 | New Teacher Conference Summary |
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March 30, 2010 I just got back from the New Teacher Conference in Richmond. I had a fantastic time! I attended six workshops over two days in addition to connecting with many other professionals in the field. I am going to leave a brief summary of my workshops here to share with others what I have learned. The first workshop I attended was presented by a teacher who shared his strategies for engaging learners. He gave us multiple ways to create dynamic learning environments for students using music, podcasts, power point, decorating all parts of the room (even the ceiling) and instilling fun back into learning and teaching. My second workshop was entitled Differentiating your Math Instruction. I find that in classes math appears to be an area where learners are quite diverse therefore I strive to find ways to access all learners. This workshop taught us math games, strategies for incorporating manipulatives (dice, counters, shapes, algebra tiles) and ways of adapting/modifying the work you collect as well as the instructions provided to gain access to more learners in our lessons. My third workshop was of great value to a beginning teacher. The workshops theme was how to start up a classroom successfully from day one. I found many things of that I could incorporate into my toolkit in this talk and I walked away feeling prepared. He provided us with an outline to follow for the first week to create a classroom community with routines, rules, procedures and a feeling of unity among the class. The best part of this model is that the manner in which these lessons are taught is that the way you and your students bond and the teacher is gaining management without being a "boss". I appreciated that because I feel that it is important to foster relationships with students to help create a well-functioning classroom. The next workshop I attended gave us a fantastic method of communicating with parents about their child's progress in class through student led conferences. This style of conference leaves more ownership to the student to demonstrate their learning and provides the family with real, concrete examples of the performance with the teacher there as an observer. The students take their family on a one hour tour of their class and visit stations that the class has decided on that demonstrate their learning. This model is supplemented with one on one conferences as well to allow for that needed contact with parents. My fifth workshop provided strategies and handouts to help prepare us for creating year plans and overviews. The strategies were practical, hands on and went well with the workshop on starting up a new class. I left this workshop with a far better understanding of how to create year plans, unit plans and day plans; especially in reference to how to communicate this information to administrators, students, the families of my students and substitute teachers. My last workshop at the conference was a high-energy workshop on teaching primary grades. I found this one to be extremely hands-on, useful and relevant to the upcoming full day kindergarten. The presenters shared ideas they use in their classroom to run a primary class smoothly such as centres, transition activities, routines and general classroom management. I think that through these workshops and presentations I added many skills and strategies to my toolkit that I can easily incorporate into my classroom teaching. I was pleased to have the opportunity to go, to both share my experiences as well as gain from the experience of others. I also have made plans to attend other conferences that I learned of there such as the All Day Kindergarten workshop in the summer put on by the BCPTA. |