Monday, February 6, 2012

A Weekend of Conferences

This weekend was jam-packed full of conferences for me.  I went to two different education related conferences, with different perspectives and ideas, but overall it was very valuable.

On Thursday evening I went to the Education Re-Energized conference which was on the USS Midway.  Not only was the location amazing, but everything that was happening was more than what I had expected.  There were booths to view before the main speaker and they were mostly high school and middle school students representing different after school programs which bring science and math awareness to young students.  I thought this was amazing, and it is something that I definitely want to be part of when I get into a school.  The speaker of the conference brought new insight to teaching and education.  The speaker was Steve Farber, normally a speaker of Leadership to the business world, he then was notified by educators about how his theories can be related to educators.  He discussed his acronym: LEAP.  Love, Energy, Audacity and Proof.  He presented some great thoughts and ideas.

On Friday and Saturday, I attended the GSDMC (Greater San Diego Mathematics Council) Conference which was focused on teaching math.  Some speakers were good, I learned about the use of Hollistic problems, getting kids interested in puzzles, and working with the new Common Core Standards.  The best talk, however, was Dan Meyer, who talked about the phases of word problems and how they relate to a good movie.
Act 1: The hook, students need to be interested in what they are solving.
Act 2: Students gather the tools, resources and information (it's better if they do it on their own)
Act 3: The done moment, when students get to see if they are right.

Even though it was a long weekend, it was well worth my time. I was able to network with other teachers and think about they way that I want to set up my own class.

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