Six reasons to go to the South Dakota Indian Education Summit

If you didn’t know, now you know, the South Dakota Indian Education Summit is in Pierre, South Dakota (what state were you expecting?) September 24-26 , 2017.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of smaller, education conferences. There are four general reasons why these are a good use of your time, and two for SDIES particularly.

1. The people you meet are more likely to have classroom experience. Unlike some of the national education conferences, more local events are largely at the “building level”  – that is, teachers, paraprofessionals and principals. If, like me, those are the people you want to speak with and learn from, the smaller conferences are your place to go.
2. The sessions are focused on classroom applications.  Many of the presenters are sharing cool ideas that worked in their schools. By the way, you should consider presenting at these conferences because if you’re reading this you are probably an above average educator and have a lot of good teaching ideas.
3. 

   You DON’T get this (I have died of boredom )

   We’re all familiar with those professional development activities that make you grateful only that it’s impossible to die of boredom. Every session I went to at SDIES last year was interesting, even the ones WAY outside my area of expertise, like integrated art and literacy lesson plans focused around Dakota artist Oscar Howe. Maybe it is because 90% of the people speaking at these smaller conferences are doing it because it is a topic they are passionate about and not that they need to have this on the tenure application.

4. It won’t break your budget. At $100 for one day or $150 for the whole conference you can buy a ticket to Pierre with what you save on the registration.
5. Since it is the South Dakota INDIAN EDUCATION Summit, you’ll have the chance to attend presentations specific to Native American students, from traditional games to using the seven values to teach.
6. You can meet me! (Or, if you want to look at it another way, I can meet you!) I’ll be giving a keynote address on Sunday, “In the end, you rescue yourself”. I’m also giving a presentation on Monday on youth as producers of technology, not just consumers. Don’t be shy. Come up and say hi.

Five school licenses will be in the prize drawing at  the conference.

If you can’t make it to Pierre, you can get our games here starting at FREE to a measly $19.98 for 3 games.