Model Schools Day 1

So…Its really late…But we had to celebrate the appointment of my new principal who is on the trip with us!!!  Pretty excited to see what the future holds at Memorial High School with Mr. Coffelt in charge!

Back to the Model Schools Conference – what a great day! We started off learning about Smarter Balance/PAARC and how they are the same and different.  As a math teacher, I have become more familiar with the math side of things.  But today seeing the whole picture was very interesting.  Lots of interesting ideas about how to change me questions to help the students reach a deeper understanding;

Next up was Ray McNulty talking about the new normal.  This was a really challenging session for me to attend. It makes me want to work even harder to be even better!  It also was encouraging to hear someone tell me to try new stuff and see if it works! I am always on the lookout for something different.  I subscribe to the notion that if you are not changing, then you are standing still.

Next up was a session on flipping the classroom, I do this already, but it was great to hear someone else talk about all of the positive benefits.  I was sitting with one of our younger scie!nce teachers and had a great conversation about it – she will be trying this out next year

Finished the day with a session on writing, and although writing is not my strongest skill, I “waved my pen in the air” and my “writing was on fire!”  I did get some really good ideas about how to incorporate some peer editing into my classroom:  have three students share problems that they could not complete, seek peer review, then present to the class for check on how they did.  It was kinda fun!

We finished the night with a ballgame to watch the Nationals and to celebrate!  Day 1 is in the books and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow will be like…in just a few short hours…