IDEA Members,

Competition

Congratulations to all of the participants and winners of this year’s competition. Thank you to everyone who participated at the state and regional level, all of the teachers, IDEA board, regional directors and all who made the competition possible this year. A special thanks to all the educators who encouraged their students to compete even in a pandemic year and helped prepare the students to compete.

We had over 320 students compete across the state at the regional level and 185 students compete at the state level this year. Even though this was new experience with the “virtual” competition everybody involved did a great job to make it work for our students. Without all of you, none of this would be possible. It is great to see all of the students eager to participate in something again, and to show us the skills and talent they work hard to achieve!

Next School Year

We all hope for a healthy and more normal school year in 2021-2022, and we are planning to make the IDEA opportunities also as normal as possible.

*We are planning an in-person and hybrid fall conference In October of 2021 at ISU. Tentative dates are 10/22 – 10/23/2021.

*We hope to go back to in-person competition, but now have an online/virtual option if needed. This should provide opportunities for school and students all over the state.

Website Resources Tab

It is never too late for this year or early for next to start looking for ideas and resources. There are several resources, website links and Job opportunities on our Resources tab. Feel free to offer other useful resources using the google form link. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/13E3r2WXpQFczxnn5NgmsX7WzdK52i_3stcZMRe_XTzo/edit

Future IDEA Members

If you know other teachers who would like to join and could benefit from our organization, please encourage them to join. http://www.idea-online.org/join-idea/

Encourage your students to consider a career in the teaching field of technology education. Over the last few years there has been plenty of technology Education teaching jobs, including for next year.

Almost Summer!

I hope everyone stays healthy, enjoys the remainder of this school year, and has a great summer break! We look forward to an even bigger and better 2021-2022 for the organization as we continue to modernize and improve opportunities for both students and educators.

Sincerely,

Jeff Brown- President