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AMLE Conference

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As someone new to teaching middle school, I was really excited to be given the opportunity to attend the AMLE conference.  I enjoyed learning about the differences between teaching middle school as opposed to the "junior high school" model.  One of the sessions that I attended, Motivating Reluctant Readers Through Technology gave a lot of ideas for different education and reading apps and software that help to engage students with reading, especially those who don't like to read.  The session that I enjoyed most was It's Not Drama, It's My Life, which was a demonstration of the research based girls' empowerment program called Girls Unlimited (http://girlsunlimited.org/). This LGBTQ friendly program is used in middle schools to help girls learn empathy, empowerment, social media safety, kindness and respect, body image positivity, and conflict resolution.  The creator of the program presented a few of the lessons from the curriculum, and they were really powerful for us adults.  I I felt like it could really have a place in our school and be just as powerful for our female students.  The book of lessons was on sale in the AMLE Bookstore and I am kind of regretting not buying it! 

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