Roxboro Community School

This year, Roxboro Community School (RCS) had the honor of sending three of its educators to present at the Future of Educational Technology Conference. This annual national educational technology conference was held from January 11-14 in Orlando, Fla. RCS’s own Alex Porter, Ashley Bailey, and Melanie Winstead were not only in attendance, but they also collaborated to plan and present three different sessions about enhancing various aspects of learning with technology.

Bailey and Winstead first began presenting at this conference in 2022 after their proposal was accepted, and have been presenting every year since then. Attending this conference is a way for these educators to share about their own experiences and learn from others all over the country. Winstead said, “I firmly believe in educators sharing their knowledge with others, so I love having opportunities to do so as well.” Winstead uses conferences like this to make changes and adjustments to continually improve the RCS staff professional development program.

Both Porter and Bailey enjoy the opportunity to learn more and share their knowledge about science. Porter has been attending since 2025. She said, “This experience helped build my confidence as an educator while allowing me to share successful strategies from my classroom and learn from other educators who are focused on transforming student learning through innovative and impactful teaching practices.”

Learning from different educators has allowed these teachers to learn about a variety of tools to use. Bailey said, “I’ve also learned that what works best this year may not work next year because all kids are different and they all have different needs. And so it’s nice to know all of the things that are out there so that I do have a plethora of tools to pick from.”