You have probably started to think about your trip to the Bett Show in January. Will you go along looking for new ideas or a great piece of software that you’ve been missing in your school? Or will you be like many of us and go along to share and collaborate with others?
For me, Bett is about talking to like-minded teachers from across the country and being able to share ideas and bounce things around with them. Twitter really comes alive when you meet the people behind the tweets and at Bett2010 I was able to do that when I attended (and presented at) some of the Teachmeet Takeovers that were happening around the Bett Show.
In a nutshell, a takeover is when a teacher goes and presents on a stand about an idea or resource that is nothing to do with the company whose stand they are on. Now, there are some companies that REALLY get this idea and some that don’t. One company asked my why would anyone want to give up their paid-for slot just for some teachers? Luckily, we have some great supporters to help us out. We have created a wiki page and some of the supporters of previous Takeovers such as Scholastic, Rising Stars and BrainPop have already signed up to offer their stands to teachers who want to share ideas.
If you are familiar with the Takeover format and style then you will be pleased to know that we have changed very little. The biggest change is that we are asking for presentations to be 15 minutes in length. Previously they tended to be half hour and this is too much for the audience and attention span at Bett. Also, we didn’t have Takeovers on the Wednesday before as it tends to be quieter but we are giving it a go this year.
To sign-up, click the link below. Then you log-in and add your name into a slot on the table. Remember that slots are 30 minutes so we will ideally like 2 people per slot to fill it up.
So why not sign-up and present for 15 minutes? What have you got to lose?
If you’re not brave enough to present, you can still help. When you go to Bett, attend some of the takeovers and presentations. Be the supportive voice in the crowd or try and encourage others to watch too.
If you have a stand at Bett (or you know someone that does), please edit the document to add your names and contact details!
And for blog posts on previous Takeovers…try Tom Barrett’s blog here or here or the BrainPop post here.
*Please note, there will be details about the Teachmeet event at Bett soon*
