What a great experience...

I actually lost sleep over worrying as to whether Julie and I would get on the correct train and to the Convention Center on time. Well, we got there on time, but we took a more creative route by testing out the difference between Amtrak and SEPTA! Once we got that fail under our belts, I figured nothing else could go wrong. And I was CORRECT!

I loved every session that I attended! The presenters were all so engaging and interesting. I learned more about the adolescent brain (and that some teachers in our building are still technically adolescents). I listened to a man speak about engaging students in the classroom (Beaman) and wished that I had been a student in his classroom. I listened to teachers talk about a cross-curricular project that has students interviewing community members and then publishing a book. I walked out of that session trying to figure out how I could do what they did. I sat in a session with MANY Patton teachers on all sorts of new technology that I am psyched to try in my classroom. All sorts of new ways to get the kids interacting and sharing have been introduce.

Overall, it was such an amazing day! I am so glad that I got on the right train (eventually)!

Comments

Lead Like A Pirate

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 ...

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

I attended a short Speed Learning Session with Vicki Meigs-Kahlenberg and enjoyed it so much that I ended up purchasing her book The Author's Apprentice . Essentially, Vicki's session was on not letting narrative writing fall by the wayside in the world of high-stakes testing. She talked about teaching students to develop their writing voices by studying the works and process of popular young adult authors such as Kwame Alexander, Jacqueline Woodson, Jason Reynolds, and Lois Lowry. I have always been interested in using mentor texts to teach students writing strategies such as "Show, Don't Tell" and dialogue that develops characters, but I felt like Vicki's process takes this one step further because she has students research the actual authors and learn about their lives and writing processes. There is no one correct way to write. Every author plans, drafts, and revises differently, and I think sharing this with students makes the whole writing process seem m...

Hold On - I'm Coming: Motivating Unmotivated and Difficult to Teach students

This session presented by Charles Beaman was phenomenal. He is such a dynamic and engaging speaker. His main points were how important it was for teachers to try to reach students by using expression, stimulating AHA moments, use multiple strategies to reach all types of learners and have "hooks" to increase engagement. He shared ideas on the importance of using brain compatible strategies and how critical it is to make learning fun. He emphasized 3 things the Brain Loves: Choice, Novelty and Challenge. Lastly, he talked about how important it is for teachers to be "Life Touchers" for students. The slightest word of encouragement can make all the difference in the world and you may not ever realize just how big your impact was but how critical it is to be mindful of the impact you can have. The Difference between Teachers and Life Touchers. All Life Touchers are teachers but not all teachers are life touchers. St...

Patton @ AMLE 2017

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