Last week I went to the PIE Conference in Lewiston, ID. In my opinion, it was great! At first I was disappointed with the selection, as there weren't very many workshops dealing with mathematics, but my disappointment was quickly alleviated. This is not the first time I have gone to the PIE conference, but it is the first time I was pleased by most of the workshops. For those of you who don't know what the PIE conference is, I'll give you some background information.
The PIE conference stands for Partnership In Education and is held every year in October. It is usually the first Thursday and Friday of the month at Lewiston High School and is sponsored by schools all across Idaho. Presenters are brought in to teach 1.5 hour workshops to teachers, student-teachers, administrators, and substitutes while companies come to sell books or hands-on projects.
I began Thursday by listening to the keynote speaker, Kendra Hughes present on Eliminating Bullying and Harassment: Responsibilities of the School Community. It felt like she was preaching to the choir. Kendra didn't say anything that wasn't common knowledge, or should be common knowledge. She talked about the new laws with regards to harassment and bullying and how to recognize each. Then, Kendra told us stories of things that has happened in some school districts and I was flabbergasted! There was a school who segregated their students by race and forced them to sign a behavioral contract. Another school ignored the harassment of a student until that student committed suicide. To me, it seemed like these school districts were smacked with the stupid stick. It was a good presentation overall.
Next, I went to Art Integration: Strategies, Ideas and Activities to Strengthen Learning in the Classrooms presented by Lisa Nelson. Lisa is a coworker of mine at Troy Jr./Sr. High School and she teaches English, Speech, and Art. She talked about disciplined doodling and how she uses it as a reward in her classroom for good behavior. I am not a very art-sy person. As a kid I was told I couldn't draw with a two-handed crayon. However, this was right up my alley! I can see why students like this type of drawing. Lisa had cards that outlined the how-to of about 15 doodles. Each doodle could be repeated over and over and over to form a tessellation like picture. Students could get so into their doodle that classroom disruption wouldn't be a problem, and they could work on it if they finished early on their classwork.
The third workshop I went to was the BEST. Dinah Zike presented Foldables Across the Curriculum. Dinah showed us how to do more hands-on projects with the students without a lot of prep work. As a teacher, projects that don't take a lot of prep work are considered gold. There is always a learning curve when implementing new material into an existing lectures so it will take me and the students a little bit of time to get used to the new style. I probably won't be able to jump right into doing foldables but hopefully I will be able to start them within the month.
The last workshop on Thursday was about the Common Core State Standards for Language Arts and Math. Common Core State Standard are being adopted nationwide. This is so students are taught the same thing each year and when students transfer from schools in different states there isn't going to be a large learning gap. The presenter implied that the US may be working toward removing individual state tests, like the ISAT (Idaho Standard Achievement Test), CAT/5 (California Achievement Test), and ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills), and begin national standardized testing. Like always, there are pros and cons to doing so. The workshop was very informative.
On Friday, I went to the keynote speaker, Dave Shepard, present on All Star Teaching-Making the First Team. Dave's presentation was about being the best possible teacher you can be all of the time. He had 5 things teachers could do to be an "All-American Teacher". 1. Accept the plan. Changes are being made in education so quit whining and deal with it. 2. Learn the playbook. Make lesson plans, and make them relevant. 3. Use the equipment. Go to conferences, read teaching journals, share ideas, and collaborate with other teachers across the discipline. 4. Find and listen to a great coach. Talk to a football, basketball, or other sport coach and ask them how they motivate the kids. Be willing to make changes in your teaching style. 5. Walk with winners. Associate yourself with great teachers. Just like in sports, you can only get better by playing with better players or with players who want to get better.
After Dave Shepard's keynote, I decided to go to his workshop on Avoiding Classroom Comas. He had some great strategies on getting kids up and moving around in the classroom. Dave stated that students embrace what they can't screw up. Instead of only asking right and wrong questions, ask open-ended opinion questions. Students love to give their opinion and it will start some good classroom discussions. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of open-ended questions that can be asked in the math classroom. I have come up with a couple of ideas but will need to think on it more.
The next workshop I went to on Friday was Foldables 102 with Jenny Arlt. Jenny did not think that anyone was going to show up to her workshop so she didn't really have anything prepared. It was supposed to be a follow-up to Dinah's Foldable workshop from the day before. Luckily, another teacher came to the workshop who had been using Dinah's foldables for a couple of years and was able to show us some foldables that Dinah hadn't been able to get to. It could have been a better workshop, but it was still worth going to.
The last workshop of the conference that I went to was presented by Megan Anderson. She talked about Montessori Education: Past, Present, Future. Megan gave us a history of Montessori schools and of Maria Montessori. She told us Montessori schools focus on more hands-on learning and do-it-yourself techniques while trying to get kids learning out in nature. Megan opened a Montessori school (Pre-K to K) last year and already has kids on the waiting list. To me it just sounds like a glorified daycare center, but for some kids, that is the only way they are able to learn.
I am very happy I went, and I would recommend that anyone in the teaching profession should go. You are able to confer with other teachers in your field and learn new techniques to integrate into your classroom and curriculum.
