1. Apply early
2. Follow the Format
3. Tie to Curriculum
4. Expand Your Audience
5. Handouts and Mailouts
6. Workshops Rather than Presentations
7. Make and Use Contacts
8. Evaluations are Important
9. Follow-up, Follow-up, Follow-up
10. Spreading the Word Through Other Venues
About Teacher Conventions
All public teachers (including those working for the primarily Catholic separate school districts) in Alberta are required to attend two days of Teachers’ Convention during February and March. The ten Teachers’ Conventions are an excellent method of publicizing environmental education services and programs, and allow service providers a method to talk directly to classroom teachers. The following tips are intended to help environmental educators to successfully apply to present a session, and to hold a successful session at one or more conventions.
Keep in mind that most of the work in planning the convention is done by volunteers who are also classroom teachers or school administrators. They have limited time to accomplish tasks that usually fall to full-time event planners in other professions. This means that easier you make their job, the more likely you will be successful in applying for and delivering a session at a convention.
Apply Early
Most Teacher Conventions begin to select sessions and build their programs in the late spring. Be sure to check on the convention websites to see when their deadline is to submit proposals for the next year. This is particularly important as conventions often have more applications to give sessions than can be accommodated in convention venues. An application that misses a deadline is an easy one to reject and requires little work on the program chair or program committee’s part. Make sure that your application is on time.
Follow the Format and be Complete
Generally the convention association will have a specific format for the submission of your application. You may be required to submit online to a database with severe restrictions on the number of words (characters) available to describe your session. Convention associations generally publish either a physical convention booklet or post an electronic document online and in both cases are looking for a succinct summary of what your presentation is about. You need to provide sufficient information to sell your session, while remaining within the space restrictions specified by the program committee. The program chair and the program committee do not want to rewrite your description. Not following the specifications for submission is another opportunity for the program committee to make an easy decision not to approve your session. Don’t let this happen to you, follow the rules, and take the time to write an engaging description of your session (in 150 characters or less if necessary). While the session description is extremely important, don’t forget to fill out all other information as well. Program committees need to know if you are applying for travel expenses, release time, or an honoraria as they are working within a budget. They also need to have reliable contact information. Make sure you provide this to them.
Tie Your Session to the Curriculum
Alberta teachers are required to follow the provincial program of studies (curriculum). Whenever possible be sure to make the tie between the material in your session, and the appropriate year, subject, and curriculum topic from the program of studies. Tight linkage with the curriculum will make it more likely that your proposal will be approved, that teachers will attend, and that evaluations will be positive. A clear statement on how this session will help attendees present specific curricular content to their students is more likely to prompt teachers to go to your session.
Expand Your Audience
While tight curriculum linkage is great, it may also restrict the number of teachers who will show up at your session. Be sure to look at other subjects than science in order to expand the population of teachers who may consider your session. Keep in mind that new programs in Career and Technology Studies and curriculum change in Social Studies at the high school level have opened up opportunities for cross curricular connections. As many elementary teachers are generalists and teach most, if not all, subjects you will find the pool of potential attendees much larger for sessions with elementary curricular tie ins. Note that curricular focus must be very tight when dealing with topics in grades 3,6, and 9 as this is when provincial high stakes tests are administered to all Alberta students, and teachers will be resistant to introducing “extra” content.
Handouts and Mailouts
Pre-packaged classroom materials are very popular inducements for teachers to attend a session. Note how often a teacher will drop in just before or just after the session “to pick up the handout” before heading off to some other presenter. While we may have our suspicions about how many of those handouts actually make their way into classroom use, as opposed to the circular file or the filing cabinet, as presenters we still need to meet the need of teachers for physical memorabilia. On the other hand, as an environmental educator (and responsible human being), you probably have a deep seated aversion to killing trees in order to generate this material. There is a way to avoid this conflict by mailing out material electronically, or by allowing teachers to download copies of the material to a personal USB drive. Keep paper handouts to a minimum and make sure that every handout has contact information (email, URL, and social media). Circulate an email sign-up sheet and follow up with a material package as soon as you can (memories of just how fantastic your session was will fade rapidly once teachers return to the classroom so it is better to get them the material the same day or over the weekend). If you wish to have further contact with them or have an electronic newsletter, the sign-up sheet needs to have a check column for them to give you permission to do so. Tell people in your session description that material will be made available to attendees in a digital form so that there are no surprises.
