On Wednesday, we had our EdCamp experience, and it was such a neat way to connect and learn with a variety of educators and teacher candidates. I was really hoping there would be a breakout room to discuss humour in the classroom, but I realize that not every teacher is passionate about this, and perhaps it would be a good topic to do for an inquiry.
That aside, I started in a room regarding assessment. The discussion was rich right away, and initially there were only 7 or 8 of us so we had the chance to all introduce ourselves. One thing I really pulled from the discussion in this room is that you can’t always measure what someone knows. Further, it was interesting to hear that there is a push to be grade-less, even in high school. The intention of this is to encourage students to chase learning rather than chase grades. During this assessment chat I had a big lightbulb of an idea go off for something to do for practicum… so we’ll see.
I managed to smush all my notes together – so even though I joined a few other rooms, such as “surviving your practicum” and “mental health in the classroom,” it all seems to fit together. In the practicum room I posed a question to the other group members essentially asking for advice on how to be fun and approachable for students while also being somewhat of an authority figure. The main feedback seemed to be to be authentic, and to really care about the students, because they can tell when we do and don’t mean something. This gives us the opportunity to be creative with how we introduce ourselves as well. Check-ins and story sharing will likely be used.
Two messages I want to make sure I remember are to FAIL BETTER – because no one is perfect, but we can make better mistakes, and recover from them in a way that maximizes our learning. The other is that every day is a new day, and we have to be able to always move forward. We should not trap our students in the past, because show up to learn and grow.
Overall this was a neat experience, and I cannot wait to do something like this in the flesh one day.
Photo by Ian Schneider on Unsplash
