I had a pretty darn good time at the KATE conference. I ended up with more questions than answers, but isn't that the way of education. The first morning I sat at a table with some teachers from an area community college and was joined by some area teachers and then fellow students. It was a nice mixture and we all chitchatted and nibbled until the keynote program started. We even squeezed in an extra chair when the allotted seating ran out. Our local author Clare Vanderpool was entertaining and inspiring. She certainly made me want to read her book.
Wandering the halls trying to pick between, Survivalism 101 and Using Socratic Circles I heard “In the Jungle” creeping around the halls. I was drawn in like a moth. Imagine my please surprise when the room with the tunes was the Survivalism 101 breakout, AND the dynamic due in jungle camo in the room were Monica Swift and Amanda Torbett, the Derby High teachers from my breakfast table! Serendipity at its best. I stayed of course and the information was great for me, an unblooded-not-yet-teacher. I loved their packet, which is going to be a useful reference, but even better it had a picture of retro Pitfall on the cover. Monica and Amanda played off one another perfectly as well, one a techie and one a veteran, old-school organizer. I plan on blended their techniques they discussed, because come on, who doesn't like color-coding??
I spent the whole conference torn between one or two break-outs, and I never had such a clear cut choice victory as the first one. There were no more tunes to lure me onto the right path. Of course, there also were no absolutely wrong choices. Poetry Out Loud, wasn't what I thought, but I can out with awesome FREE materials. I did feel a bit deflated when my session D choice on that first day promised I would leave with “both short-term assignments as well as long-term projects” and left with neither. C'est la vie.
The continental breakfast on day 2 was epic. A buffet of real, hot food, fruit, cereal, pastries, and juices to tempt any palette; if you didn't mind sitting next to abandoned dirty place settings. Then we jumped right into our day. I ended up in a few of Curtis Chandler's break-out sessions and he is a pistol. What I really liked though, since there was an overabundance of interesting looking break-outs, was the presenters amazing attitudes. I got papers and emails from many sessions I couldn't make it to. It was very nice. The YA Lit in the CC Classroom session was lead by a teacher I know from my placement and I liked when we posted classic curriculum reading on the walls and tried to align it with popular YA fiction. I got some cool ideas, but like I said earlier, many more questions.
I sadly missed most of Jay Asher's presentation, due to a lunch SNAFU. The part I heard/saw was funny, the part about the different book covers around the world. I did get a picture with him and some signed books! How awesome does that make me feel about building a lesson plan around the book.
It was an awesome experience. I got lots of materials, or ideas for materials and planning, and I have more coming via email. I will be distilling all of this data for another semester, hahaha.
No comments:
Post a Comment