I was curious what everyone’s favorite session was? Mine was the pre-service teacher one. I thought it was very relevant, informational, and helpful for where we’re at. It was also quite interesting to talk about that kind of stuff with students from other colleges.
My favorite session was about Character development using the website Values.com as a resource. The leader of the workshop shared a lot of books with us about the different character development values. A lot of the books were biographies, similar to what we read today in class. I loved hearing about all the resources that we can include within our classrooms! The woman also shared how she read these pictures books to her middle school students, and they really enjoyed the books! I love hearing the use of Children’s Literature in older grade levels.
I went to a session on Sunday that involved teaching population in class. I thought it was a useful session because we actually did the activities and saw what could be modified for our future classes. My favorite though was the session about not giving homework and “hating” notecards. While it was geared towards middle and high school students, there were many strategies that could be modified for an elementary classroom.
I really enjoyed that one as well! I also thought that the 5th grade teacher who incorporates a lot of technology in her classroom and hands-on activities was inspiring! She is able to be a facilitator, and allow her students to be agents of their on learning, which is awesome! It was also nice seeing examples of how social studies can be inquiry based.