Every time I speak with TCEA members throughout the state, I ask “What are the biggest challenges you face in your professional life?” Every time, the answer is “I need more time and I need more money. How can TCEA help me with that?”
Boy, do I have answers for you! I’ve outlined below a few ways TCEA helps provide members with the gift of both time and money, all while helping you accelerate student achievement through the use of technology.
Saving You Time
- TopSchoolJobs – This is a member benefit that saves you time by making the search for your next role in education a breeze. Additionally, you receive a free resume review when you create a profile!
- Free CPE Credit – Stop wasting time hunting down professional development. TCEA has all your PD needs covered through free webinars, which can also be found in the TCEA Community. These typically provide .5 – 1 CPE credit per webinar.
- TechNotes Blog – Looking for a specific resource and need to find it fast? Keyword search the TCEA blog for immediate results on whatever ed tech topic you desire. This content-rich resource is a great way to track down resources on-demand.
- TCEA’s Student Contests – Robotics, Computer Science, or 3D Design – these help save you time by providing you with unique activities for your students to teach them problem solving and critical thinking skills in a fun STEAM environment. Register today for TCEA’s 3D Design Contest!
Saving You Money
- Commonbond Partnership – New member benefit alert! TCEA has partnered with CommonBond, a leading student lender, to bring you loan refinancing to tackle your student debt. In addition to this benefit being absolutely free, all TCEA members, family, and friends get a $200 cash bonus when they refinance with CommonBond. Not just saving you money, but making you money. That’s value.
- SketchUp Pro License ($495 value) – You read that right. TCEA has been granted the exclusive rights in the state of Texas to provide free licenses of SketchUp Pro to all K-12 public school educators and students for school-owned computers. The 3D modeling software is normally $495 per license and is easy and intuitive, allowing anyone to model in 3D quickly and accurately. Use it for your students to participate in our 3D Design Contest!
- Learning.com’s 8th Grade Technology Literacy Assessment – Through a partnership with Learning.com, TCEA offers all Texas districts a technology literacy assessment for eighth grade students at no cost to the district. The assessment includes a blend of interactive, performance-based questions and multiple-choice, knowledge-based questions to measure and report technology literacy and skills for middle school students. This provides districts with the data they need to understand how well students grasp critical 21st century skills. It is based on the Technology Application TEKS (TA-TEKS).
- TCEA Certifications – Now, admittedly these cost money up front. But if you want to make more money in your future, professionally develop yourself by adding one of these certifications to your resume. These are a great way to gain expertise in a structured environment with guidance to help you become a master in that particular role.
Both Time and Money
- TCEA’s empowerED program – Saves you time and money because:
- It’s dirt-cheap professional development (starts as low as $39/enrolled educator).
- A majority of your campus or district administrators and educators will be enrolled, keeping you all on the same page and working as one cohesive unit to accelerate student learning through the use of technology. This makes for a more efficient teaching and learning experience campus- or district-wide (which will save you time over the long term).
- Ed Tech Day at the Capitol – The only real way you will see any sort of institutional change is by attending this event to educate your legislators (who dictate to your profession) on exactly what you need to be successful in the classroom. If only 15 people show up, they won’t take notice. If 1,500 people show up, maybe they will. Join us to affect real, lasting change.
Hopefully, this better explains how TCEA provide members with the gifts of time and money. The content and resources we offer are tailored and structured within a professional environment where you can network with others, grow your PLN, advance your own career, and lobby your legislators to make real change, all without expending too much time or money to do so, which means you can focus on what you do best: accelerating learning for your students.
Learn more about all that TCEA has to offer you.
Featured Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay
