The opening session talked about mathematics and music. The speaker integrated the two in order to teach students about mathematical terms, as well as using music theory and instruments for concept instruction. He wrote songs about concepts to help his students remember, as well as used guitars and sound waves to show students about sine and cosine functions and other mathematical terms. I had so much fun at this presentation and fully intend to use music and songs in my classroom!
I also learned so much about the SMART Board and TI-Nspire calculator. One teacher from Ohio records his lessons and posts them online. That way, students that are absent will get to experience the lesson as well. Also, he posted tutorials in order to avoid re-teaching certain topics. I thought it was so cool that the SMART Board records lessons and voice, and I think this is a great way to include struggling students. Also, the Nspire can do some great things, but I need to learn more about it before I use it in the class.
Another session I went to talked about math and art. The teacher used paintings to help students learn about different math concepts. She also had students recreate the paintings in their exploration the topics, and she posted them in the classroom. What was really cool about this was she used free paint color strips and recycled papers for her students to make the artwork. This just goes to show that teachers can use really creative ways to teach without spending much (if any) money at all. So neat!
I got some really great books and games, too, to use in my classroom. I'm pretty excited about everything I got out of this conference. I really hope that I can continue going to conferences like this. Even if my school won't pay for me to go, I would like to go and pay for it myself! Professional development is so important, and I really wish that teachers would use the opportunities and take them seriously! So many teachers there weren't open to the ideas they were hearing about, and I think that is such a shame. I think that just goes to show how different generations of teachers are. A quick, funny story to illustrate this: We were about to get dinner before the first session of the conference and we had to cross a street. The red hand came up saying for pedestrians to stop, but Brynn and Krista kept walking. Val and I stopped, and a group of teachers were in front of us. They yelled "That's why we are teachers, we follow the rules!" Valerie and I laughed, and when we told Krista and Brynn about it, Krista yelled, "REFORM!" Just a great example of our generation of teachers vs. the older generation of teachers.
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