[Edu] Reaching the Educational Market

[Magi D. Shepley]

I don't know: maybe it is an East Coast thing, but several of the larger 
districts that I've been with (Loudoun, Va; Fairfax, VA and Baltimore 
City) and the private school I worked for (we were part of a hospital, 
so we did ours when the hospital did) all did "fairs" at the in-service 
days where vendors of applicable materials, but also personal items like 
additional insurance or long-term disability insurance.  Often they were 
named "benefit fairs", and seemed to be set up by the benefits office.  
I don't know how vendors and participants were chosen, although I do 
recall that the smaller local educational supply stores were at each, as 
well as some of the larger vendors.  I didn't like the in-service 
sessions, and wasn't terribly fond of most of the noise and hoopla that 
went along with the benefit fairs, but I did pick up some useful 
contacts and free materials.  I do agree with approaching teachers and 
not administrators.  I've only been teaching 11 years, but I've bounced 
around because of having worked for some of the worst administrators 
that I've ever seen.  I honestly have no idea how many of these people 
became principals or upper-level administrators except by hanging tight 
to the Peter Principle, which says that all people will be promoted to 
their highest level of incompetence.  I have unusually bad luck with 
administrators: three district superintendents that I've worked for have 
been out of compliance with court mandates, embezzled money from their 
already poor inner-city districts, and/or been taken out of the district 
administration building in handcuffs.  Two of the gentleman committed 
more than one of these offenses.  Building administrators have included 
the principal that greeted me with the phrase, "I don't need any more 
d*mn special ed teachers in my building.  Go downtown and tell them 
that!" on the first day I reported to her school to the one that 
introduced me as the mentally retarded teacher (which prompted a fellow 
teacher who clearly had no clue about special education to say, "You 
have accomplished an awful lot given your disability!") my first year in 
her building.  At least that principal also introduced the teacher 
working with students with emotional problems as the 'emotional and 
behavioral problem teacher'.  But, none of those are quite as special as 
the people at my private school...  But, we're not going to go there 
now.  :)
One thing I left out about national conferences: all of them are going 
to charge, usually quite a lot, for a vendor space.  Also, they tend to 
not let you present using your materials.  However, you might be able to 
convince a teacher you know to present something they've done with your 
product in the classroom, and showcase the games during that presentation.

Magi

miyu wrote:
>
> I'm going to disagree with you a little bit on the approaching the 
> faculty as a whole during the in-service days.  Most teachers are 
> already slightly irritated they are being trained in something they 
> already most likely do instead of working on the mountain of things 
> that need done in room.  Also going to a meeting like that allows the 
> administration to get too much input.
>
> The classic teacher maxim of "It is better to beg forgiveness than ask 
> permission" comes into play here.  If you sell a teacher on a good 
> idea to use in class they will make it work.  If you ask an 
> administrator you may get turned down out of hand. 
>
> Personally I think addressing the special ed teachers are the way to 
> go for an in-road.  Gifted teachers might be interested in the game 
> development possibilities of Icehouse pieces.  Special Ed and Autistic 
> teachers might be interested in games like Chrononauts or 
> Nanofictionary that could be used to focus on core skills and even be 
> presented to the kids as a reward activity that has a side effect of 
> reviewing the material they are learning in other classes.
>
>
>     I want to agree with Ryan.  This is the best way to get noticed by
>     the
>     teachers.  A good time to do this is either at national conferences
>     (although be forewarned that many of the larger conferences attract
>     mostly administrators and college faculty because classroom teachers
>     have a harder time getting released to attend conferences.  I've only
>     been able to attend ones that are local to me), or at teacher
>     in-service
>     days.  I would bet that most districts have district-wide
>     in-services on
>     one day, and many also have special sessions for brand-new teachers.
>     You could ask to attend those sessions by having a table set-up at one
>     of the main locations with flyers or coupons, maybe a raffle to get a
>     few games.
>
>
>  
> Good to see I'm not the only one.  If a company isn't polite or gives 
> me a rude brushoff they can be very sure they will never receive any 
> of my personal money nor any funds that I have any responsibility for 
> spending.  An excellent contact is one of the primary things I look 
> for when corresponding with a company.  To be honest I probably 
> wouldn't even be using LL games as much in my classroom (let alone 
> drafting plans and trying to sell the ideas to others) had it not been 
> for Carol.  She provided an approachable and knowledgeable person who 
> didn't come across as too busy to answer my silly inquiries. 
>
>      On the other side, I had one company
>     turn me down, and even now, I will often look at another company
>     to see
>     if they have the product available (there is a lot of crossover among
>     educational publishers) in their catalog before going to the company
>     that turned me down.
>
>
>
>                            -Ryan
>
>
> -- 
> Ora, lege, lege, lege, relege, labora et invenies.
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