2014 Spring Conference
The sessions I attended at the 2014 Spring Conference were about the following: Standards Based Grading, Providing students with more choice in the classroom, Providing students with choice in their writing, Classroom management, and Differentiation. I was excited (and maybe a little nervous) to finally attend this conference to see what the process was like for the second year students presenting their action research. After reading their abstracts and action research papers I began to feel a bit of relief; I was going in the right direction after all!
I thought it was very interesting to see how each student began their presentation - I learned a few new 'ice breaker' activities and it really got me thinking about what I will do to introduce the people in my group next year, as well as some activities to use in the classroom to introduce students or just move around! Some of the sessions I attended had folders with paper copies of the information, while others provided us with a link to their presentation online. It was nice to have the information right in front of me, however I really liked having access to the online information because there were links available to access some of the resources they used and it was very helpful to be able to go right to it and save it for later reference.
Reflecting on my experience at the conference, I think I am going to create a more detailed action research question/goal. The action research I am working on right now is 'how to create more meaningful assessments in the art room'. I think this will be an ongoing research topic, as grading practices seem to change all the time. After attending the writing session I did at the conference, I would like to research about how to incorporate more writing into my middle school art class. During that session I wrote down quite a few ideas just based on what the presenter had tried in her classroom and it really got me thinking about what more I could do. I was also very interested in the session I attended about providing students with choice in the classroom (choice seating, writing activities, etc.). I may also look into providing some choice in my classroom.
I agree that trying to narrow your topic is a huge realization that I had as well. Doing the writing could count as a form of assessment. Maybe get two birds with one stone on that one if it is used right.
ReplyDeletenarrowing down the topic does seem to be a common theme for a lot of us in the program. Are you thinking of incorporating more reflective writing in your class? I think it would be very interesting to look at incorporate writing or journaling within your class.
ReplyDeleteBrooke - I'm excited to see how you go about providing more writing opportunities, as well as choices within your art classes. It is absolutely important to have students reflect on their artwork both verbally and in a written format. Developing the cross-curricular concept of journaling in the art room would have amazing benefits in the long run. Will you expect the students to journal within a sketchbook, or will they be given a worksheet to respond on? Providing choices would also take the Multiple Intelligences into effect!
ReplyDeleteI came to the same conclusion! The conference was very eye-opening to see what direction this next year will take me.
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