Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Conference Mindset: MassCUE 2014

I love MassCUE 2014's imaginative graphic by Peter Reynolds.
Prior to attending any conference, I prep.

I find that posing my questions prior to the learning event helps me to focus and learn a lot.

Every time I attend to learning with focus, I learn a lot about teaching my young students

What am I hoping to learn today at MassCUE?

First, As I assess my teaching and learning today, I'll think about the following questions:
  • Am I on the right path with regard to cognitive science, the best tools, and learning design? While I've read a lot about this, I will be looking for areas I need to tweak, rethink, or learn more about?
  • What inspiration and learning knowledge can I bring back to my students? I will listen carefully to the stories of presenters, and share those stories with my students when I return to school to broaden their horizon and give them new paths to consider as they continue to learn.
  • Who should I follow? I follow a lot of dynamic educators on Twitter and through blogs. I will be on the lookout for new follows to broaden my teaching/learning canvas.
  • What tools do I want to add to the teaching/learning platform? Almost every tool I use in school, I learned about at MassCUE so I expect to learn about many new tech tools today?
  • What is effective teaching? I will watch presenters and think about how they present information with regard to effective teaching. What do they do to relay a message with meaning and impact?
  • How can I better organize and teach specific knowledge, concept, and skill? Specifically, I look forward to learning more about specific content areas including Google scripts, math animation, genius hour, iPad movie making, and more.
I'm grateful to the MassCUE staff that creates and presents this dynamic conference each year. I'm looking forward to the learning ahead.