I have to tell you, I was so inspired by the first Keynote speaker,
Kathy Collins. She is so down to earth and FUNNY!!!!!
She talked about how we have to look through four different lenses in order to ger to every child.
"We have to see through everything that is surrounding the child, see the layers, see the beauty and see the joy. Boy, do I need a tool that can do all that!"
She also said, "Kids aren't nearly the data they show.".
I was so excited after this speech.
If you ever have the chance to go to a conference or workshop with her, I HIGHLY recommend it.
The second session is not even worth mentioning. I was so disappointed.....They even used downloads from some blogs I have visited and didn't give them CREDIT. UGH!!! So sad : ( I did write it in my evaluation.
But, then I got to go listen to GUESS WHO.....KATHY COLLINS!!!! YIPPPEEE!!!!
Her talk was on "
Reading Clubs". I can't wait to use this with my readers. The students have the opportunity to talk to another student about books they have read and they are interested in. It fits right in with Guided Reading and Daily 5. The students can Read to Someone with their Reading Club partner.
I should have bought her book,
Reading for Real when I was there. Well, there's always the inevitable Barnes and Noble gift card for the holidays. : )
The next session was with
Martha Horn, "Conferring with Young Writers". This was another great workshop. She showed us some videos of her conferring with some students. It was a great refresher.
She has this little trick when the kids are stuck and not writing words. She takes the pen from them, like she is going to write the words for them, and she counts out the words they say. They are going to say more words, because they think you are going to write them. And then, you give the pen back to them....and....they write! Maybe not all the words, but most of them. I can't wait to use this!
The other thing I really need to do is have a list of their writing AND their proofreading checklist (FOR THEM). I have it written down in my notebook what they can do, but they need to see what they are responsible for in their folder. AH HA!!!
I am such a control freak. (Aren't we all?) I was having the students write at their seats. HMMMM??? I can't even write when I am at my desk...all the time. I told them on Wednesday that they could choose a good spot to write anywhere in the classroom..... WHAT??? They were very confused : ) They chose spots for themselves and wrote for 20 minutes straight. I know this won't happen everyday, I just have remember that it's not all about me.
Day 2 tomorrow....
