Sunday, May 2, 2010

This Weekend with That Workshop Book Author


Samantha Bennett opened our 2 day Literacy Connection Workshop with her foundational beliefs about our work as educators. Her thoughts are worth reading...
-whoever is doing the reading, writing and talking ( in the classroom) is doing the thinking. Learning is a consequence of thinking.

-teaching is personal, but not private

-teachers matter most to student learning (what we do, what we ask them to do, what we say, how we allow them to talk to each other, how we listen, how we structure time, how we structure curriculum, how we acknowledge students, how we give feedback, how we ask them to think about themselves and their own learning, teachers determine the weather, you have to trust yourself and feel trusted to help students learn. Teachers matter most to student learning.

-teaching is an incredibly complex endeavor. No one has nailed it. There are always ways to get better for students

-everyone does the best they can until they know better; then they do better.

-We are smarter together.

Some other big, smart ideas she repeated that I came away with are:

It is not about what we uncover--it is about what they uncover.

No more blaming.

Student resistance= Students won't when
- they don't care
-there's no purpose
or they don't know how

My personal "aha":
I need to be a better planner. Samantha helped me see how importance of big picture planning ( determining what you will teach and why it matters using learning targets, determine what students will create to demonstrate their understanding, put the planning and final product date on the calendar). I have lots to think about how I efficiently, purposefully and effectively plan for next year.

She taught me a ton!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

8 comments:

Deb Nance at Readerbuzz said...

Thank you for sharing what you took away from the workshop.

Mandy said...

I too can't wait to plan for next year and learned so much.

mary b. said...

Please continue to share your learning, thinking and planning. Sounds like she was a great presenter. Enjoy your time with her during your writing workshop time.

Stella said...

Dear Katie, when you stood in front of all of us to reflect on your teaching, it was powerful and evident your love for teaching but also your love for learning. Thanks for letting us into your teaching world for one morning. You are making things HAPPEN!

Lisa said...

I am so sorry I missed this wonderful learning opportunity! It sounds like you were able to gather some really important big ideas and thoughts on how to implement them in a thoughtful way! Way to go, Katie!

Anonymous said...

Katie,
You were so awesome during last Friday's presentation! I agree with you that "big picture" thinking/planning is key! I too can't wait to think and plan for 3rd grade!
Julie :)

Our Learning Community said...

Thanks for letting us visit your room! Friday's session was very powerful. You earned your risk-taker badge!
Andrea

essay papers said...

Great, all these ideas are quite easy to understand and I wonder why I've never thought thus.