Join IDEA and ISTE author & educator Dr. Jennifer Williams for a book study on Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good.

Are your learners ready to design, dream and MAKE the future? Then you've come to the right place! Teach Boldly: Using Edtech for Social Good is a guide for educators ready to activate positive change. Learn some strategies to help put your students in the drivers seat of their own learning! 

Join IDEA for a book study to count down the days to IDEAcon! This 3 week virtual cohort will be learner driven. Activities and discussion boards will be curated through the Otus platform where upon completion, participants will be able to dig a little deeper alongside IDEAcon featured speaker Jennifer Williams in 3, 30 minute Zoom Meetings. In addition, we will help you make actionable change by following your bold journey via a Twitter Chat check in and exclusive VIP meetup at IDEAcon.

Our journey into a bold new world begins, January  28th at 8PM CST. PDH credits will be offered to participants and will receive a discount code for the purchase of Teach Boldly upon registration.

Book Study Overview

Tuesday Jan 28th:

Book club meeting #1 Intro. (30 minute webinar)

Come get hands-on with the BirdBrain Technologies' Hummingbird Kits at the Hummingbird Playground event hosted by Western chapter of IDEA on January 29th from 5-6pm at Carl Sandburg College in room E241.

Attendees will receive 1 PDH for attending this free event.

Remember playing Candy Land as a kid on the floor or at the table on a game board? Why not try it LIFE-SIZED? Come and join your South Suburbs Chapter for a night of Candy Land and Gamifying fun! There might be some other cool treats or you as we learn how to "Shake- Up Your Learning Spaces"!

We will also have a child-friendly area! Be sure to register your child as a guest so we can plan accordingly. 

Illinois educators will earn two (2) PDHs at the conclusion of the event.

RSVP here for the Teacher Tuesday: Mentor Match Engine Showcase event.

Interested in #engineering #STEM #STEAM? Come learn how 1700+ students, 500+ mentors, 65 educators, 40 schools are working to reshape the future of #STEM in Illinois!

Teacher Tuesdays is a networking event designed to foster peer-to-peer support for learning. Building a learning community around Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM)Education for our region. In addition to monthly networking events, we are building an online network Tech Teachers – Join our conversation

If you have thought about creating a podcast for your school, there is a lot to consider before launching in terms of planning, production, and promotion.

During this webinar, we will share how podcasting can communicate key messages and grow your school’s brand, discuss what the potential barriers are to podcasting and why many podcasts fail and share best practices when it comes to getting started and what type of equipment you should be using for recording and editing.

This is one in a series of webinars offered by IDEA and Class Intercom. Others include:

Illinois educators will earn one (1) PDH at the conclusion of the webinar.

This Pop-Up Innovation event, hosted by Lake Forest Country Day School (LFCDS) in partnership with IDEA Northern Suburbs will show educators how to use a variety of edtech tools to showcase the innovative new ways students are engaging in the classroom — from website-based student design journals to using Seesaw to document learning across the curriculum.

LFCDS 2nd-grade teacher Kelly Brockway will demonstrate how Seesaw has been used as an assessment tool in her classroom in addition to a medium for more interactive parent communication. David Muniz, LFCDS Director of Technology, will showcase how student-created websites can be a powerful tool for student portfolios and summative assessment.

A light breakfast and coffee will be provided. This is a Microsoft Showcase School event, so educators will receive points towards becoming a Microsoft Certified Innovative Educator through their attendance. Illinois educators will also earn two (2) PDHs at the conclusion of the event.

IDEAcon is a teaching and learning conference designed for all educators, including educational leaders, technology specialists, IT professionals, librarians, instructional coaches and pre-service teachers from pre-K through higher education. The conference engages these professionals in an exploration of pedagogical strategies and resources connected to instructional technology.

Districts, schools, classrooms, and libraries will all gain valuable insights at one of the Midwest's largest educational technology conferences. In 2019, over 5,000 unique visitors joined us across four days making it our biggest conference to date.

IDEAcon features nationally recognized speakers along with a plethora of leading local presenters through a program that contains over 400 formal and informal learning opportunities. Nearly 200 corporate sponsors & exhibitors will be on-site to showcase their support for the conference and technology in education.

