A shameless plug

As I don’t doubt that I’m just sending this blog into the (relatively silent) universe, I’ll use this opportunity to do a shameless plug for the Grad School. This past Thursday and Friday, Caleb Clark, the MAT program director, and I went to the VITA-Learn Vermont Fest 09 conference in Killington. It was a very cool event. I’ll mention at this point that going to events is not as much fun as one might believe. Often they entail standing for a long time and speaking over a general din about your offerings with people who may actually be interested or just feel guilty about walking up to the table for the sole purpose of grabbing a piece of chocolate.

The VTFest was much better. Realizing that most people were not milling about the various tables but actually in the workshops provided (which were excellent), I ventured into said workshops as well, along with Caleb. Being a child of the 80’s, I remember the “Crisis in Education” that we faced as a nation with the rise of Japan and Europe to challenge the US and our schools not being up to said challenge. Those days are not, nor will they ever be, so far behind us that we needn’t be vigilant about the quality of education we are giving American students. That said, I became very excited at what is being done; even here in the tiny state of Vermont (pop. 621,000).

And who is leading this excellence (prepare for aforementioned “shameless plug”)? Yes, Marlboro GradSchool alumni were well represented at VITA-Learn this year. I saw many of our students walking around and met some I didn’t know previously (gimme a break, I’ve only been here for 2 of the school’s 12 years). Moreover, Lucie deLaBruere, an alumna, won the Frank Watson award for ed tech. It was awesome. Check out Lucie’s site.

If you want to get involved, you know where to find me.