West Essex Offers Successful Technology Symposium

More than 180 educators and members of the public spent Saturday learning about the innovative use of technology in education at the First Annual WE Tech Symposium at in North Caldwell.

This dynamic free event attracted teachers, media specialists, school administrators and community members from throughout New Jersey who spent the day attending workshops on everything from digital storytelling to using Ipads in the classrooms. They also listened to three keynote addresses by educational technology experts.

Many participants said they found the entire day’s programming “inspiring” and said it would make a difference in their classrooms.

“This is wonderful,” said Doreen Golembeski, a library/media specialist from in Caldwell of the symposium. “When you are around people who are dedicated, it inspires you to want to do more.”

West Essex High School freshman Social Studies teacher C.J. Rauch said he enjoyed picking up “a lot of new ideas and specific things that I can apply to my classroom practices.”

Kevin Jarrett, a presenter on “Wikis” from Northfield in South Jersey, commended West Essex High School Spanish teacher Raquel Williams. “It took a lot of initiative by Raquel to approach the superintendent,” with her idea.

Williams approached West Essex Superintendent of Schools Barbara Longo with her idea several months ago and with Mrs. Longo’s support, created a committee of administrators and media specialists to launch the first ever West Essex Technology Symposium. Williams worked closely with West Essex Media Specialists Rosemary Rich and Catherine Spinella to launch the event.

“This is wonderful and fabulous when you have this many dedicated and passionate educators who are willing to give up a Saturday to improve themselves,” Jarrett said.

In his keynote presentation about educational leadership in this ever-changing digital world, New Milford High School Principal Eric Sheninger told more than 180 people in the high school auditorium, “We want kids to come to class and be excited to learn. We need to collaborate and share.”

Sheninger encouraged educators to embrace new technology. In the second keynote address of the day, Lisa Thumann, a Google certified teacher and trainer and Director of Innovative Learning Technology at the School for Global Education and Innovation at Kean University, gave examples of different educators around the country and the ways they used technology to educate their students and “get kids more engaged and more excited.”

Keynote speaker Patrick Higgins, Supervisor of Instruction for the Caldwell-West Caldwell School District, spoke about “Now You Know and Now Your Are Obligated.” In addition, he spoke about “Scaffolding a Social Network,” at a workshop. He also told the people in attendance “this is a great event. These are the places where ideas are born.”

Workshops were offered on other “hot” topics, including many technology applications for the classroom, such as Prezi, Edmodo, Moodle, Flip Cameras, Ipads, Blogs, Web 2.0 applications for Math, Smart Boards, Podcasts, Wikis, Digital Stories and much more.

The West Essex Regional School District serves students from grades 7-12 from North Caldwell, Roseland, Essex Fells and Fairfield. The district’s beautiful campus is located in the hills of North Caldwell at 65 W. Greenbrook Road.

The event was supported by many sponsors. of West Caldwell provided green bagels for breakfast for St. Patrick’s Day. provided a gourmet hot lunch for the crowd. Pomptonian Food Service provided coffee and breakfast pastries. Other sponsors included Keyboard Consultants, Midhattan Woodworking, , , Corrados , IMAC Insurance, Keyotel Global Communications, Walmart, Tech4Learning, ADP and Matlen Silver for their generosity and support.