It's been just about forever and a day since I've written a post on my blog, but after an amazing day of learning and collaborating with colleagues, I just had to write about it. Yesterday, I was blessed with the opportunity to attend a conference put on by the Los Angeles chapter of ECET²: Elevating and Celebrating Effective Teaching and Teachers. The organization's website states that its mission was "born out of a desire to provide a forum for exceptional teachers to learn from one another and to celebrate the teaching profession."
The Keynote
The day began with what seemed like an awesome Keynote presented by the fantastic National Teacher of the Year 2012, Rebecca Mieliwocki. I regrettably missed most of the keynote due to arriving late to the event. I struggled to find the parking structure and the actual event location on UCLA's beautiful yet HUGE campus. My fellow conference attendees spoke very highly of Mrs. Mieliwocki's presentation so I am bummed that I missed it an cannot share the details with you.
Colleague Circles
Next up, we were asked to sit at themed round tables for our Colleague Circle discussions. The themes for the round tables were identified by teachers and focused on different aspects of the teaching and learning experience. Some of the themes were: Student Engagement, Teacher Leadership, Common Core Implementation, Collaboration, and Outreach and Advocacy. This was my favorite part of the day. It was the first time that I had ever participated in something like this at a conference. We sat at a table, shared experiences, sought advice, discussed strategies and best practices, and networked.
Breakout Sessions
Then came the "differentiated instruction" aspect of the day. Out of a list of about 20 sessions centered around collaboration, instructional practices, and teacher leadership, attendees selected 3 workshops to attend. I attended a session about Mindfulness for K-12 Educators, Teacher Self Reflection, and Online Formal Assessments. Every last one of these sessions were nothing short of engaging, practical, and inspiring. I can't wait to tell you all about them. I have decided that I need to hold myself accountable for putting in to practice some of the strategies I learned this week. I will be starting a "So What???" series on my blog this week. Over the course of this week, I will be blogging about each of the 3 breakout sessions that I attended and telling you how I have implemented the strategies either in my classroom or in my personal life. In essence, I've attended this awesome conference on teaching and learning...so what?! So what did I learn? So what is the takeaway? So how is this going to benefit my students? Stay tuned for the "meat and potatoes" of the conference!
Until then,
LIVE well, LOVE much, LAUGH often
Miss Milton
