Leadership Conference
I recently attended a conference on Leadership. While there are sat in three breakout sessions. The first was about memory and how important it is to teach memorization skills. The second was about grit and how to develop it in students. The last one pertained to rethinking PD.
The first training was with the key note speaker Eric Jensen. He emphasized the need to develop memory skills in students and how it correlates and bleeds into other areas of academia. This idea is completely contrary to my schemata. Teaching social studies, the stereotype of teaching "facts" caused us to do everything we could to avoid it. However, he states that cognitive skill of memory is important foundation that translates beyond the classroom. The one take away I got from this breakout session is that memory is more than just memorizing facts, its a skill that needs to be developed. The development of a students memory can help them become better class and group participants. He went over a few strategies that could be implemented as warm-ups or embedded into other lessons. He cited neuroscience research as evidence to help support his conclusions.
The second session pertained to developing grit. The word "Grit" is my classroom motto. It is the relentless pursuit of success. I failed as a learner to get a major takeaway from this session. However, it caused me to reflect on my practices. What am I doing to establish a culture of grit? My students will face some sort of setback this year and when they do, how will they overcome it? As a teacher, I must get better at offering feedback. In addition, I must commit to having a growth-mindset. These are things I already do in my class, but I must get better at.
The third session, rethinking PD. This session was highly beneficial for an aspiring administrator. Its purpose was to rethink the mandatory faculty focus meeting and make it more engaging. The instructor listed a variety of solutions. One strategy was transforming a mandatory meeting into an experience. For example, they made a meeting modeled after a plane journey with passports. The stamps on their passports were different sessions they could attend. The instructor was a major proponent of teacher choice. The second strategy they focused on was the creation of peer classroom observations. These are not evaluative, but more for collaboration and sharing of ideas. The school built in an infrastructure system that allowed for teachers to be able to participate. She cited data from her campus action research stating that teachers were more willing to try new student centered strategies and show off skills than before. The ultimate benefactor of this environment are the students. They called the method lab-school. The third strategy was the use of instructional technology and flipping it. They would use a learning platform such as Schoology or BlackBoard. They would post an article or videos and implement a way to have teachers collaborate and discuss. The last strategy she discussed was the use of book studies and book tastings for teachers, This strategy allows for teachers to target a specific area and look for ways to implement them on campus.
The first training was with the key note speaker Eric Jensen. He emphasized the need to develop memory skills in students and how it correlates and bleeds into other areas of academia. This idea is completely contrary to my schemata. Teaching social studies, the stereotype of teaching "facts" caused us to do everything we could to avoid it. However, he states that cognitive skill of memory is important foundation that translates beyond the classroom. The one take away I got from this breakout session is that memory is more than just memorizing facts, its a skill that needs to be developed. The development of a students memory can help them become better class and group participants. He went over a few strategies that could be implemented as warm-ups or embedded into other lessons. He cited neuroscience research as evidence to help support his conclusions.
The second session pertained to developing grit. The word "Grit" is my classroom motto. It is the relentless pursuit of success. I failed as a learner to get a major takeaway from this session. However, it caused me to reflect on my practices. What am I doing to establish a culture of grit? My students will face some sort of setback this year and when they do, how will they overcome it? As a teacher, I must get better at offering feedback. In addition, I must commit to having a growth-mindset. These are things I already do in my class, but I must get better at.
The third session, rethinking PD. This session was highly beneficial for an aspiring administrator. Its purpose was to rethink the mandatory faculty focus meeting and make it more engaging. The instructor listed a variety of solutions. One strategy was transforming a mandatory meeting into an experience. For example, they made a meeting modeled after a plane journey with passports. The stamps on their passports were different sessions they could attend. The instructor was a major proponent of teacher choice. The second strategy they focused on was the creation of peer classroom observations. These are not evaluative, but more for collaboration and sharing of ideas. The school built in an infrastructure system that allowed for teachers to be able to participate. She cited data from her campus action research stating that teachers were more willing to try new student centered strategies and show off skills than before. The ultimate benefactor of this environment are the students. They called the method lab-school. The third strategy was the use of instructional technology and flipping it. They would use a learning platform such as Schoology or BlackBoard. They would post an article or videos and implement a way to have teachers collaborate and discuss. The last strategy she discussed was the use of book studies and book tastings for teachers, This strategy allows for teachers to target a specific area and look for ways to implement them on campus.
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