Inspired Impact Conference Day 1

Conferences are always inspiring, hundreds of educators get together discuss their views and share ideas. This is what I love the most about attending conferences "Networking". Lots of trade stalls all handing out things for free, have myself another years supply of pens, a large amount of chocolate and even a rugby ball. However there is more to an educational conference than free trade stalls and have lunch with your co-workers. To me it is about listening, engaging and implimenting the main message. After several workshops during the day sometimes these messages get lost however today I have come away with some key points to ponder and look towards implementing them in my classroom this year.

Dr Anne Davies alerted me to the fact of co-construction of success criteria and making sure that the students expectations are the same as the teacher.

Dorothy Burt from Point England School in Auckland, was the most inspiring speaker of the day. I attended her workshop on 'Literacy in the Digital Age'. She discussed the literacy cycle, and the need for quality teaching, creating the digital object, then publishing it online to recieve feedback. By publishing it online not only do students recieved feedback but they also reinforce learning by watching it over and over again.

Dorothy raised two very important questions that I believe every educator should ask themselves and then think about their response.

• What do our students do when they are at home?
• Have our kids failed at school or have we failed them?

Dorothy was also the keynote speaker after lunch, her address was "Heating up the 21st Century".

Main Points

• Plan, Process, Produce, Publish
• We need to be aware of digital citizenship
• Teach digital literacy

Well that is a lot for one day and I am well ready and excited for tomorrow.