As you know, our organization recently underwent a lengthy rebranding process. It wasn’t simply a name and logo change. We also evaluated the mission, vision and values of our organization as they relate to you, our members.
Our Mission: To inspire, connect and provide the educational community with opportunities that transform teaching and learning through technology.
Our Vision: Connected and empowered educators inspire today’s learners to become tomorrow’s leaders.
Our Values:
- Professional Learning: Support and provide opportunities in teaching and learning through technology and collaborative communities
- Advocacy: Be a leading voice for teaching and learning through technology in Illinois
- Membership / Chapter Development: Strengthen and enhance chapter participation through increased member engagement
- Outreach: Become the recognized resource in education tech practices
- Finance: Increase funding sources to maintain financial stability in order to support member benefits
- Collaboration: Encourage collaboration and connectivity within the membership
A new school year is just like a new New Year! It gives us all a chance to reevaluate our practice as educators. What worked last year? What didn’t? What new things do you want to try this year? What do you want to learn more about? How do you want your classroom to be?
Our students do the same. They - quite literally - start each class with a blank notebook. How do they want to fill it? What are their goals this year? Personal? Academic? What do they want to learn? How can they make the most of the year?
As we all head back to school this month, we thought that it would be a great opportunity for all of us to take some time to create a vision - or rather, a vision board - for your school year.
What - you ask - is a Vision Board? It’s simply a collection of images and words that represent your goals, dreams and aspirations. What is your mission this year? What is your Vision? What do you Value?
Vision Boards are often made using a poster board and gluing cut-up magazines, pictures, text and more. Check out this activity that we created for both you and your students to try.
If scissors and glue isn’t your thing, you can also create a digital vision board. Kasey Bell of Shake Up Learning provides more insight on how to use Google Slides to create a vision board in her January 8, 2018 blog post Student-Created Vision Boards with Google Slides.
We encourage both you and your students to make your own vision board this year. And, we would love for you to share it with our educator community on Twitter and Instagram using the hashtag #newIDEAs. As you know, we can all benefit from and learn from each others new IDEAs.
Here is a digital vision board that our Governing Board made for IDEAs 2019-20 new year. We hope that it will inspire you as you begin your own.
We wish you all a very joy-filled and successful new school year!
