Educating Educators

Attending the KATE conference this past week was a new experience for me. Many of the breakout sessions that I attended were great learning experiences for me. I am grateful for the experience to attend such a conference as a student.

            One of the best sessions that I attended was the session on Voice Threads as an alternative to book reports. This free program allows students to record their voices and place pictures to it instead of the standard book report. This gave me a multitude of ideas to use for my future classroom. I could not only have my students use this as a book report, but I could also adapt this technology and use it for many other uses in my classroom. If I used this technology and applied it to my semester plan, I could have my students “record” messages home from Peeta and Katniss to their families instead of writing letters. The students could also “record” commercials for their specific districts and apply them to their group projects as well. Voice threads can allow students to use technology in many ways for projects that used to be traditional. This is just one of the many ways that teachers can update their “old school” projects to something that the students may enjoy a bit better.

            Out of all the other sessions that I attended over the two days of the conference that I learned the most from was the group of new teachers giving advice to the future or new teachers. Some of the things that they pointed out in their session were things that I never considered for my classroom. Of course, one of the most obvious ideas that they shared with us was to “beg, borrow, and steal” from out CTs as well as anyone who would be willing to allow us to take their lesson plans, worksheets, ideas, etc. I have previously had a professor that had told us that, but I did not truly believe him. I did not think that the teachers that we would be working with would actually help us, but the farther I go in my student teaching the more I know that other teachers want to see us succeed. Hearing the “new” teachers advice gave me the understanding to know that what I have been hearing in my classes for so long has been correct. The little tips and strategies can be taken to heart because they do work, as long as they are implemented properly.

            I never believed that I could learn so much from a conference in two days. Things that have taken years to learn in other classes I learned in 45 minute sessions. From what I have learned in those two days, I will be attending the KATE conference again. I believe that learning from other people that are in the same profession is one of the best ways to learn. I believe that it is true what they say, it does take a village to raise a child. With that in mind, it will take many educators to educate each other just so we can educate our students.