Just Love What One Student Voice Brought To The West-Central Iowa Tech Institute Today

Today I had the wonderful opportunity to be part of the West-Central Iowa Tech Institute at Coon-Rapids Ballard School.  There was a great line up of speakers and presentations...I wish I could have stayed for the entire day to learn from everyone.

To make it even more special, I presented with my 4th grade student and friend, Meridan Boyd.

When my friend and Coon-Rapids Ballard high school principal Brent Jorth asked me to keynote the conference I knew I wanted to include the voice of students.  After presenting with Meridan for the K12 Online Conference two weeks ago, I just knew I had to bring her to share the story of our students and the voice of students everywhere.

                       

This is the opening keynote, Transforming Education...One Voice At A Time.  

                     

And the Animoto we used at the beginning.

                      

We also did a session right after the opening keynote called Empowering Young People To Have A Global Voice Through Web 2.0 and Social Media Tools. 

I can't wait to look through the tweets found at #wciti and from all of the West-Central Iowa Tech Institute speakers.  The resources they were sharing throughout the day were wonderful so I encourage you to take a look too.  

As Meridan told all of us today....

Let our students be heard. Let them do the things that they are passionate about. Let them create and collaborate.   Let them try things out.

And most of all....

Let them have a voice.

There is nothing more powerful as the voice of our students.  Take the time to listen to all of them around you this week.  They will make a difference.