So, it's time to try to catch up a bit. First, the Texas Association for the Gifted and Talented conference which I attended with Lisa on Nov. 13 and 14. I really enjoy going to this conference because I get so many good (no, great) ideas to use in my classes. The best two sessions I attended this year were presented by Lisa. One, "Laughing Yourself Smart" revolved around ideas to bring humor into the classroom. (Although this conference is directed at teaching gifted kids, the information is really great for everyone). From her workshop, I got the idea to use the squawking chicken that we've had laying around the house as a motivation for my students. This chicken has a strong rubber neck that you can pull on to launch the fowl across the room and it squawks when it lands. So, I took it to school, and used it as my visual aid while telling them the story of the eagle who was raised with the chickens and failed to achieve his full potential. He just kept scratching in the dirt when he should have soared in the heavens. I told the kids they are all eagles but sometimes they act like chickens and when that happens, they can expect this fine feathered friend to visit our class. Then I launched the chicken across the room. It was great. And even better, during 7th period, one of my students fell asleep. Amazing how startling a squawking chicken can be when it lands on a sleeping student's desk. He jumped a foot at least. I was highly amused. (and he hasn't slept in class since).
I also submitted proposals and made two presentations at the conference. It was an okay experience, but I don't know if I'll repeat it. I can put this on my vita and it will look good, but I didn't really enjoy myself. In part that was because both of my presentations were the last of the day. On the first afternoon, only three people attended (my dear friend Lisa being one of them). It was called The Amazing Technicolor Dream Class and was about ways to engage students of different ethnicities and cultures. I thought it was pretty good, but the attendance was disappointing. Thus, I had few hopes for the second presentation on blogging (because I'm such an expert at this). Actually, I decided to talk about blogging and use myself as a testimonial--If I can do this with my students, anyone can. And even though that was during the last session of the entire conference, about a dozen people came. They seemed to enjoy the presentation; they were willing to participate and add their ideas, and it went pretty well. So, if I can come up with a really great idea, I might do it again, but I'll have to think about it first. Lisa has been doing this for three years and has built up a great reputation--almost 200 people were in her morning humor session. I don't pretend to be as gifted as she is, but I think I'm a good teacher, so we'll see what happens next year......
2 comments:
I would have attended your blogging class if I had been at the conference. :)
Look at it this way. It is a learning experience and you might find something you can teach that you are really passionate about that can inspire others. Maybe you have already done that, even with low attendance.
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