Harvest of Ideas
October 14, 2009Professional Development Opportunities for Over 300 Educators
The Washington County Consortium, under the leadership of Betty Jordan, planned and implemented the Harvest of Ideas workshop day for many of the educators in Washington County.
I arrived in the early morning yesterday in the pouring rain and was quite surprised to have 20 participants attend my session. I had the pleasure of presenting a session on “The Arts and Technology” and had 20 educators attend. Many were arts educators and other educators including elementary, middle school, physical education/health, and Title 1 teachers attended.
Washington County arts teachers
I shared with them information from The Arts Connect conference for those who could not attend.
In the afternoon we had a content specific forum facilitated by art teacher Lisa Marin, where 12 arts teachers met to discuss topics including the high school graduation requirements and the Maine Learning Results. The teachers discussed the positive aspects of their programs as well as the challenges.
me arts ed 
What an incredible opportunity for these educators to gather and share knowledge.
Maybe the invite will go out statewide next year? : )
I am certain Washington county would include you in their professional development day next year Suzanne! I think it makes sense to have regional conferences all over the state like Aroostook and Washington counties do (and have for a number of years). This is not just for arts educators but all educators. The more opportunities to bring educators together, i.e. arts educators, classroom teachers, administrators, ed. techs, the more links that can be made to provide professional development for all those who are responsible for student learning.