#minicast

Good morning from El Paso! We are proud to announce" miniCAST 2021 El Paso: In Our Backyard" Saturday, October 9, 2021 at the Undergraduate Learning Center on the campus of the University of Texas-El Paso.

We just released the call for proposals and because we are in the world we are in, YOU can present from anywhere!

We are accepting VIRTUAL sessions this year which would be pre-recorded so that even if you cannot attend, you can still attend!

The Theme this year is "In Your Backyard" which focuses on how STEM can be taught (and learned) without having to travel, using what is , IN YOUR BACKYARD!

We also proudly announce our new social media efforts and would be honored if you followed us:

Twitter: @minicasteptx #minicastelpaso

Facebook: @minicastelpaso

Our website, with all the 411 on the conference is HTTP://minicast.org

If you could present, that would be awesome. If you know of someone that would make a great presenter, please share this information.

If you know of an exhibitor that would like to participate, please let them know about us!

Thanks again, thank you for sharing, thanks for making TXSCIED great!

Dear El Paso Business Leader Friend of Education,

First off, let me thank you for being, after all these years, a valued Friend of Education. You have, over the decades, provided tons of verbal and couponic support. You have told us again and again how much you support strong educators in El Paso and the children they educate. You have started important sounding committees, formed organizations, joined our PTA's and in return have received hundreds of low-bid plaques with you and your organization's name on it. Thank you. You are like a good neighbor.

.

I believe you.

Teachers believe you.

Administrators believe you.

Everyone believes you.

In addition to your words, you have, over the years, handed out more “Free Small French Fries” coupons for good grades than anyone I can think of. Your "BOGO Small Hamburger Combo Meal, " "Free Extra Small Ice Cream Cone," and "Free Personal Pizza with the Purchase of a Large Drink" coupons for perfect attendance in the 2nd nine weeks are annually looked forward to by my family. (Dammit Jimmy, you need to earn that free pizza!) You have, annually, without question, purchased the large advertising space on the baseball field, and have helped us sell my child's slightly melted one dollar fund raising chocolate bars with your coupon on the wrapper. (Jimmy looks forward to the day that he will be able to claim the "big prize" for selling the most candy bars, which I believe your business provides.) I'm loving' it!

I thank you for the "teachers get in free if you bring a friend" movie passes. Thank you for educator night at the sporting event where you know that we will bring our families and spend a lot more money than we ever would have on a normal night. Never mind that the team hasn't won a game in three years, or Wednesday July 13th is traditionally your slowest night. Thank you for the back-to-school office supply discounts of 20% off, which lowers your markup to only 40%, down from the usual 60%. You are, in a word, a saint.

Some of you use our students, especially our student football athletes on Friday nights, totally out out of the goodness of your hearts, right after your late news shows. We don't mind if you make money off our kids via advertising on these shows. You show the happy cheerleaders and mascots, so it's kind of good advertising for us too. You keep using our kids and our coaches for your sports segments all year round. We don't mind you profiting off of their hard work. Really. It is totally fair and you are a Friend of Education after all. Just do it.

Some of you are big time vendors with our school districts. Districts buy paper by the semi-truck full, food, computers, desks and even entire schools from you. Some of you receive millions of dollars a year from us educators and our districts. So that free pen we got as our "Welcome to a new school year" with your company logo really tugged on my heartstrings. And thanks for the sticky notes with your phone number printed in the lower left corner. God bless you. I feel like I am in good hands.

I don't want you to think we don't appreciate all that goodwill, BOGO and 10% off coupons you send our way. We appreciate anything we can get these days where we have to buy our own school supplies. It is just that I have this nagging idea that perhaps, maybe, you might be able to do something a little more valuable. Something that might make a real difference in education. Something that a teacher could really use. Something a bit, as they say, more tangible. Maybe something that has a little more impact on education than a free Extra small ice cream cone (coupon expires Dec 31, 2018). Perhaps you could think different?

There are a lot of education conferences that happen around El Paso. Perhaps you read about miniCAST for instance. (https://elpasoheraldpost.com/op-ed-minicast-2018-you-need-to-go/) Wouldn't it be a real change of pace of you were able to dig a little into your pocket book and pull out $100 or $200 and send a teacher or two to a conference like that? Heck, for $500 you could send an entire science or math department from a local middle school. $1000 could get you an entire high school Science department. I bet that there are a lot of teachers that could really use a true Friend of Education like that. And it would have an impact, because the things that teachers learn at conferences get brought back to their classrooms and taught to their students.

