Welcome back to a new school year, however your school will start.  I hope everyone is doing well and staying safe and healthy!  Hopefully you were able to enjoy your summer and have some quality time with your family, and get your mind of school for a while.

Fall Semester

We look forward to continued growth with renewal of memberships and new members.  Educator dues are $20 if paid by December 31st and $40 if paid January 1st or after.  Dues can be paid online by going to https://www.idea-online.org/join-idea/

Resources

I’m sure many of you are facing new challenges this school year and are looking for new technology and ideas, especially if when some of your students have to be at home learning because of quarantine or other.  Be sure to check out our resources page at: https://www.idea-online.org/links/ for ideas and resources.  Feel free to contact Brian Rick (Communications Director) at brian.rick@sic.edu with ideas you can share with others.  We still need each other no matter the pandemic or not.

Fall Conference

1. Our annual fall conference will be hybrid this year since some of you able and willing to attend and some of you are not able or willing to attend in-person.  We will continue working in collaboration with TEAI for this fall conference.  As many In-person sessions as possible will be live steamed and recorded for those who are not able to attend in person. The videos and virtual lesson, activites etc. will allow for each attendee the opportunity to view several presentations, topics, activities, and the opportunity to go back and view them again later as needed.  
2. More information will be coming as we finalize the plans, and we will update the website https://www.idea-online.org/conference/ with the fall conference information.
3. We are planning to have several asynchronous (pre-recorded sessions) so you will be able to view them when convenient.
4. In the “general session” we will be presenting our annual awards.  If you know someone you would like to nominate for our two awards there is a nomination form that will be available on our website at: http://www.idea-online.org/about-idea/awards/

*IDEA Teacher of the Year

*Friend of IDEA

*We also offer the Dr. Ryan Brown scholarship for a student attending Illinois State University and who has competed or been involved in another way (judge of contests etc.) the IDEA.

Annual Membership Meeting

1. Our Annual Membership Meeting is for all IDEA members.  This meeting will be virtual again this year and a survey will be sent out to determine the best date and time. It will be after the fall conference so we can also hear your thoughts on this year’s conference. Be on the lookout for that meeting date, time and the link to join in.  We are always looking to do what is best for our students and teachers and the more involvement and ideas the better. We will also have our annual election of executive board officers, so if you are interested in getting more involved with IDEA by joining the executive board, this is your opportunity.

Design & Drafting Education

It is currently a good time to be entering the Technology Education profession.  Tech Ed careers are expanding, and we need to continue to encourage students to enter the drafting and design fields, especially to become future educators in our field.  There have been quite a few openings in recent years that have gone unfilled.  Anything we can do to encourage a student to follow into the Technology Education field is helpful.   As our website continues to expand we are looking at adding more job openings and scholarship/program information for teachers, students, & parents. 

Thank You

Thank you for all the work you put in to educate your students whether in-person or online or both last school year.  I know these are still difficult times for keeping a full class engaged and doing what is best for all our students.  We at IDEA are so excited that we were able to hold our conference and competitions last school year and that you continue to provide drafting and design curriculum to your students!

If there is anything we can do to help you in teaching your students drafting and design please ask.  Our contact information can be found on our website at: http://www.idea-online.org/about-idea/officers/

Lastly, thank you to our board who puts in the time, effort and several google meets to make sure this organization, the conference and competition continues to run even in these uncertain times!   

Sincerely,

Jeff Brown – IDEA President