Funding Conferences

It still angers me that our school pays for teachers to *attend* conferences, but yet do not pay when a teacher is actually PRESENTING at a conference! My school does not seem to understand the value of having one of their staff members presenting at an international conference. Yes, it is great publicity for our school. But it is also inspiring to our students who benefit from an increasing global audience.

Forget all this focus on "teacher quality" and credential upgrades... we need to focus on re-vamping what our "Administrators" learn in Administration School! As I have mentioned before, administrators need to understand PR. They need to be savvy publicity agents. Sadly, many I have worked with do not seem to grasp the concept of proactive PR. They DO understand negative publicity, though.

Well, I am presenting at the ILC Conference in San Jose, CA this Thursday, October 16th. It will cost me over $500 out of my own pocket for flight and hotel. In the big picture, I don't mind... it's worth it. However, I am not wealthy and I will have a challenge paying for the other upcoming conferences.

But what is maddening is how difficult it is to get my own school to sponsor our project or help with any funding. Ugh!

Last year, as I struggled for funding, there was a staff e-mail sent out inviting 3 teachers to go to a conference in Northern California. The school offered to "...take care of the hotel, the registration, and the airfare..." for the 3 individuals, but they were short in finding teachers who wanted to attend. They sent out a mass e-mail looking for someone-anyone to attend so they could spend the money. What a waste, especially as I was burning a hole in my pocket as I tried to pay for a conference I was presenting at around the same time period.

Please Lincoln, help fund our project.