Spring Conference

In MN, you would hardly know it is spring.  There is at least a foot of snow out there and more to come.  Nevertheless, the St. Mary's Spring Conference is upon us and I get to pick 5 sessions that interest me.  These sessions are lead by 2nd year Masters Program students and highlight their work over the last two years.  I would actually be excited about attending the sessions except that I have a prior commitment for that day.  So instead, I am sad to say that I will miss several great sessions about topics that I think would truely be useful to me in my practice.

The sessions I picked center around technology, literacy, and engagement.  The first session I picked is about integrating technology (specifically iPads) into a health education class.  While my discipline is high school math, I think it would have been great to see how someone was able to use iPads in their class.  I also picked another session about using iPads in the classroom.  This particular session will be lead by an elementary teacher, so again, it is not my discipline, but it still would be great to see how someone integrated iPads and other technology into the classroom.

The other sessions I picked focus on student engagement, literacy, and staff morale.  An elementary teacher chose to use movement in her class to see the impact on student engagement.  She suggests that her students did show improvement and were more likely to be engaged during learning times.  I have used games and other activities in class and seen the positive effects of movement for high schoolers.

The fourth session I would have liked to attend regards staff morale and the impact on student achievement.  I think it is very true that staff morale has an affect on students.  I would be curious to hear the results of his research and to know how he improved the morale at his school.

The final session I picked is about incorporating literacy strategies into the math classroom.  I was excited to finally have a math-specific session!  Then I saw that it was an elementary classroom!  Foiled again!  In any case, I am sure there would be something useful there for me.  Afterall, if literacy is about understanding context and knowing how to answer a question, any strategy used in elementary school should be able to be used at the secondary level to some degree.

I truely wish I could attend these sessions.  It would have been wonderful to see the final results of someone's research - especially considering I will be doing this in about a year!