They have tons of sessions and amazing presenters into two jam-packed days. Here are just a few of the amazing presenters that I saw while I was there!
I am not going to go on and on and on about all the details of this event. Instead, I just wanted to share a few things that I took away from these two days.
1. DO NOT take whole group bathroom breaks. If you take two fifteen minute bathroom breaks a day, you will lose 14 days of instruction. I have already wrote a blog post about how I feel about bathroom breaks so I was ecstatic to hear Jen Jones say this during her presentation.
2. You need to do what works best for you, your classroom, and your students. I heard this many times throughout the time. These presenters gave amazing ideas that you could easily implement in your classroom, but you need to decide how it will work best for you and your students.
3. It is always hard not to come back from an experience like this and think, "Oh my goodness, I need to change everything in my classroom!" But don't, at least not right away. Instead, take one thing at a time. For example, I implemented Greg's idea of Sight Word 60 last week. After Spring Break, I plan on incorporating some of the ideas from Kim Adsit on how to teach science. Once I am comfortable with that, I plan on implementing something else I learned from the conference and so on. If you try and tackle too many new things at once, you are going to fall. We don't want that so take it slow and only take on something new when you and your students are ready.
4. GO to every professional development opportunity that you can! I love to learn (as I think most teachers do) so I soak up every opportunity I can to learn more about my profession. If you can't go to professional development, you need to check out twitter. I am more of a stalker on twitter, but there are many amazing ed chats on twitter that you can follow and gain wonderful ideas.
5. Lastly, surround yourself with people who uplift you! These two girls right here and I met through blogging, but now have become friends in real life. Don't you love it when that happens? They uplift me and I hope I am returning the favor.
Speaking of being uplifted, you will want to come back this weekend and check out my post about the amazing weekend I just had with 200 other educators in French Lick at the 2016 Teacher Blogger Retreat. #takeyourpassionandmakeithappen
I always know it is a great conference when you come back and want to change EVERYTHING in your classroom and you are so overwhelmed! It was great to meet you this weekend!
ReplyDeleteSarah
Kindergarten Korner