Bright Ideas Conference Write-Up

I had so much fun attending the Bright Ideas conference! It was a great experience to be able to ride there with such great colleagues, talking all the way there about what kind of teachers we want to be and about English Education in general.

The first workshop we went to was very helpful, and I am so glad I went to it. In that session was a panel of MSU Student Teachers who were just about done with their internships. Basically they gave us advice on our internships, what to do and what not to do. They had many helpful hints and facts a bout what to expect in our internship year.

They put a lot of our fears or concerns at ease - or at least were honest about what to expect. The best chunk of advice I received was that you can't control everything but you can control yourself. They all agreed that to be successful in your internship and teaching in general is to know yourself and know yourself well.

They said that it is very important to establish strict rules and boundaries on the first couple days, and also that you can't lead a double life. They said that when your personal life or own interests and personality traits comes through into the classroom students really enjoy it. They also talked a lot about how you won't be the same during your internship, and that even though you may still be a college student you can't exactly act like one anymore.

All in all I took away a lot of great advice from this panel, and I felt really relieved after talking with them.

The second panel was about scaffolding and helping the students through a big assignment through taking it little by little. I took away some great resources from that workshop. I see a lot of scaffolding would be needed in order for some classes to do a Multi-Genre project.

I am so glad I went to this conference, and after two great conference experiences I will be sure to go to any other conferences such as these that come my way.

Linda Christensen Conference Write-Up

The Christensen Conference was a very unique experience and I'm very glad I attended both the talk and the workshops.

The lecture she gave was really great because we saw what Christensen was really like in person and see how close she was to how we imagined her. She reminds me a lot of Dr. Alison Baer, which is funny because they are both amazing teachers who love the written word. At times when I felt that Christensen's book was a little wishy-washy I now take those stories at face value, and as inspiring stories from her past.

I feel like she's a really genuine person who truly cares about kids and that gives her book more meaning and value in my opinion. She's someone who I'm definitely not ashamed to say I aspire to be like as a teacher.

The first workshop I went to was pretty good, I heard about a good book and also about questioning the classroom.

The second workshop I went to was really amazing and I learned so much about teaching the Holocaust in our classrooms from that workshop. It came in really handy while I was writing my Unit Plan for ED 3020 on WWII.

I emailed the presenter of this workshop, Katherine Ha, after her conference and she emailed me back her book list - many of which I included in my annotated text set for LS 3010. I could tell how knowledgeable she was, and she told us all about how she spent ten days in New York doing an extensive and intense program focusing around the Holocaust, run by a Holocaust survivor and author of The Sunflower, a novel about forgiveness.

She also promoted applying for programs such as this as a teacher, because it really enriched her class and her lessons. Much of the resources she gave us she received while in this program in New York.

She was very excited and vocal about how great of an experience it was for her and how much it impacted her classroom as well as her teaching.

All in all I was very glad I went to this conference - it was a truly interesting and helpful!

Grammar Group

I absolutely LOVED the way the grammar group set up their presentation. It was so cool how they made us be in "Paris" and we were a group of selected students. That created a really fun atmosphere for the first day of their presentation.

I kept forgetting that the group was about grammar, even though we were looking at grammar the entire time. I think this reflects well upon them, because they made grammar seem really fun and entertaining.

The Poetry Group

I loved it! The Poetry Group was so much fun, and I loved hearing everyone else's poem as they were funny, heartfelt and a whole host of other adjectives. I kept the handouts they gave and will use them as references as well as they wikispace. It's nice to have them as a reference for when I'll be teaching - I can just pull out one of those hand outs and do a poem about whatever subject we're doing a a class at the time.

For instance a poem can be done on To Kill a Mockingbird using an I Am poem, taking the voice of one of the characters.

Communities Group

I really enjoyed the presentation by last week's group. Their activity with the pictures and writing on those pictures was really fun and it's always nice to use creativity with projects like that in a group setting.

The second day of their presentation I was sick and not in class, but I heard all about their game and the activity the class did together and I'm very disappointed to have missed it! It sounds like choosing roles and acting them out was a great way to put yourself in another's shoes and to have some fun as a class.

Overall I feel that they did a great job, and all group members did their part in presenting.

Group Teach Experience

Overall, group teaching was AMAZING. I liked getting to know the people in my group, and it was great to come together to learn about Multi-genre projects. I've learned so much about MG projects, how to make them, and the pros and cons.

Probably the best part about teaching the class about MG projects was that I was so excited about it, I got to share that excitement with them. MG projects are so fun and have many benefits, it was a fun to talk about it as a group of future educators.

The worst part was probably making the tedious copies - but that tells you how fun the rest of the project was. The rest of the project was nice because I wanted to learn about MG projects, and I got to learn about it with people who also wanted to know more about them and how to use them in classroom.

I can't wait to see what other people do with their group teaches! I know they'll all be great.

Q's for Linda Christensen

1. Did you ever worry about getting "too personal" with your students? Where do you draw the line about how much information about your personal life you talk about with them?

2. What do you know about "Six Traits" writing? How do you feel about "Six Traits" writing, and how would you include it in the classroom?

3. What do you consider to be the hardest aspect about teaching young people, and what do you do to overcome this aspect?