Coming Soon: Vision 2020 II – The Sequel
The SDE’s big summer conference is approaching quickly. They’ve marketed it like crazy, and there are quite a few educators registered. In case you haven’t had a chance to look at what they’re offering, you should click here and see if it’s worth your time to attend any of the conference, scheduled for July 9-11 in Oklahoma City.
(Note: At this time, none of the workshops cover the relative advantages/disadvantages of the overuse of first person pronouns in letters sent to ravished [sic] school districts.)
Of note is the two hour “Parent Power” block the night of the ninth. Surely this will include opportunities to help parents understand why schools put no stock in the failed A-F Report Cards, how the so-called Parent Trigger is failing in other states, and what they can do to get on the SDE’s naughty list.
(I’m looking at you, Jenks.)
You can also read more about the three keynote speakers that the SDE has paid brought in with big money. Tuesday’s keynote speaker, Ryan Quinn, is a business professor at the University of Virginia. Wednesday, Ron Clark makes a return visit from last year. Finally, Thursday, Tony Wagner is a professor at Harvard and a prolific author of books and articles on education reform.
The conference website includes links to breakout sessions by topic, where you can see a title, a time, and a date. The workshops have no descriptions or presenter information, however. This makes it difficult to know anything about the quality or specific content of the sessions. If you’re within a comfortable drive of Oklahoma City, this probably matters less to you than if you’re coming from 100 miles away or more.
I’ve always been a believer that high-quality professional development can make us better at our jobs. And since our job is to improve the lives of our students, we should always be about self-improvement. Ask yourself, though: how much will three keynote speakers and a series of disconnected workshops change the way you do your job? On the other hand, it’s free.
Last year, I went to the conference and gave it a C. It’s time to clear the slate and see how this one turns out.
okeducationtruths 
I read the circular…So the businessman is the keynote on the day designated for teachers and the educator (if we can call Clark that) speaks another day. Way to value educators. One shot PD is the very worst kind there is…
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Now, now— I’m sure the State Dentist is not personnally involved one iota with the programming/scheduling of the SDE’s big, glitzy conference. But then again she might be since this is a big photo op publicity maker, not like the several million dollar testing company contracts which she was so quick to remove herself from and throw SDE employees under the bus. Some of them should be nicely covered in tire marks by now. When the cat is busy running all over the country and not running the agency that she is charged with leading, the mice do the best they can. Of course the nice big paychecks some of those mice receive makes the tire marks seem not to be quite so bad I’m sure!!!
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It would be very interesting to know just how much money the keynote speakers are being paid for the VISION 20/20 gig and how they are being paid—- taxpayer money (which according to the audit from last’s years wanna be conference taxpayer money paid a $16,000 bill to the event planning company) or private donations or out of the exhibit hall booth rentals. Of course the fact that there is a “book signing” for each author sweetens the deal. Wonder what the main objective is for having them attend…… to speak and enlighten or to let them promote their own agendas with a book signing. Sounds a little sketchy
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