We just got done with the International Baccalaureate
Conference of Americas. I know, the title sounds so fancy. We spent the last
four days connecting and collaborating with other IB teachers. It’s been a
great conference and I have a lot of ideas to think about in the next two weeks
before we welcome the kiddos back. Here
are my big takeaways from the conference.
1. Students’ voices matter. As
teachers, we always talk about how we want to get our kids invested in school,
but so often we forget to include them. We decide how to set up and decorate
our room. We decide the classroom rules.
We decide what activities are best to teach. Most classrooms are more teacher
centered than student centered. My goal this year is to ask for more of my
students’ input while creating the classroom environment.
2. Engagement needs to be planned
for on a variety of levels. Student engagement
is another key buzz word in education. The thing about engagement is, it rarely
just happens by itself. It is a result of intentional and thoughtful
planning. One of the sessions focused on
how your classroom environment plays a role in engagement. Your room needs to
be set up in a way that is conducive to individual, partnered, small group, and
whole group engagement. I think about how I will engage my students a lot, but
I rarely think about the impact my room set-up will have on that. My goal for
this year is to be intentional about how I engage my students’ individual, in
partners, in small group, and in whole group, and be make sure my classroom is
set up in a way that will foster and support that engagement.
3. Prioritize relationships. This
idea doesn’t necessarily give me something to think about for my own personal
classroom, but more so for the greater good of the campus. Teaching can be a very lonely profession at
times. Our adult interaction is limited and our planning periods are bombarded
with papers to grade and copies to run. We rarely have time to really build and
foster valuable and meaningful relationships with people outside of our grade
level team. One thing I was reminded of is the fact that each teacher on our
campus has many strengths as a teacher and that by investing time in building
relationships with people on your campus you will greater access to a variety
of skills, strengths, and strategies that will ultimately make you a better
teacher.
The IB Conference of America’s was great. I
didn’t necessarily come away with a lot of quick-fix strategies that I can
start implementing day one, but I have been refreshed and re-motivated to put
my all into my job. I’m getting more and more excited to get the ball rolling
for the 2015-2016 school year!
-Sara
