ASCD Does the Sanny Franny!

I had the unique opportunity this past weekend to attend ASCD's Annual Conference in my hometown of San Francisco! ASCD (formally the Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development) has a motto and it's "Learn. Teach. Lead." These people know what they're talkin' bout. I must admit that I nerded out (teachers are allowed to use made up words right?) a little bit on education stuff while at this conference. I was truly surrounded by the leaders in our field and I even met educational celebrity Robert Marzano!!! (see my previous post for clarification). While I could go on and on about all the new things I learned, I won't overload you; not to mention that my head is kind of still spinning from the information.

Some highlights:
1. Saturday's General Session Speaker, Chip Heath. Chip is a Business Professor at Stanford. My immediate reaction was, "Why would they bring in a business man to talk to teachers?" Then I heard his incredibly captivating presentation about change and how difficult it is to make real changes. This is an education issue, but also a life issue. Take a look at the info that he and his brother are putting out there....good stuff.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCtwPYeTwI0&feature=related

2. Green Light Classrooms: incredible, interactive ideas for engaging learners at every age. Among other things, presenter Rich Allen discussed the idea that students (and humans) remember, recognize and make connections visually better than with words. I learned about an amazing website that helps students use pictures to remember words and concepts, something I already implemented into my own classroom yesterday. The kids LOVED it.  www.wordtoons.com

3.  It's all about planning, people! This is for teachers who need to make lesson plans and curriculum maps, adhere to standards and explain how. Jane E. Pollock, co author with (the now infamous) Marzano gave a presentation on planning that was very helpful. Even more helpful was this link she provided of Rogers School District that's already done it all for you.....yipee! (teachers love stealing, I mean sharing!).

4. 'member how I talked about teacher's being overwhelmed with all that information out there?? ya well, good luck with this stuff.....