IDEAcon will be held at the Renaissance Schaumburg Hotel and Convention Center in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Register to join us at IDEAcon on February 24-27, 2020.

Join us for an exciting evening of trivia with featured speaker, Carl Hooker. If you know Carl, you know the evening will be filled with fun, laughter, unique trivia...and of course, some music! Teams of 3-4 will be formed at the event so make sure you and your friends get signed up!

Send them to: http://bit.ly/IDEAconTRIVIAnite 

A big thanks to our sponsors, TRA and Google for providing drinks and appetizers (and even some trivia questions).

You are registering for the ISTE Certification for Educators presented by Illinois Digital Educators Alliance.

Through the ISTE Certification process, teachers will participate in 30 hours of dynamic in-person and online professional learning based on the ISTE Standards and transformative pedagogy. After completing the training, participants have six months to apply their learning and compile artifacts and reflections into a competency-based portfolio which will be evaluated by ISTE, the only organization that awards the certification.

Illinois Digital Educators Alliance has been selected by ISTE to be an authorized provider of the ISTE Certification for Educators because of their commitment to high quality edtech professional learning and the ISTE Standards as a guide for transforming teaching and learning.

Please note that this is an 8-week blended learning course. You are required to spend two days of learning onsite. The additional seven weeks of online learning will begin one week prior to the onsite training. The dates noted in this registration are for the two onsite learning days.

2020 Bradley University STEM/STEAM Conference for K-12 Educators 

March 6, 2019 8:00 AM – 4:00 PM

Bradley University’s Center for STEM Education is proud to announce the BU STEM/STEAM Conference for K-12 Educators. Join educators from around the state of Illinois focused on sharing innovative ideas in STEM/STEAM education.  

We are also excited to host keynote luncheon speaker, John Warner founder of Beyond Benign. For more information on John Warner, go to   https://www.beyondbenign.org/. 

Pre-registration is open January 20, 2020 and continues through February 28, 2020. Pre-registration fee is $25. Onsite registration is available for $40. (Payment via credit card or check are accepted online.)

Attendees will receive: opportunities to attend multiple sessions, voucher for keynote speaker luncheon, resources for STEM/STEAM, professional development hours, and chances for door prizes.

For questions, please contact Dr. Christina L. McDaniel clmcdaniel@fsmail.bradley.edu. 

Presentations include but are not limited to:

IDEA is proud to support the 2nd Annual Women in Education: Leading and Learning (WELL) Summit to be held on March 11-12, 2020. WELL is an event to empower, connect, inspire, support, celebrate and develop women in educational leadership.

Make plans to join us for the evening reception on March 11th to meet State Superintendent Carmen Ayala and for the full-day event on March 12th featuring keynote speakers Jennie Magiera and Dr. Debbie Silver. Encourage a colleague to register and attend with you. Group discounts are available!

For more information and to register for the WELL Summit, visit https://ilprincipals.org/grow/well-summit.

RSVP here for the Teacher Tuesday: Makerspace Mania event.

Interested in #makerspaces? Want to make, take and learn? Join us on 4.7.19 for a creative PD experience.

Teacher Tuesdays is a networking event designed to foster peer-to-peer support for learning. Building a learning community around Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM)Education for our region. In addition to monthly networking events, we are building an online network Tech Teachers–Join our conversation

RSVP here for the Teacher Tuesday: Innovative Technologies event.

Today's students will need skills for tomorrow's jobs. Come learn what #innovation & #technology is happening @CaterpillarInc & how you can support your students in developing the #skills they need! 

Teacher Tuesdays is a networking event designed to foster peer-to-peer support for learning. Building a learning community around Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM)Education for our region. In addition to monthly networking events, we are building an online network Tech Teachers–Join our conversation

RSVP here for the Teacher Tuesday: Nature & Animal Exploration

Who doesn't love learning in the wild? Join us for this unique learning experience @WildlifePrairie on June 2! #wolves #bison & #bears OH MY! 

Teacher Tuesdays is a networking event designed to foster peer-to-peer support for learning. Building a learning community around Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (STEAM)Education for our region. In addition to monthly networking events, we are building an online network Tech Teachers–Join our conversation