Live, from the ASCD!
By Angela Watson
It has to be a special occasion for me to be coherent, much less posting a blog entry, at 8:00 on a Saturday morning. And special it is. I’m at the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development’s annual conference in Orlando. It’s much more interesting than it sounds.
I’m covering the event as a member of the press for the blog In Practice. I’m excited to be part of the blogging team, which is comprised of a small group of outstanding teacher-bloggers working in inner city classrooms throughout the country:
- Alice Mercer of The Blog of Miz Mercer: Reflections on Teaching
- Brian Crosby of Learning is Messy
- Doug Noon of Borderland
- Jennifer Orr of Elementary, My Dear, or Far From It
- Jose Rodriguez of The Wooden Nickel
- Larry Ferlazzo from Larry Ferlazzo’s Website of the Day for Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL)
- Matthew Needleman of Creating Lifelong Learners
- Michaele Sommerville of Kindergarten’s 3 R’s: Respect, Resources, and Rants
And then…there is me. Wow. I’m truly honored to be part of this group.
The blog In Practice is the result of these writers’ combined efforts at capturing the reality of education in the 21st century: theory is nice, but we’re working in practice. And because of the blog’s outstanding reputation, its contributors were invited to attend the ASCD conference as members of the media. So in a wonderful stroke of providence, I have the opportunity to represent the blog and cover the event as a journalist. Ahh, the benefits of living three hours from the conference location.
I’m currently in a rather dull general session (which, so far, has been only a bunch of awards and acceptance speeches). I understand the New York Times #1 bestselling author Greg Mortensen (3 Cups of Tea) is about to speak, so I’m sticking it out.
HOWEVER this morning I attended an amazing presentation about counteracting the effects of poverty in the classroom. I live-blogged the event using it Cover It Live, meaning that readers can follow along with the conference session as it happens. And because most of you have more relaxing ways to spend your weekend, each live-blog event is archived so you can peruse my notes at your leisure. It’s unedited, so you can read exactly what I was learning and thinking as the session progressed.
The preview you see below is NOT my session. Click it to view my actual notes.
The presenter was absolutely amazing, deeply grounded and focused on her vision and helping others create their own. We had an immediate connection, and I am thrilled to have secured an interview with her tomorrow morning! I’ll post info on that later.
Be sure to check out the In Practice blog for lots of live events, summary recaps of conference sessions, and more as the weekend progresses.
Angela Watson
Founder and Writer
Discussion
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Angela, that was an interesting post. I can’t wait to see what else you post about this conference. I think uniforms would make such a difference at my school. (I work at an urban school.) I’m tired of telling my boys to pull up their pants or girls to wear longer shorts. The kids would not be so focused on what the other person looks like. It would bring a much more sense of community. I’d love to see this happen at my school but I’m not sure how to go about it. The gender classroom thing- I don’t think I’d enjoy teaching just a group of girls or just a group of boys. I agree that it would be less distracting (Girl/boy drama is always an issue every year.) but I like the contribution that each gender brings to the mix. This seems like a really great school. I look forward to your interview with the principal.
Angela,
Hopefully you get to meet up with Madeleine Friedman and Elena Centrone…
Have fun.
– Russ
Hi Angela,
As you know, I attended the conference virtually. But your live blogging and video streaming really helped me take some of it in.
Thanks
Peter Pappas
http://peterpappas.blogs.com/
Re: putting friends together. Boys, especially, who don’t like each other will spend the whole time vying for control. Pair up friends where the pecking order is established and they know how to work well together.
How interesting. I will consider this when grouping my students for a project next time. Who knows; maybe they will be more productive!
And, uniforms are so key. We have them at my school, and even though it’s not enforced THAT strictly (some kids interpret “blue pants” as “blue jeans” and nobody does anything about it) I still appreciate the structure. And I notice a huge difference on days we don’t have the uniforms!
Marlene: Glad that session was helpful for you, too. I did get an interview with the presenter, and I was absolutely blown away by her. WOW. I’ve got to post that, ASAP!
Russ [who is my Assistant Principal, BTW]: Thanks for commenting! It’s so wonderful to know I have your support. 🙂
PeterPappas: It was awesome to have you participate virtually–really enjoyed it! You have a wonderful blog, and useful tweets, so I’m glad we had a chance to get to know each other. It’s been mutually beneficial.
Chris Bennett: I LOVE uniforms! Thanks for the confirmation there. And let me know how it goes with letting kids pick their friends for partners.