NCCAT: Professional Development like a Boss

What was the highlight of my week at NCCAT and why was it important to me? 

It is so hard to pick just one highlight because the entire week was so fantastic, but if I had to pick a highlight it would have to be the unwritten curriculum. Like in school the academics and sessions were fantastic and I gained a lot from them but the things that just happened, completely unplanned, were some of my favorite things. The connections and conversations that I made with my peers at dinner and during out downtime, going down to the lake and feeding the giant turtles, early morning hikes up the mountain. Those experiences I know I’m going to remember long after I’ve forgotten what the individual sessions I took were about.

I’ve always been fond of gamification and using game like concepts and procedures to increase student motivation in my classroom, I’ve even made a website devoted to what I would ultimately like to do to gamily my classroom: www.artventureapp.weebly.com I’ve also always been a “gamer” and enjoyed playing games in my spare time so Cindy Bullard’s session about gamification was very interesting to me because it was neat to hear someone who was not really a gamer talk about her experiences using games in her classroom.  Ultimately, I really want to implement and use gamification in my classroom because I believe that it is a fun way to get students interested in their own learning, and once students are having fun and not worried about their grade or a test, they are often able to start enjoying learning again.

I didn’t think that any of the sessions I attended were useless but the Project based learning as a differentiation strategy did not quite hit the nail on the head. Ultimately, by the end of the session I felt as though she had just kind of explained her project but didn’t really explain PBL or how I might be able to implement it into my own classroom.

I think that the Ed Camps were some of the most useful sessions. I was able to ask questions and get answers, but I was also able to share my knowledge and explain my processes to others too, which does not normally happen at PD sessions.

Ultimately, I strongly believe that my time in NCCAT will positively effect my teaching career for many years to come and that it was a great way to kick off what is going to be an even better summer with the Kenan Fellows.