KATE Conference

 

    Welcome back. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. Fall is approaching with chilly weather, and most of us want to snuggle indoors with a good book; however, for our teachers and my teacher-intern classmates, that is not always an option. Much work is to be done at this time of year, and I want to ensure I have all my resources to accomplish my goals. This includes creating lesson plans, keeping up with my assignments, and ensuring I have everything lined up for next year when I will be a full-time student teacher.  This year's KATE conference helped, inspired, and prepared me with ideas for the future. The KATE conference is a professional development event for English language art teachers. Sessions that were included this year were local authors, innovative strategies from the classroom, critical thinking exercises, and navigating local partnerships. This was my first time at the KATE conference, and I loved every second; the people I met and the things I learned will be with me throughout my teaching career. Today, I want to share some of the conference's highlights in my blog post. 

Inspiring Keynotes 

    Jason D. DeHart was one of the brilliant keynote speakers I attended and listened to, and he was inspiring. He shared his experiences within his field of teaching and even his own experience as a young student, as well as what he thought about reading and writing. Dehart's way of speaking grasped your attention with pure enjoyment. You can tell that everything he talked about and did was out of pure love for education. 
    He spoke of graphic novels(comics) and how people still question the actual knowledge and critical thinking students can get from them. His students still question whether you can teach from them, and he mentioned something vital that I thought we needed to remember when it comes to graphic novels: Comics are a media, not a genre. Comics and books can carry different kinds of stories. I love comics and graphic novels, but I only thought about having them in my classroom as an assignment or mentor text a couple of years ago. I never thought about how teachers could incorporate them into the curriculum. He opened my eyes to new ways to bring different media into the classroom and excited me to get comics and graphic novels into my future classroom.   

Future Ideas 

    This was my first year at a KATE conference, so I attended many great sessions. I was excited to see the sessions typically associated with this conference. Some of the most memorable ones that inspired me for my future teaching and classroom were "Dismantling the Tortured Teachers Department: Secondary English Engagement Strategies We Love." Six outstanding women educators, Ambyr Rios, Mayci Armstrong, CeAnna Allen, Riley Angel, Molly Temple, and Sarah Snyder, gave us tips and tricks on literacy teaching practices in this session. For example, in snowball discussions, students start with partners to discuss a topic, and each turn, their group gets more students, and the adjustment to sharing in a larger group gets easier. There were tips for using AI devices. We have read something in class before about teachers introducing AI in their classrooms and how this can benefit the students in their work. Even though I might be on the fence about AI, the activities they used and demonstrated were simple and fun for students without giving the students a way out of doing any critical thinking. One is "Say What You See," where students can look at a picture provided by Google and have to fill in descriptors in the box next to it that best describes it. This can help students develop descriptive writing and support their image reading skills. These activities helped me ease into the idea of using AI in the classroom, 

    Another session that was most helpful to me was "Reimagining Resistant Writers." This was presented to us by a teacher from East High School, Jen Coslett, who showed us ways to get the most difficult or reluctant student to start writing. What I like about the information we received is that she gave us tips on how we, as teachers, can change or act differently. For example, lose your ego, accept the brutal, love them through it, and remember to laugh. This was important because I could use it as a reminder to let things go or not to take everything so personally. She mentioned something I would love to bring to my classroom—a microphone and speaker for their laptops for students who need them. Students can turn on their audio/recorder with their headphones, and instead of typing, they can speak their essay or assignment to completion. With the students in my mentor teachers ' classes, I have noticed the difference in the amount and diction of their choice of words when spoken out loud and when they write down their thoughts. 

    Another piece of advice another teacher gave me during the "Creative Journaling" session was to find something to focus on or enjoy outside the classroom. This teacher was from East High School, April Pameticky, and she recommended that we have hobbies or discover relaxation once we(teachers) leave the classroom. My classmates and I already know how busy life can get as a teacher intern, so knowing what life will be like as a full-time teacher. We created collages from scrap paper, magazine clippings, and decorative tape during this session. It provided great relaxation to the end of our day. I learned that to be the best in the classroom for my future students, I need to take care of myself outside of school, physically and mentally. 

    It is lovely to attend the KATE conference and experience new literacy techniques, chat with other educators, hear their stories, and pick their brains. I definitely would love to come back next year. For those of you who have yet to visit the KATE conference and can, I hope someday you can go and experience what I have.