Thank You's (McFatridge)

Yesterday, I received 3 thank you letters from former students. It was so nice to hear students express their thanks for being their teacher. Now I would like to extend my thanks to Mr. Thomas for involving his students in such a positive activity. Smile , sparkle, shine everyone! Its almost April.

Energy Innovation Conference (Musselwhite)

On February 27 and 28 I attended the first annual Energy Innovation Conference at Lake Land College in Mattoon, Illinois. Being somewhat of an environmentalist, the green theme of the conference was refreshing. The keynote speaker was Jack Schultz, a local author of the book “Boomtown USA: Entrepreneurs, Energy and the Future”. Jack talked to the audience about the great things happening in small towns across America, with a special focus on alternative energy and how communities that recognize the value of alternative energy will find themselves on a positive growth curve. The rest of the sessions were similar in topic.
My first session, Integrating Renewable Energy into Secondary and Post-secondary Education Curriculum, was a collaborative effort by three department; Jeff White in Environmental Science, Mark Niemerg in Agriculture, and Michael Beavers in Electronic Technology. The three had been asked to develop modules that could be bought by local schools. The modules would include all the material needed for each lesson along with a finished curriculum. The lessons were well thought out and it sounds like it would be something to look into.
My second session on the first day was about the “Greenmill Village” in Arcola. This session was presented by the developer of the complex, Bob McElwee. The Greenmill Village is a 100 acre green resort powered by wind and solar energy, along with being a suitable model for community development. At first this sounded like a really good idea, but after listen to the session I realized that it is almost impossible to have a huge development be entirely green and this one was no different.
The rest of the night, 4:00 to 8:00pm, included the Energy Fair, Energy Fair Banquet, and the Energy Fair Awards Ceremony. Unfortunately I was unable to attend these events due to time constraints.
The second day started well with a session called “Casting Our Future to the Wind”. The presenter, Mike Ryan, is the superintendant of the Erie Community School District #1, in Erie, Illinois. This school district is believed to be the first district in the state of Illinois to utilize a single wind turbine to generate power for an entire multiple site District. He discussed how his district obtained the money for the wind turbine and also the installation and application of it.
After a short mid morning break I attended two sessions before lunch. One covered New State Funding Initiatives and the other was “The 3 Keys to Energy Cost-Cutting Success: Are They in Your Plan?” The first was as you would expect but the second was very interesting. The presenter was Craig Pals from Tick Tock Energy in Teutopolis. His presentation was directed towards big business and the reduction of energy use and cost, but everything he said could be related to any project a person would under take. The three keys for energy cost-cutting success he mentioned are as follows: 1) energy-efficiency and conservation, 2) renewable energy and on-site power generation, 3) comprehensive energy management strategies.
After lunch the session went by pretty fast I attended one on the “Wind 101 – Basic Design” presented by Joe Tillman. This was a pretty straight forward session about how to build your own wind turbine. I had some ideas of my own on how to do this and I was right on some of them and way off on others. This was a good session in that I could use some of these basic turbine designs in the beginning Technology Classes at almost no cost for materials.
The next session was more or less a sales pitch but it was still interesting. It was presented by Andrew Trueblood and Daren Durey about “Making New Construction Energy Efficient.” I went to this session with intentions of using for information in a Construction Skills Class but there was not much there. The two presenters were taking about Sip’s houses, which are frameless houses that use pre-cut wall and roof panels with the polystyrene (Styrofoam) insulation in between them. It seemed like it would be a good idea but it is hard to get away from the “norm” of house construction.
The last session I attended at the conference was “The Green Bug Conversion Project” presented by Kevin Miller, Automotive Science Instructor. I have an automotive back ground so this was very interesting. I would advise that anyone in the Lake Land College area stop by and check out the project for themselves.
Overall the first annual Energy Innovation Conference was educational and entertaining. I will definitely go back next year and bring as many of the staff that are willing to come with. I am proud of the fact that a college in the area is taking so much interest in alternate energy, and not only taking about it but implementing it on the campus.

What I did on my March Break (The Connections Conference)

First, I want to take a minute to than the staff members that went with me Angie, Kevin, Mark, Staci, Jayne and Justin. This was a great group and they took a leap of faith to leave during some terrible weather on Tuesday and made it to every break out session. We had a great time but the work came first and I can tell you they took a great deal of time and effort looking for sessions that might provide information that they could bring back. I will let them talk about each of the sessions they went to and although there was a little overlap, I think we covered a wide variety of subject areas.

My first session was called "Paper to Pixels Tips to Save You Time Computing" this was put on by a teacher from the Grundy Area Vocational Center. The short version of this was that he has created class user groups using Google apps. These groups allow him to distribute information, allow his students to collaborate with their teachers and others in an upfront fashion (rather than cheating), and make his materials for class available to himself via any web connection. I will be playing with these applications a little more and perhaps Jayne (who was there as well) can help me present some information for you soon.

My second session was put on by Dave Shepard and was call "Rules of Engagement: Winning the War Against Student Apathy". He was very engaging and presented several ideas for dealing with the student that refuses to be active in your classroom as well as ideas that engage students without taking away instructional time. I would like to look into bringing him in for next year.

The day went downhill after that when I went to to less impressive breakout sessions. One was on video conferencing and the other on Education to Careers. If you want information on either I can give it to you and the video conferencing was interesting from the aspect that these teachers were bringing in experts from all over the country to talk to their students in real time.

On Thursday, my first session was put on by a groups from Dyersburg TN. It was about freshmen transitioning. The good news is that they have a nice little program. The better news is that I think that our M & M groups is already ahead of them with the mentoring program that we are doing. It is possible that we could incorporate some of their ideas and I have an email address for the M & M group.

I them went to two sessions by Craig Zablocki. These both focused on trying to get us to let down our guard and interact with our peers and students more effectively.

My last two posts have been very long and I am sure that the rest of the folks that went have a great deal to add so I will close but if any of these topics were of interest to you make sure to stop by and talk to me so Ican give you some of the information. It's good to be back!