The Next Step: Breaking out of the Classroom

               I have grown more this semester than I have ever grown before, and I can see that same electric explosion of awareness humming increasingly louder in every one of my classmates! We are stronger, closer, and more capable of our roles as future teachers. We have begun to realize and accept that the fears and expectations we felt as we entered the College of Education will be answered with support, encouragement, and understanding. Those first tender leaves of knowledge, so carefully cultivated in the safety of our classrooms have felt the warm sunny rays of fellowship and withstood the frost of failure with each new experience; only to grow stronger and more deeply rooted in what we now understand to be our calling. The unknown is no longer something to fear: instead, it is something we eagerly welcome! It seems that with each class meeting and each new day working within our assigned schools, there are new breakthroughs and new understandings that we achieve and add to our growing tool kits of knowledge. For me, the most recent of these epiphanal experiences occurred at the 2014 Kansas Association for Teachers of English (KATE) Annual Conference that I attended with my Core III class at the direction of our professor.

                I think we all had different expectations of what this conference would be like, but I don’t think any of us expected what we actually experienced! Each of us arrived early Thursday morning, sleepy-eyed and timid. We squeezed in close together at the same breakfast table; making room for just one more classmate as new arrivals approached us looking for the supportive comfort of familiar faces. Only a small few chose to venture out to sit at other tables and brave the unknown; while the rest of us watched from our secluded table at the farthest corner of the room.

 

                The conference opened with a description of that day’s events and an address from our first keynote speaker, Dr. Howard Pitler. I was both entertained and enlightened by the information that Dr. Pitler presented on using technology in the classroom and beyond! Until that morning, I had not realized just how many technology based tools there are to use in my classroom that are both user friendly and very purposeful! I have since registered for a twitter account so that I could follow Dr. Pitler and stay up to date with his helpful ideas. I also have a feeling that his website, http://www.mcrel.org, will be one of my go-to sites for information and new ideas in the future!

                The first break-out session that I attended was so much fun! I joined “Icebreakers, Teambuilding, & Brainbreakes: Using Collaborative Play to Foster Positive Learning,” with local teacher, April Pameticky; where we participated in kinesthetic activities that require both team work and outside-of-the box thinking strategies! As a future teacher, I worry that I will not have enough space in my classroom to do all of the different kinds of collaborative lessons and activities that I would like to do. I am a big fan of Socratic circles for group discussion, horseshoe or half circle seating arrangements for better face to face discussion within a whole class activity, and other collaborative designs, but sometimes the traditional front facing seating arrangements are necessary. Using the “Make Some Room” management strategy as a trained behavior from the start can help students make these changes to their seating in a single minute or less; rather than spending 5 – 10 minutes of valuable class time to produce the desired outcome. I also found “The Big Wind Blows” get-to-know-you activity and the “Quiz Quiz Trade” activity useful and fun. If you are interested in checking these out, please comment on this blog post and I will be happy to share! J

                I also attended Eileen Wertzberger’s, “The Power of Discourse: Engaging Students by Activating their Voices.” I really enjoyed her commentary on the ways that we can engage our students in discussion and collaboration, but there were not enough hand-outs for everyone, and I was the last person to join the presentation. If any one of my classmates have a copy of the hand-outs and would be willing to repost here or otherwise get them to me, I would greatly appreciate it. Ms. Wertzberger was so personable, informative, and fun to listen to! I hope that we can stay in touch for sharing more of her fabulous ideas!

                It is hard to choose a favorite, but the last session of the day was certainly one of the most enlightening. “Facing the Joys and Perils of the First Year of teaching” round table discussion with Amber Carithers, Chris Sanabria, and Michael Thompson was so helpful and encouraging for me as a pre-student teacher! I felt so fortunate to share in their personal stories of struggle and success, as well as pose questions about what to expect from my own first year of teaching. Several of my classmates attended with me, and it was neat to also have the opportunity to engage with students from other colleges and a few first and second year teachers from Kansas as well! As we discussed the session amongst our class later on that afternoon, we decided that it would be a lot of fun to give back what we have received and volunteer for this if our professor would like to do the session again next year. J

                The last activity of the day was the after conference social that we were all invited to attend. Although I was unable to stay for the entire event, it was so nice to just sit with my peers and our professor to visit without a prompt to follow or schedule to worry about. I felt so much closer to each of them, and it was so good to know that I was a part of such an amazing group of people! I also met several new faces and spoke with two first year teachers that were in my class last year!

