I attended two of the sessions presented by Debbie Silver: Teaching Kids to THRIVE: Building the Other Essential Skills for Success, and Square Pegs/Round Holes-Why We Need to Pay Attention to Learning Differences. Dr. Silver did not disappoint with her insight into middle school kids and how they can best be served. She addressed the needs of the whole child and how we as middle level educators can contribute to their skill development and be more aware of their various learning differences. I particularly enjoyed how she used humor in her presentation to keep us all engaged. She always exhibits so much understanding of the middle school students and teachers and demonstrates consistent enthusiasm and excitement into her message. I came away with a refreshed sense of how to address and meet the many needs of our middle school students.
I think my favorite session was called "Lead Like A Pirate" which was titled after the book. The presenter's school theme is "Making school a place where kids are banging down the door to get in, not out". I thought this sounded a lot like our school philosophy. She shared LOTS of great ideas that her school uses including Teen Tweet, hiding secret eggs, Birthday carts, and more. It got me thinking about different ideas we could do in our school and I can use in my Advisory to make school an enjoyable place for the students and for the teachers. There was an emphasis on taking care of the teachers so they will take care of the kids. It made me try to think of ways we can take care of each other. I went online and bought the book "Teach Like A Pirate". I also went to another presentation on scheduling intervention in a tight schedule. It gave me some great ideas for trying to help us bring math intervention into the school day. I don't ...
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