teachers convention

We are on teacher's convention break here. This morning Dev and I went to the keynote. She spoke about growing dendrites in the brains of learners. She was fun and interesting and I learned some useful things.

Then I went to a workshop on Daily 5; a writing and reading program being used in classrooms throughout the district. Avondale has been doing daily 5 for two or three years already and other schools have just started. (It's really amazing how far ahead of some of these trends Avondale has been. It was the same with the Professional Learning Community thing. We were way ahead of the rest of the district too. Way to go Avondale!) The Daily 5 session was packed! It was good, although since I have been subbing in classrooms that have been following the program for a year or two, I pretty much knew what was covered at this intro session.

The next thing I went to was called 'Wiggle While You Learn'. I thought it would be a bunch of fun time-filler songs that I could use in any classroom. Basically it was a music class for K-2. The presenter (from Red Deer) has developed the MusicPlay program used in a lot of the schools around here. There were songs for every letter of the alphabet that could be used to supplement the 'Baby Barnaby type' Animated Literacy songs (which can be challenging for the kids to sing). I suppose the songs she wrote are cute, but they are very high and hard (for me) to sing! I guess the kids LOVE the songs when used in the classroom. It was fun to wiggle with Jeannine, Kendra and Dora Lee.

Tomorrow I plan to go to a really cool Art class-- Andrea Daly is the presenter. I went to her hands-on class last year with a bunch of Avondalees. We had a good time. This year I need to go to a Smartboard workshop so I know how to use one! I have used them in the classrooms I have worked in but really only know how to go to websites or look at pictures or write on pages. I'm sure there is more for me to learn! Sadly the Smartboard workshop is at the same time as the hands on class that had an opening! So, no hands-on art for me this year. I will go to her 'lecture' class though-to get the new handouts!

I was able to help friend Mo set up her booth in the display gym last night and I hope she will let me help her take it down tomorrow too.