What a week!

First Team Education was everywhere last week. Monday you might have seen Joe working the NCA conference at the Hyatt downtown Indianapolis, or Brenda at the IMLEA at Franklin Middle School. On Tuesday Joe again went to NCA while Brenda drove to Valpo to set up for the Lester Laminack workshop on Wednesday. Brenda had more fun than Joe because she, Lester, and Connie Farrell went out to dinner on Tuesday evening. Always a fun time with those two! Brenda sold books at the workshop on Wednesday and then drove home while Joe attended the state department meeting on the adoption process for Science and then set up for IASCD at the Sheraton at Keystone. Joe worked that meeting on Thursday while Brenda stayed in the office and prepared for the set up on Thursday evening for ITW. After setting up, they had dinner with Dr. Kevin Sue Bailey from the Southern Indiana Writing Project. They always like to add some fun to their work day. Friday was the Indiana Teacher's of Writing conference, which both Brenda and Joe attended. Guess what happened Friday night? A big glass of wine and early to bed!

Barry Lane!

What a great weekend we just had! We were invited to attend the Northwest Indiana Writing Project 15th Anniversary Bash featuring the author Barry Lane. The event took place at the Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City. Friday night included cocktails, dinner and a cabaret featuring, who else?, Barry! Afterwards many of us went into the casino and danced and some of us gambled, not very successfully I might add. Then on Saturday Barry held a day long workshop on writing. We sold his books and we always enjoy listening to him speak. This is what makes our career so rewarding! Hanging out with educators that really step up to the plate and constantly are improving themselves with professional development. If you want to know more about Barry Lane go to his website discoverwriting.com or contact us if you would be interested in having him visit your district.

Heinemann Raintree - Red Brick Learning update

I wanted to give you an update on two of our companies; Heinemann Raintree and Red Brick Learning. The owner of RBL, Capstone, recently purchased HeinemannRaintree and although the company word always is that they would remain two separate companies, they have now gone together. Surprise! (ha) The new company name is Heinemann Raintree Classroom including Red Brick Learning. What this means for customers is that you can now purchase materials from both companies under one Purchase Order. Also if you belong to either rewards program, you now belong to both and can earn points faster. There will be new catalogs arriving in your buildings soon. You will receive one for science and social studies and another for reading/language arts. If you have any questions please give us a call.

It's that time of the year when reps for publishing companies attend sales meetings, so we are off to Charlotte, North Carolina for an ETA meeting and next week we go to Chicago for Heinemann/Raintree-Red Brick Learning. We already had a meeting for Science Companion and luckily the other companies we represent are not holding meetings!
We have been trying to stop by as many of the science pilot trainings as we can. We want the pilot teachers to be aware that we are the local reps for Science Companion and will be here for them as they run their pilots. We are really excited about this opportunity and think that Science Companion is a great program!

Penny Kittle and Brenda at the Indiana University Southeast Writing Project conference.

I just fininshed listening to Penny Kittle speak at the IUSE Writing Project conference. She is so inspiring! If you are looking for a speaker for writing for any grade level, she is your gal! I also heard J. Patrick Lewis this week. He is a children's author and writes poetry. He is a very interesting man. He originally taught economics at a university and later in life turned to writing poetry. You may recognize him as the author of Bury Me in the Library. Earlier in the week we were in Shipshewana and saw the authors Lester Laminack, Katie Wood Ray, Sharon Taberski, Franki Sibberson, and Smokey Daniels. We are so fortunate to be able to attend professional conferences and meet these people that do so much for the educators in our state.

New Representation for Science Companion

We are so pleased to announce that First Team Education has been hired to represent Science Companion. As you may be aware, the state of Indiana is running some pilots next year for inquiry based science curriculum and Science Companion is on the list of programs to be piloted. So, if you are involved in those pilots, we will be your contact for Science Companion and will be working closely with you to make sure all goes well. You can find out more about the company by going to sciencecompanion.com.