As a first year teacher, I wondered how many professional developments I should attend. My rationale was that I needed all my classroom time for not only instruction but for classroom management and routine. I taught single-gender classes and my boys class could be.... um.... a little rambunctious
to put it mildly. I could (and did) handle them, but to substitute teachers with whom they had no connection, it could be a problem. My girls class wasn't as bad, but there were a few who could cause problems. So these were the things I had to weigh when deciding if I should sign up for profession developments.
Of course, my school system already had mandatory trainings I had to attend. Most of these were very pertinent, like the two I attended on classroom management, but some were a waste of time. One main one sticks out in mind. The training on how to teach children from poverty.
I don't know, maybe growing up being in and around poverty the ideas they presented either were a) common sense (to me) or b) fundamentally flawed. It was a waste of my three hours and I was fully participating!
Let me get back on topic because I could write about that all day. The main reason for this post is to talk about my two favorite professional developments I attended. Both were out of town trips and even though I missed some school time, I feel it was worth it. The first one I'll talk about is the NCTIES conference in Raleigh, NC.
Basically, this conference was all about how to use technology in the classroom. Session I attended ranged from using google projects for students to creating a STEM classroom to using Discovery (channel and website) in day-to-day teaching. The last two sessions I mentioned were very important to since I teach both math and science classes. This conference was good for me because it gave me instant ideas to use when I returned to my classroom. I also have been tinkering with these ideas so that I can use them more frequently this upcoming year.
My favorite conference of the past year was going to the National Science Teachers of America conference in Indianapolis. Not only was it my first time to Indy but I was able to hear new ideas and meet teachers and swap methods.
One of the favorite pieces of this conference was meeting Leland Melvin. Melvin, former NFL player, now works for NASA going around to schools education kids about STEM opportunities. One of my goals this year is to bring Melvin to my school to speak. I know the benefits of kids seeing people who they can identify with and I think they would really enjoy hearing him, his background, and what he does now.
I also got to meet with teachers from other school districts across the nation and see how they're using STEM inside of their classrooms. I was able to gather valuable information on tactics that work in districts that are similar to mine. In addition to seeing Bill Nye, the Science Guy I was able to get free stuff that I was able to use before the school year ended.
While in Indy, I also got to take in some of the sights, such as the NCAA Hall of Fame and Lucas Oil Stadium, home of the Colts. See attached photos. Well that wraps up this post. Until next time, peace.
