Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Promising Practices Conference

 
  I really had a great experience at my first Promising Practices Conference. It was reassuring to see my fellow classmates sitting at a table together. It made any stress or confusion dim away from the start. I was glad that I had preregistered because it made it so easy to just grab my folder, and get ready for the day.
     My first session was called Horton: Digitally Organizing Your Ideas, taught by Connie Horton. This was held in a computer lab, where we took our test last week. Mrs. Horton was a very enthusiastic Teacher from the moment that we all walked in. The program that was taught to us was about the method of using Concept Maps in our classrooms, or as a guide for our personal organization. She had explained perfectly, which made it easy for me to grasp the procedure. You make a list, or steps that you want to turn into a time-line. After you are done organising your thought, you press this button, which automatically turns it into a time-line.You can cange the colors for the text, shapes, or even add an imagine in the words place. I found the program to be a wonderful tool for children that need to write a report.I may even use it for my own next project! It will keep me organised, and help me visually see the steps that I need to take. We all created a 'Sunday' page, and the things that we needed to do that day. It was fun to play with the images, and change the colors of my list. I do recommend this Session for those people that enjoy working on the computer.

     My favorite Session was definitely the second one. I walked in and just felt so comfortable with the Student teaching this class. The name of the Session was called David: Bringing Media Literacy Into the Classroom. This was the perfect conference to attend because it went right along with our class discussions, and I learned some new things too! It introduces the topic of Gender Inequality in the classroom, and in the Media. Kayla David was teaching this topic, and  is actually a Student at RIC. She was excited and nervous at the same time, and truly passionate about this lesson. She began with letting use take ten minutes, in a group, and writing down the difference between a female and a male! I knew a bit more then the rest of group because of our class and the reading, but I waited and then put down my answers. She explained the difference between sex and gender, which brought to mind the reading by Linda Christensen. The 'Teacher did not mention an author in her presentation, but gave a over-view of the issue in the Media. Christensen taught use about the problem that arises in our daily life, and the 'Hidden Curriculum' that is taught to use daily. Miss David also touched on the ideas and ideology's that are in our society. She did not use Disney Films in her presentation like Linda Christensen had in her article, but brought our attention to the media.We all wrote our ideas on the girl and boy drawings that she had put on the board. Then she showed use some commercials that use females as a 'sex object', and inferior to the male race. I posted a couple that she played, and some that I found on YouTube! It's awful to read the comments some 'Men' left under the videos!!

   I am not quite sure how to sum up the Keynote speaker, Dr.Dennis Shirley. I tried to understand what he was addressing in his speech, but found myself con fussed throughout the discussion. I think that if I did read his book, I would remember bits and pieces from the speech, and maybe 'get it'. He seems like a well educated man, that has many experiences to share with his listeners, but I was confused. I think he jumped around most of the time, and I did feel aggravated because I was excited to learn something new about Mindfulness!

1 comment:

  1. glad you had good sessions! Hope you will come back again next year!

    ReplyDelete