Summer GAEL Conference

Zane Shelfer

Summer GAEL

I just attended the Summer Georgia Association of Educational Leaders (GAEL) conference at Jekyll Island. It was held July 9^th – 12^th. I’ve attended before, but since I’m currently taking this class I had a different level of awareness about how all of the presentations, speakers, and sessions matched the GELS Standards and other topics we have covered this summer session. Essentially each standard was addressed multiple times throughout the conference. One very specific way was during presentations from “The Fab Four.” Four school districts are asked each year to present best practices and successful programs that lead to academic achievement. The four districts this year were Wilcox County, Madison County, Hall County, and Cherokee County. I listened very closely as they each described successful practices and programs and how those fit into the GELS Standards. One example was Madison County. The high school principal discussed how they worked to create a class schedule that maximized instruction and allowed for specific programming. He mentioned that they want to create a block this year for the Culinary Arts CTAE class so students would have more time to use the skills they are learning. I thought this approach fits into both GELS Standard 2 and Standard 5. Hall County discussed looking at students who were at risk of not meeting minimum criteria for college admission and developing a program that specifically targeted them to offer support to increase test scores. I thought both GELS Standard 2 and Standard 4 applied to this program.

Many of the presentations were from the Georgia Department of Education. CTAE, Technology, Assessment, State Superintendent, and Data all delivered updates and a vision for where the state of Georgia is heading. GELS Standard 1 applied to these presentations, although they certainly touched on each standard.  AdvancED and the GA Professional Standards Commission also delivered addresses, which covered Standards 3 and 7. One keynote presenter was Alan November. He gave some very interesting insight into technology and where our country and our students are going with technology. Here is a TEDx Talk he gave. https://youtu.be/ebJHzpEy4bE His website is http://novemberlearning.com/educational-services/educational-consultants/alan-november/

I think attending GAEL is certainly worthwhile for any educational leader in Georgia. In addition to the information presented, it is a good place to make connections with other districts and find out what best practices they are implementing. It was very interesting to me to see how the information we are studying is being implemented in an everyday school setting. It affirmed the importance of the standards.