other important presenter details by email after January 1, 2007. Workshops are filling up quickly. Don't miss out on the opportunity of participating in full day workshops on Tues and Wed and the new half-day workshops being offered on Thursday during the General conference day. Advanced registration is required for all workshops, as seating is limited.

Web Pages as Follow-up.

Are web sites useful as follow-up for a conference session? The site was initially created as a resource for those attending my sessions at IL-TCE 2006. I presented an updated version of the session this November in Springfield at IETC 2006. The two graphs above show the web traffic to my site, "Keep It Clean!" for the two week period following each conference.You can easily see the spike in hits immediately following the conferences. Since March 1st there have been over 630 page hits for the site. Not bad for a focused site created, more or less, on a whim.

If you are presenting at IL-TCE 2007 you might want to consider a small web site as a resource for your attendees.

The site can be found here: Keep It Clean!

Volunteer Opportunities

Volunteers are needed:

-to organize conference materials (3 hours required) on Tuesday, February 27, 2007 and will receive a full day registration free for Thursday, March 1 OR Friday, March 2.

-for 3-hour shifts during pre-conference days (Feb. 27-28). These volunteers will receive a free full day registration for Thursday, March 1 OR Friday, March 2.

-for a 2.5-hour shift on general conference days (Mar. 1-2) and will have the registration fee waived on the day of attendance at the conference.

This offer is subject to change depending on the availability of volunteer positions.
Please submit a volunteer application at http://www.il-tce.org/volunteers/ . Volunteers will be notified of their assignments in January 2007. Email Lucy Gray at elemenous@mac.com if you have any questions.

Flickr: IL-TCE

Now on Flickr...the IL-TCE Photo Group! If you'd like to join this group you must do two things. First, sign up for a free Flickr account. If you have a Yahoo account, you can use the same id and password for Flickr.

Once you have the account, let Luke or Lucy know and we will send you an invitation to join the group. Membership in the group is by invitation only so we will need to send an invitation in order for you to be a member.

Once a member you'll be able to upload photos to the group and view photos uploaded by others in the group.

I'm sure we have lots of good IL-TCE photos out there, so let's get in the spirit of Flickr and share!

Registration now Open

Registration is now open for IL-TCE 2007. Workshops sometimes fill up quickly, so take a look at all the great choices. New this year will be half-day workshops on Thursday, March 1st. You must pre-register for all workshops, so register early to get your first choice.

General Session Presenter Acceptances

The committee has been reviewing all proposals according to the scoring rubric. We received so many great proposals that unfortunately not all sessions will be accepted due to a limited number of available rooms. Lead Presenters should receive acceptances and contracts via email the first week of November. Contracts will be due by December 9th. A wait list will be started in case presenters are unable to commit to the conference. There is still time to submit Poster Session proposals. The complete conference schedule will be available after January 1st.

Brochure out in the next few weeks

Keep an eye out over the next few weeks for the IL-TCE Pre-conference brochure to be mailed to your schools or homes. Keynote and Spotlight Speaker information is already available online. Registration will open online after Nov. 1st. Check out the fabulous full day workshop offerings for Tues, Feb 27th and Wed Feb 28th. New, this year, half day workshops on Thursday, March 1st. The full schedule will be available online after January 1st.

Contributors to the Blog

If you were a contributor to last year's blog and your Blogger profile contained an email link, then you have already been sent an invitation to be a member of this year's blog as well.

If you did not receive an invitation and would like to join, email either Luke or Lucy with your request. You will find the email links in our profiles.