I had the opportunity to spend this past week at the North Carolina Center for the Advancement of Teachers in Cullowee. Not only did I gain knowledge from various professional developments, but I also had the opportunity to get to know an amazing group of people! This past week has made me so excited to spend the upcoming school year as a Kenan Fellow!
One of my favorite things from NCCAT was participating in the Edcamp. I really loved how we were able to pick our professional development sessions and how everything was focused around our needs as teachers! It was really neat being able to have great discussions with other educators and to see that there are others struggling with the same things that I am. I think it would be awesome to have an Edcamp in my own classroom, but use it as some sort of review for the students during the first week of school. Students would be able to express their needs and then we could break out in small groups, each group having an “expert” in that particular area.
Another session that I thoroughly enjoyed was the Myers Briggs session where I analyzed my own personality test results. Seeing my own results made me think about why I work well with certain people and tend to stay away from others. I also really enjoyed Paul’s sessions on data because one of my main goals for this year is to have more data driven instruction. I left his sessions with many ideas for this coming year!
This week at NCCAT was like no other PD opportunity I’ve ever had… and in a good way! Normally when I attend a conference it’s with a select few from my school or district. We come, we learn, we discuss, we come back home. This week was different because I got to interact with phenomenal educators who were there for the exact same reason as me– to become a better teacher! I feel like as the week went on everyone began to get to know one another and by Tuesday afternoon we were able to have honest and meaningful conversations about what is going on in our classrooms. I learned so much just by talking to other teachers this week! I cannot wait to see what else I learn as the year goes on!