Fire Up! Conference for Student Teachers
Kelli Sprenger
Fire Up! Conference Agenda
Standard #9: Professional Learning and Ethical Practice
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Fire Up! Agenda | |
File Size: | 13 kb |
File Type: | docx |
On March 2, 2015, I attended the FireUp! Conference at Grand Valley State University. Anne King, the key-note speaker, started the day with a few stories of her own experience as a teacher. From there, we were able to choose our own breakout mini-sessions and attend five different ones throughout the day. The five that I chose have been outlines in the agenda, shown in the document link above. The first session I chose was my favorite: "Jedi Mind Tricks for Avoiding the First Year Burn Out". I liked it not only because it was informative and realistic on how hard it is to be a first year teacher, but also because Dave Stuart Jr. was so engaging and down to earth. He is a high school history and English teacher and was able to share his mistakes and how he was able to overcome them. I would have loved to have him for a teacher myself! I feel that I learned a lot from the other sessions as well. I attended one session that gave examples of games to use in the classroom and how to make that meaningful rather than just for fun. Another session gave great ideas for setting up an elementary classroom to use the space wisely and gave cost-efficiency tips, especially for first year teachers. I learned something new in each of the sessions and actually had fun doing it.
This conference meets this standard because it was one way that I engaged in professional learning. I even used some of the techniques presented in my student teaching experience, especially techniques presented in the classroom management session. I think the best part of this conference was being able to choose which breakout sessions could best influence me individually. By being able to choose, I could focus on what I know is something that I could improve on or something that I know I would use in the future. The things that I learned during the conference have already influenced my personal teaching philosophy and I am excited to use that knowledge in my future years of teaching.
This conference meets this standard because it was one way that I engaged in professional learning. I even used some of the techniques presented in my student teaching experience, especially techniques presented in the classroom management session. I think the best part of this conference was being able to choose which breakout sessions could best influence me individually. By being able to choose, I could focus on what I know is something that I could improve on or something that I know I would use in the future. The things that I learned during the conference have already influenced my personal teaching philosophy and I am excited to use that knowledge in my future years of teaching.