Really, I bet you have $100 in your miscellaneous cash drawer. Couldn't you take that $100 out and send a teacher to miniCAST? Send your kid's teacher? Your favorite high school teacher? Imagine the long term impact of giving a private scholarship to a teacher. What do you think they will remember more: A scholarship to miniCAST 2018 or that free personal pepperoni pizza with the purchase of any large drink?

$100. You know you have it.

Want to be a true Friend of Education?

Then do something that is actually educational.

Send a teacher to miniCAST.

Go to the website minicastelpaso.org to find out more.

Some local teachers are provided opportunities to travel out of town to attend education conferences that are all about the content area that they teach. There are conferences for pretty much any curricular area. The large out of town conferences do have their advantages: inspiring keynote speakers, vendors exhibiting the latest wares, and lots of workshop opportunities to learn from peers. However, the cost of these conferences are often prohibitive. When you take into account lodging, meals, travel and the cost of the conference itself, it is not unusual for a school district or an individual to spend upwards of $2000-$3000 per teacher to attend a three or four day event. Because of those costs, most educators are not able to attend these conferences and have to make due with local or district provided professional development opportunities.

That is why it is important to provide local educators with high quality professional development opportunities that can compete with the “big boy” out of town conferences. Even out here in the vast wastelands of far west Texas, good Professional Development is available for our educators.

For several years I have been associated with the team that organizes and produces miniCAST, a local education single day conference that is designed to mimic the look and feel of a large, out of town conference at a fraction of the cost. miniCAST has all of the trappings of the large out of town conferences: Keynote speakers, exhibit floors, workshops, networking opportunities and more, all at a crazy low price that almost any school or district could afford to send teachers to.

This year’s miniCAST features a local hometown science hero as the keynote speaker: Dr. Thorne Lay (http://www.minicastelpaso.org/2018-keynote-speaker-dr-thorne-lay.html). You may not have heard of Dr. Lay, but the El Paso High School grad is THE preeminent seismologist in the United States and is a Fellow of the National Science Foundation, the highest honor awarded to American scientists, just shy of a Nobel Prize. He will be speaking on how Hollywood just does not understand geology with his talk “Geology of the Movies.” In the past we have had keynote speakers that ranged from National Geographic explorers, to Hollywood stuntmen, to Charles Darwin, resurrected from the dead!

Along with Dr. Lay, there will be over 50 workshops, including the coveted “6 Hour GT” update training that so many districts struggle to get teachers to take. Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math are all covered at miniCAST

.

Attendees can also attend the Friday evening pre-conference event at UTEP's Centennial Museum. Along with free food and drinks, attendees can watch UTEP professors battle each other in a lightening lecture series, where 10 of UTEP’s top researchers have to present, in the language of non-researchers, in five minutes an with 20 Powerpoint slides or less, their work. The audience will vote on the best presentation.

For many years, miniCAST has been held at a local middle school, but this year, it will be held at UTEP’s Student Union and the Tomas Rivera Conference Center, and will with the UTEP Department of Geology’s Earth Science Week celebrations. Workshops, keynotes, vendors, networking opportunities, and more are all a part of miniCAST. And did I mention that every participant gets a free one year membership in TCEA and STAT, the Science Teachers Association of Texas. That is an $80 value, just for showing up!

miniCAST is only $100 for a full day of professional development. It is held Saturday, October 20, and starts at 7:30 AM at the UTEP Student Union.

Registration is now open. Find out all about it at http://minicastelpaso.org

If you are a teacher, tell your fellow teachers about it.

If you are an education administrator, you need to send some of your teachers.

If you are an education supporter, like a PTA president, why not sponsor a few of your teachers?

If you are a local “supporter of education” business, why not put your money where your mouth is and sponsor a bunch of teachers? Send 10 teachers and be out a total of $1000. Chump change! Come on, show us that you REALLY support our teachers!

miniCAST, and other conferences like it only exist because of a group of dedicated volunteers and the support of the local education community. We all win, even if we are not educators, by helping these events succeed.

http://minicastelpaso.org