                I didn’t get a chance to attend any break-out sessions on Friday morning because I was busy participating in the 2014 KATE Community Poetry Project; where I and several other pre-student teachers from my class had the opportunity to watch teacher and poet, Taylor Mali work with our Poetry Project students in a private poetry workshop! We had been working with our students weekly for a couple of months in preparation for this workshop and this was the highlight of the whole project! It was so amazing to watch him work with those kids and bring so much out of them! I think the most significant lesson that I took away from this workshop was that instead of being afraid of what my students can’t do, we should remind them and ourselves of what they can do! These guys and gals rose to the challenge and blew me away with their poems as well as the bravery and strength that it took for them to perform in front of the crowd!

                After the workshop, I led my own break-out session entitled, “On Seeing: Teaching Students to Learn in Color within a World of Black and White.” This was not at all what I had expected it to be upon first agreeing to present. A couple of things that I didn’t know and am glad I learned:

1.       The “proposal” that I was asked to submit prior to the presentation was not just for KATE staff to examine for approval; it was what would be published as a summary in the schedule catalog! If I had known that, I would likely have written it much differently.

2.       I would NOT be lecturing on some formally written topic to a group of dry minded, judgmental, administrative, proprietors who were scouting the meat market of pre-education contestants for someone to fill their payroll sheet next year. That sounds absolutely terrible, and I want to apologize for ever thinking something like this about the wonderful, kind, and helpful people who chose to share their valuable time participating in my presentation and who taught me more about teaching than I had ever hoped to bring for presentation!

3.       Always model what you are preaching. I still believe that the idea that inspired this presentation was a good one. I wanted to protest standardization of learning and assessment and the one-size-fits-all attitude of our federal government. I wanted to encourage active participation with my students and to find new ways to build connections and desire to learn through thinking about familiar ideas and concepts with the out-of-the-box perspective that Annie Dillard wrote about so many years ago. What I did, was force my participants to sit through a fairly dry lecture and power point presentation that barely skimmed the surface of what I had in mind—And truth be told, I added the activity on writing with emoticons at the last minute after observing other presentations the day before. These observational opportunities helped me gain new perspective of who my audience would be and what would be most meaningful to them.

What I learned from this experience and what I will take with me into my future classroom is that it is not about making something perfect and pretty, it’s about telling the truth and creating an open line of communication that can lead to new learning. So much of the feedback and the thoughtful questions and comments posed in my break-out session were priceless opportunities for my own learning and growth. Many of those comments and questions were posed by my classmates who came to support me, and I will be forever grateful for the support and encouragement that I have received! In fact, because of these fabulous people and this conference, this whole experience has created a profound change in me. I have stopped worrying about all of the “steps” I would be taking in order to finish my certification and have started to realize how much I will miss my classmates: sharing their ideas, their fears and hopes, their struggles and successes. In some ways, I don’t want these experiences of learning to end. However, I hope that I can become a KATE member next year in order to continue these relationships and create new ones as well!

 

             Of course, the most exciting event was the Taylor Mali’s keynote address! I laughed so hard that my face hurt for the rest of the night! This man is an amazing inspirational speaker and a true genius with word play. What a way to end an amazing conference in celebration of teaching, communicating inspiration, and having fun with what we learn!

 

            Thinking back on this experience and the man other epiphanal moments of the last year, I realize that I am no longer the person that I once was upon entering my education program. In fact, I am not even the same person that I was at the end of last semester and neither are my classmates. This conference was not just a fun, informative event for me. It is one of many transitional experiences over the last year that has significantly changed me in a positive way, and all I can say in response is that I am truly thankful and blessed. Oh, and I can’t wait for the KATECon 2015!!!