Leadership lessons: Learn why ed-tech teamwork is key at FETC Wednesday

We need to flip the idea that hard work is what leads to success and eventually, happiness. When educators focus on that last concept first, then the other two follow, says Shawn Achor, an expert on positive psychology who will deliver the Future of Education Technology® Conference opening keynote on Wednesday.

Our mental pictures of reality are what truly determine our likelihood of success and our ability to harness our IQ, and our emotional and social intelligence. This is the pathway for students and educators to become “positive geniuses,” says Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage and Big Potential.

“Positive brains reap an incredible advantage,” says Achor, whose keynote begins at 10:30 a.m., “raising productivity by 31%, tripling creativity, tripling problem-solving ability, improving verbal and quantitative reasoning, while deepening social bonds, raising intelligence and memory, lowering bullying and social isolation, and extending how long we live.”

Another important time to keep in mind is noon, which is when the EXPO Hall opens.

Leading through change

Featured speaker Ann McMullan, project director for CoSN’s EmpowerED Superintendents Initiative and Klein ISD’s former executive director of educational technology, will join David Miyashiro, superintendent of Cajon Valley Union School District (Calif.), and Matthew Miller, superintendent of Lakota Local School District (Ohio), for Lessons Learned about School Leadership Since March 2020 on the Future of Ed Tech Administrator track.

The superintendents will detail how they navigated leading teaching and learning when schools shut down in March 2020 and how they continue to do so in a world of constant change.

“During COVID, K-12 leaders had to genuinely listen, question and understand information that was coming at them from a variety of sources, many of which they had not been dealing with prior to COVID,” McMullan says.

On the Future of Ed Tech Library Media Specialist track, featured speaker Shannon McClintock Miller will host Let’s Bring Literacy To Life Through Making and Technology!. McClintock Miller, the innovation director of instructional technology and library media at the Van Meter School District in Iowa, will show educators how to bring literacy to life through making and with digital tools and apps. “This is our time to shine,” Miller says of her fellow librarians and media specialists. “We have this huge opportunity, and that’s gonna stick. Librarians are going to be seen in that leadership role.”

And on the Future of Ed Tech Coach track, John Meehan, an instructional coach at Bishop O’Connell High School in Arlington, Virginia, will help attendees envision how to transform “ho-hum exams” into binge-worthy events that turn students from content consumers into content creators.

“We have to figure out what excites students and try to harness those things to create more dynamic, purposeful and playful lesson plans for our classrooms,” says Meehan, whose Wednesday session is entitled “From Consumers to Creators: Jaw-Dropping Alternative Assessments Through Gamification.”

The Power Panel

Another one of Wednesday’s most anticipated sessions is the District Tech Leaders Power Panel, with lead presenter Greg Bagby, the coordinator of instructional technology for the Hamilton County Department of Education in Tennesee.

More from DA: 3 ed-tech leaders share how COVID has made them key members of the team

The panel of district technology leaders will discuss how their connections to their colleagues in other districts contributed to the success of their school systems during the pandemic.

FETC’s five learning tracks—Future of Ed Tech Administrator, Future of Ed Tech Information Technology, Future of Ed Tech Educator, Future of Ed Tech Library Media Specialist and Future of Ed Tech Coach—will host orientation sessions at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday morning.