In March, the 2008 ASCD Annual Conference and Exhibit Show brought educators from around the world together in New Orleans, La., to discuss new strategies for creating positive change and reinventing schools.
From the ASCD Student Chapters and Habitat for Humanity service event in St. Bernard Parish to the hundreds of invigorating sessions, the 2008 ASCD Annual Conference and Exhibit Show and its 10,530 attendees left their mark on New Orleans, La.
The historic city was the perfect staging ground for an event with the theme, "Reinventing Schools: Courageous Leadership for Positive Change." General Session speakers Alma Powell, Frosty Troy, and Mary Hatwood Futrell echoed the conference's agenda of doing what works and transforming what doesn't to prepare students to not only steward their own successes, but also contribute to the well-being of society.
In addition to living the mission and vision of the conference, attendees directly contributed to the revival of New Orleans at the fifth annual Books Bash, during which thousands of new books were collected to be donated to schools in the city.
This year's conference also celebrated the leadership of Affiliate Overall Excellence Award recipient Ohio ASCD and Outstanding Young Educator Award winner Deirdra Grode.
In 2009, ASCD will add a technology strand to the diverse array of informative conference sessions. This year, attendees got a taste of one way technology is shaping education discussions by participating in online conference coverage and commentary on Inservice, ASCD's blog. Attendees responded enthusiastically to the 48 blog posts about the conference, generating more than 250 comments. Inservice's coverage of the event generated about five times as many page views and site visits as last year, indicating that energized participants wanted to continue the engaging conversation about reinventing their schools.
This report features highlights from the themes presented in New Orleans and the ASCD community's response to these ideas. Add your voice to the ongoing conversation athttp://ascd.typepad.com/blog/annual_conference.
