Guest blog: Steven Baule, Superintendent of the Muncie Community Schools in Muncie, Indiana: I recently attended AASA’s National Conference on Education. I always enjoy the opportunity to share and listen to what my peers think are the trends that we need to pay attention to, and how those trends may impact education. One trend was the need for more staff development as we get ready to make the shift to a more personalized curriculum. Daniel Frazier, superintendent in Litchfield, MN, wrote: “Time is an ongoing challenge in 21st Century education. Despite all that has changed in schools, we remain tied to a 19th Century agrarian calendar. As a result, time becomes an opponent in our quest to improve education.” The key to impactful professional development will require a change from the four to five teacher training days per year (check out#ThenewPD). Christopher Gaines, a superintendent from Mehlville SD in Missouri, inspired by Michael Horn's (@michaelbhorn) explanation of blended learning, offered a compelling presentation that used a milkshake metaphor to explain the benefits of blended learning.” Amazon Inspire will likely be a new OER resource platform. This has the potential to bring the OER process into the mainstream and have an enormous impact on digitizing K-12 instruction. If you are not a member of AASA, find out who in your district is so you can access these and other conference presentations. You can also review all of the NCE Twitter feeds at #NCE16. It always pays to be aware of what the superintendents are discussing.
