I'm going to disagree with you a little bit on the approaching the faculty as a whole during the in-service days. Most teachers are already slightly irritated they are being trained in something they already most likely do instead of working on the mountain of things that need done in room. Also going to a meeting like that allows the administration to get too much input.
The classic teacher maxim of "It is better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" comes into play here. If you sell a teacher on a good idea to use in class they will make it work. If you ask an administrator you may get turned down out of hand.
Personally I think addressing the special ed teachers are the way to go for an in-road. Gifted teachers might be interested in the game development possibilities of Icehouse pieces. Special Ed and Autistic teachers might be interested in games like Chrononauts or Nanofictionary that could be used to focus on core skills and even be presented to the kids as a reward activity that has a side effect of reviewing the material they are learning in other classes.
I want to agree with Ryan. This is the best way to get noticed by the
teachers. A good time to do this is either at national conferences
(although be forewarned that many of the larger conferences attract
mostly administrators and college faculty because classroom teachers
have a harder time getting released to attend conferences. I've only
been able to attend ones that are local to me), or at teacher in-service
days. I would bet that most districts have district-wide in-services on
one day, and many also have special sessions for brand-new teachers.
You could ask to attend those sessions by having a table set-up at one
of the main locations with flyers or coupons, maybe a raffle to get a
few games.
Good to see I'm not the only one. If a company isn't polite or gives me a rude brushoff they can be very sure they will never receive any of my personal money nor any funds that I have any responsibility for spending. An excellent contact is one of the primary things I look for when corresponding with a company. To be honest I probably wouldn't even be using LL games as much in my classroom (let alone drafting plans and trying to sell the ideas to others) had it not been for Carol. She provided an approachable and knowledgeable person who didn't come across as too busy to answer my silly inquiries.
On the other side, I had one company
turn me down, and even now, I will often look at another company to see
if they have the product available (there is a lot of crossover among
educational publishers) in their catalog before going to the company
that turned me down.
-Ryan
--
Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege, labora et invenies.