EduCon 2.1 is an educational conference held at the Science Leadership Academy in Philadelphia. It was held this year January 23-25.  I became aware of the conference through the PLP ning and through my PLN on twitter.

So I checked my calendar and realized I had a family commitment on Friday, and a school commitment all day Saturday.  Bummer.  So I contacted Chris Lehmann, the principal of SLA about attending for one day on Sunday.  Chris assured me that it would be worth it and it certainly was and then some.

I went with my wife Denise, who is an English teacher. This would be her first exposure to my twitter world .

So we arrived, checked in, met Chris and was also greeted by Will Richardson.  The conference is unique, as there are no vendors, and the sessions are called conversations instead of presentations.  Teachers meeting with teachers. The students of SLA along with parent volunteers really made it happen and made us all feel welcome.  I can only imagine, as someone who runs events, how much work went into this conference.

The day started with a great opening panel discussion and then the conversations began.  The first one we attended was being facilitated by Chris Lehmannm and the discussion of systematizing our values was a great one.  As a Catholic school admin, it has made me look closely at our mission and see what systems are in place to support that mission.  Here is a great blog post on this by Charlie Roy who was at the session as well.

I also attended a session facilitated by Alec Courosa. A great discussion on transparency in a room with many of my twitter friends. A great discussion on transparency.

My overall reaction is extremely positive.  Any conference that can give you insight and make you think is worth it.  And the people who attend are truly worth being with.  I truly felt like a rookie in the room, but a welcome rookie.

The conference is tremendous.  It will be held next year starting on January 29.  I am going to work my schedule so that I can attend the whole thing..

I highly recommend EduCon to all teachers. It is a great blending of those focused on 21st Century pedagogy and those who understand the power of embedded technology in the learning process.

Sorry for such a long post, but there was so much to say!

Here I am in my office. On a Saturday, contemplating a blog post.

The Why and How

I was watching a Michael Wesh video today. And as always, it is a thought provoking video. In it he uses the phrase “someone who knows why will put up with almost any how.” That got me thinking.

The Arts

Which gets me back to why I am in school today. Well, we are hosting what is called the All Catholic Band Festival. This festival has about 90 high school musicians participating from around the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The concert is tomorrow, but yesterday and today, they are having all day rehearsals. Anyone who says that kids today don’t have long attention spans should watch these kids or any students involved in the performing arts.

These kids know why, so they will tolerate and even enjoy the how. They sound incredible. They are working collaboratively. They are assuming each of their roles on the team. They are producing a collective sound that is incredible. Can we get more 21^st century than that?

Welcome to my first post. I know the page doesn’t look quite ready yet, but it will soon.

Why, “Imagine and Teach?” Well, I needed a name. And I wanted to get started. But I think the real reason is that imagination is a big deal to me. Imagination is what powers us, it drives our thinking. It also drives our students thinking and learning when their imagination is allowed to be unleashed from the standardized, quantitative world in which they live.

Imagination has always inspired and challenged me. Being visually impaired, (Stargardt’s Disease) an assistant principal, teacher, musician, dreamer and theatre director, my imagination is vital to me having enough “vision” to do what I do.

So imagine and teach. It is what I hope I do. It is what I try to do. And it is what I try to encourage.

I am presently in a Powerful Learning Practice cohort and am loving it. Without it, I would not be blogging. PLP has challenged my imagination and my teaching. It has challenged me as an administrator as well. I now find myself with an increasing 21^st Century educational outlook.

PLP has not only driven me to blog, but to the idea of a personal learning network. By using our ning site and Twitter, I have begun to develop my personal learning network. This has been an incredible experience even though it has only been a few months. I can only imagine the possibilities. If you have not ever thought about a personal learning network, I highly recommend it.

So there are some opening ramblings from me to get this started. I will blog more about my journey into the connected world in another post. And who knows what else. For now, hello everyone thanks for stopping by, please feel free to leave any comments.