Workshops Rather than Presentations
No matter how good you think your 60 slide PowerPoint presentation is, chances are that by slide 30 your audience will want to be somewhere else (and those at the back of the room may well begin to take action on this impulse). Workshops engage people in learning and give them a chance to test out instructional materials and classroom activities. Even if your session is really not workshop suitable, you need to build in as much audience participation or hands-on activities as possible. Keep PowerPoint slides to the minimum and choose short video clips to illustrate your point over static slides. Keynote speakers are paid thousands of dollars because they have a track record of being able to entertain large groups of people in a 75 minute session—you probably are not. Allowing your attendees to communicate with each other and the larger group is one way to keep them engaged and focused on your information.
Make and Use Contacts
While on the surface, a teachers’ convention may appear to be a one-off event, remember that they occur every year and that the organizing committees share information. Evaluations of speakers and sessions are compiled by the Alberta Teachers’ Association and are shared between committees at meetings during the year, and at a week-long training session for program chairs and presidents during the summer. Making contacts and meeting people at the convention is an important way to network with professional development providers across the province. Many conventions will provide a host responsible for introducing you and ensuring that the physical arrangements and technology at your presentation site are suitable. You may want to have your host introduce you to the program chair and convention president—these are busy people so don’t monopolize their time but do make a contact if possible. Knowing who the program chair is (and even better having them know who you are) is an advantage when making contact for next year’s convention application.
Evaluations are Important
An evaluation form is often distributed to session attendees and collected for processing by the convention committee. These evaluations are shared with other convention committees and with the professional development staff of the ATA. You will often be able to get a copy of the raw evaluation forms, or a summary of the results, from the convention association and of course you should do so. A good evaluation is important if you intend to regularly present material to the convention circuit, so do pay heed to what the teachers attending your session have to say. If you had a spectacular technology fail, that might negatively impact your evaluation, so remind your host to pass along that information.
Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up
Once you have finished your presentation, your work is not complete. If you have created a mailing list of session attendees, make sure that you send out promised material. If you have permission to continue contact
through the year make sure to ask if they have had any problems with the material or if they have any suggestions on how to improve it (avoid asking directly if they have used it in the classroom). Let them know if you are applying to present at their next convention, and if your session has been accepted. While it is unlikely that they will attend the same session two years in a row, they have colleagues to whom they can recommend your session, and they may be willing to attend other topics that you are presenting. Make sure that you maintain contact with the convention committee and any hosts or volunteers that you have spent time with. Positions change in the convention committee, so your host from this year, may be the program chair next year. This will also allow you to find out when the deadlines are for subsequent applications, and if there is a special focus to the convention.
Spreading the Word Through Other Venues
Although conventions are important professional development events that engage almost every teacher in the province, they are not the only professional development activity that you should participate in. Alberta teachers are also encouraged by the ATA to join a subject specialist council. Each specialist council holds an annual conference with a program of workshops and presentations so you should also apply to the relevant specialist councils to present at these conferences. In addition to the subject areas which naturally lend themselves to environmental education (Science; Social Studies; CTS; Global, Environmental and Outdoor Education), there are also councils based on grade levels (Early Childhood Education, Middle Schools), or on particular subgroups of students (Outreach, Special Education). Since the teachers who attend these conferences may have a higher level of engagement with curriculum and professional development, presenting at these events will build your profile amongst decision-makers on convention committees. (A convention committee I served on usually had three or four presidents of specialist councils as members of the committee and these individuals were extremely influential in the choice of program sessions.) The Global, Environmental, and Outdoor Education Council also allows non-formal environmental educators to become subscribers (associate members) of their council. GEOEC members often present sessions at the Beginning Teachers’ conferences sponsored by the ATA early in the school year which is yet another important venue for professional development. The more people who know about your organization and your sessions, the more easily you will gain access to teachers’ conventions and other professional development venues.
About Dr. Noel
Noel Jantzie served for five years on the executive of a large urban teachers’ convention association. Over his career he presented a number of times at teachers’ conventions and specialist councils on topics including: Social Studies, Educational Technology, Environmental Education, and Educational Policy.
