Keynote Speakers
Opening Keynote: Jimmy Casas
Opening Keynote: Title TBD
Jimmy Casas served twenty-two years as a school leader, including fourteen years as Principal at Bettendorf High School. Under his leadership, Bettendorf was named one of the Best High Schools in the country three times by Newsweek and US News & World Report.
Jimmy was named the 2012 Iowa Secondary Principal of the Year and was selected as one of three finalists for NASSP 2013 National Secondary Principal of the Year. In 2014, Jimmy was invited to the White House to speak on the Future Ready Schools pledge. Jimmy is also the author of four books, “What Connected Educators Do Differently,” “Start. Right. Now. – Teach and Lead for Excellence,” the best-selling book “Culturize – Every Student. Every Day. Whatever it Takes,” and his latest release, “Stop. Right. Now. – The 39 Stops to Making Schools Better.”
Jimmy currently serves as an adjunct professor for Drake University, teaching courses in educational leadership. Finally, he is the owner and CEO of J Casas & Associates, an educational leadership company aimed at organizing and providing world-class professional learning services for educators across the country.
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General Keynote: Patricia Brown
Keynote: Title TBD
Patricia J. Brown, known as “MsEdtechie”, is currently a Technology Specialist for Ladue School District in St. Louis Missouri, and a current member of the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE) Board of Directors. As a 19-year veteran educator, she helps break down traditional classroom walls by creating a culture that fosters the 4C’s and authentic learning.
She is passionate about closing the digital equity divide through access and opportunity and sharing practical techniques to create meaningful technology interactions and make global connections. Among her many accolades, she was selected as a National School Board Association’s 20 to Watch in EdTech, an Apple Distinguished Educator, Google for Education Certified Innovator & Trainer, a PBS Lead LearningMedia Digital Innovator for Missouri, and in 2006, she was honored as Teacher of The Year for the St. Louis Public Schools. She has served on the advisory panel for ISTE’s member magazine, Empowered Learner, and she currently serves as an ISTE Digital Equity PLN Co-Chair, and a Code.org Facilitator.
Her work has been featured in several EdTech publications including, Tech & Learning Magazine, Scholastic Administrator Magazine, Edtech Magazine, Entrsekt Magazine, and she also served as a monthly columnist for many other journals and magazines. She is a national keynote speaker and presenter and was a featured TED Master Class speaker at the ISTE 2018 conference in Chicago Illinois. On a personal side, she is a proud wife to her husband Brian, and mom-in-chief to their five sons.
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Closing Keynote: Myron Dueck
Keynote: Title TBD
Over the past 22 years, Myron has worked as an educator in both Canada and New Zealand in subjects ranging from grades 4 to 12. In 2006 Myron began to develop a number of grading, assessment and reporting systems which gave students a greater opportunity to show what they understand and play a significant role in the reporting of their learning.
Myron has also been a part of district groups, school committees and governmental bodies that have further broadened his access to innovative ideas. Through sharing his stories, tools and first-hand experiences with public, charter and international school educators around the world, Myron’s presentations have diverged to include global education trends and broader socio-economic realities that impact learning. Myron has twice been published in EL Magazine. His best-selling book, Grading Smarter, Not Harder– Assessment Strategies that Motivate Kids and Help Them Learnwas released by ASCD in July 2014 and in 2015 ASCD released a video project based in his own school district entitled ‘Smarter Assessment in the Secondary Classroom’. His most recent project, ‘Ask Them’, is a three-part streaming series available at www.ascd.org. Myron and his family currently live in British Columbia where he is SD67 District Vice-Principal for Communicating Student Learning.