I don't know: maybe it is an East Coast thing, but several of the larger
districts that I've been with (Loudoun, Va; Fairfax, VA and Baltimore
City) and the private school I worked for (we were part of a hospital,
so we did ours when the hospital did) all did "fairs" at the in-service
days where vendors of applicable materials, but also personal items like
additional insurance or long-term disability insurance. Often they were
named "benefit fairs", and seemed to be set up by the benefits office.
I don't know how vendors and participants were chosen, although I do
recall that the smaller local educational supply stores were at each, as
well as some of the larger vendors. I didn't like the in-service
sessions, and wasn't terribly fond of most of the noise and hoopla that
went along with the benefit fairs, but I did pick up some useful
contacts and free materials. I do agree with approaching teachers and
not administrators. I've only been teaching 11 years, but I've bounced
around because of having worked for some of the worst administrators
that I've ever seen. I honestly have no idea how many of these people
became principals or upper-level administrators except by hanging tight
to the Peter Principle, which says that all people will be promoted to
their highest level of incompetence. I have unusually bad luck with
administrators: three district superintendents that I've worked for have
been out of compliance with court mandates, embezzled money from their
already poor inner-city districts, and/or been taken out of the district
administration building in handcuffs. Two of the gentleman committed
more than one of these offenses. Building administrators have included
the principal that greeted me with the phrase, "I don't need any more
d*mn special ed teachers in my building. Go downtown and tell them
that!" on the first day I reported to her school to the one that
introduced me as the mentally retarded teacher (which prompted a fellow
teacher who clearly had no clue about special education to say, "You
have accomplished an awful lot given your disability!") my first year in
her building. At least that principal also introduced the teacher
working with students with emotional problems as the 'emotional and
behavioral problem teacher'. But, none of those are quite as special as
the people at my private school... But, we're not going to go there
now. :)
One thing I left out about national conferences: all of them are going
to charge, usually quite a lot, for a vendor space. Also, they tend to
not let you present using your materials. However, you might be able to
convince a teacher you know to present something they've done with your
product in the classroom, and showcase the games during that presentation.
Magi
miyu wrote:
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.
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