The Miles Community College Center for Distance Education and Community Outreach will host its annual Educators Conference on Thursday and Friday, October 15-16, 2009.

This year’s conference is a new format and will be spotlighting Brian M. Pete and Todd Conaway as presenters. Workshops will be offered in ½ day blocks, 8:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon or 1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m.

Brian M. Pete is co-founder of Robin Fogarty & Associates, an educational consulting and publishing company. He comes from a family of educators, college professors, school superintendents, and teachers of teachers. He has a rich background in professional development. Brian has worked in and taped classroom teachers and professional experts in schools throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He has an eye for the “teachable moment” and the words to describe what he sees as skillful teaching. Brian’s educational videos are titled: Best Practices: Classroom Management and Best Practices: Active Learning Classrooms. He is the co-author of five books: Data Driven Decisions, Twelve Principles that Make the Difference, Nine “Best Practices” That Make the Difference, The Adult Learner and A Look at Transfer. His most recent publications target change agents in the schools: From Staff Room to Classroom: A Guide to Planning and Coaching Professional Learning and From Staff Room to Classroom II: The One-Minute PD Planner.

Todd Conaway is an instructional designer with Yavapai Community College in Prescott, Arizona. He is an adjunct faculty as well, teaching computer application courses for seven years. Prior to his position at Yavapai College he was a high school English teacher for 10 years. Todd’s interest in learning environments began at Prescott College where he was introduced to non-traditional teaching practices and experiential learning and expeditionary learning courses. His interest in technology comes from his desire to share and connect with family and his vision for the future of education. Todd tends to see the integration of computers into our daily and professional life much like the integration of the television into the family life; sometimes great things happen and other times it can be pretty harmful.

Titles for the conference sessions include the following:

Presenter: Todd Conaway; “The Web 2.0”, will be offered Thursday a.m. session or Friday p.m. session. Todd’s next presentation will be a three part workshop, “Your Digital Personality: The Real You in Your Online Class”, “ePortfolios” and “So, You Don’t Have an iPod Either”, will be held Thursday p.m. or Friday a.m. If you plan on attending one of Mr. Conaway’s presentations, please bring a laptop to class. If you don’t have a laptop, ask about the availability of one at the time of registration.

Presenter: Brian M. Pete; “Teachers Make the Difference with Nine Best Practices”, Thursday AM session, “Raising Achievement: Simple Strategies that Work”, Thursday p.m. session, “Assessment for Instruction”, Friday a.m. session and “Differentiated Instruction”, Friday p.m. session.

This conference is offered for either OPI renewal units or for one undergraduate credit. Registration costs cover OPI renewal units. For those desiring sessions for one undergraduate credit, costs vary for Custer County residents and for Montana residents not residing in Custer County. Pre-Registration deadline is October 14, 2009. On-site registration will be available for an additional fee. To register and for conference cost information, please call Kassie Taylor at the Center for Distance Education and Community Outreach (DECO) 1-800-541-9281 ext 6199 or 874-6199 or come to the DECO office, Room 209 at Miles Community College.