I've been thinking a lot lately about what all I wanted to post on my new blog, and as I wear my T-shirt from Get Your Teach On and start working on ALL the classroom things/first weeks of school lesson plans from my dining room table, I knew I had to do a post on the education highlight of my summer, the Get Your Teach On National Conference in Dallas.
I returned to Austin from the Get Your Teach On conference, and have never been so inspired to work on all the classroom things. My head is spinning with ideas for classroom transformations, math games, beginning the Glow Games, while continuing to build relationships with and celebrate my students. I'm excited to get back into my classroom in a couple of weeks. Being that this is the first year in my short teaching career that I'm not changing grades, I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on how to improve my lessons for my new group.
The first day of the conference was June 30th. I woke up, worked out, quickly packed and then began the three-and-a-half hour drive to Dallas, while stopping at Panera for lunch of course. I got to the Gaylord, immediately registered and picked up my badge, then went to the Merchandise counter. I am so excited about my Wild Card jersey. After that, I picked up my grade level shirt (though I got 5th grade's because I liked it more) and then waited in a long line for an hour and a half to get my copy of The Wild Card signed by Hope and Wade King. I had ordered this book the day it came out and I think I read it in three or four days. It was such a honor to meet them, talk to them and have them sign my book. I then went to get food and met up with my sorority sister Hannah for the Pre-Conference party, featuring keynote speaker Rachel Hollis. We waited with loud music playing and teachers dancing on chairs for an hour until the conference started.
The next day, I met up with my GYTO 4th grade squad for sessions on close reading and glow games. I am so excited to do the glow games with my students this coming year, and am still thinking about what I want to do it on and which blacklights I want to order from my classroom. We also had a great session with Todd Nesloney and Adam Dovico. During the first official day of the conference, we also had the chance to hear from former students of the Kings, one a college sophomore and one a high school senior, which was an incredibly inspiring experience. I also met two other teachers from my district which was awesome. We teach 5 minutes away from each other, and I'm excited to have new friends in my district.
The second day of the conference, we started by listening to the stories of five phenomenal educators. These stories were so honest, raw and some had me (and the rest of the conference goers) crying. During our first session that day, the fourth grade teachers participated in various stem challenges during STEAM Mania and I can't wait to try some of these with my students. I am incorporating STEM bins in my classroom this coming year, and these activities will just add to the STEM experience for my kids. Then we had a great session on math being more of a worksheet. I am so excited to add lots of new math games to my classroom. I teach math and science, so I'm always. Last, we had a session on reading and making it more engaging/rigorous/relevant for kids.
The third day of the conference was amazing too. We had a chance to ask the GYTO team questions before heading to our four sessions for the day. Our first session was on making social studies important again. Even though I teach math and science, I left this session thinking how can I incorporate social studies into my classroom? I have also loved history and miss teaching it. From this session, I have so much to take back to my team teacher. The next session was my favorite. It was all about incorporating theatre into my classroom. Theatre plays and has played a huge role in my life, and this session got me thinking about why am I not incorporating my strength and passion (and what I have a Bachelors degree in) into my classroom. I'm excited to have my students write and perform skits on content next year. Next, we had another math session and I walked away with so many new activities for my classroom. Last we had a session on incorporating music into our classroom. My head is spinning with ideas for content songs and I'm thinking of the morning song I want to do during Morning Meetings next year. Morning meetings and songs will be new to my classroom, but again I was the choir girl, and walked away from that session thinking, "Why am I not already incorporating my other passion into my teaching?" After that, I ended up leaving before the final keynote and driving back down to Austin.
When people have asked me how the conference was, I feel like there is no way to describe GYTO. It's not a conference; it's an experience. Being surrounded my 4,200 people who love teaching as much as I do was an indescribable feeling. I made so many new friends, have expanded my Instagram teaching circle and have been more inspired than I ever have been. I can't wait to continue planning for this upcoming school year and return to Get Your Teach On next year!
-Elle Norman
I returned to Austin from the Get Your Teach On conference, and have never been so inspired to work on all the classroom things. My head is spinning with ideas for classroom transformations, math games, beginning the Glow Games, while continuing to build relationships with and celebrate my students. I'm excited to get back into my classroom in a couple of weeks. Being that this is the first year in my short teaching career that I'm not changing grades, I've been doing a lot of thinking and reflecting on how to improve my lessons for my new group.
The first day of the conference was June 30th. I woke up, worked out, quickly packed and then began the three-and-a-half hour drive to Dallas, while stopping at Panera for lunch of course. I got to the Gaylord, immediately registered and picked up my badge, then went to the Merchandise counter. I am so excited about my Wild Card jersey. After that, I picked up my grade level shirt (though I got 5th grade's because I liked it more) and then waited in a long line for an hour and a half to get my copy of The Wild Card signed by Hope and Wade King. I had ordered this book the day it came out and I think I read it in three or four days. It was such a honor to meet them, talk to them and have them sign my book. I then went to get food and met up with my sorority sister Hannah for the Pre-Conference party, featuring keynote speaker Rachel Hollis. We waited with loud music playing and teachers dancing on chairs for an hour until the conference started.
The next day, I met up with my GYTO 4th grade squad for sessions on close reading and glow games. I am so excited to do the glow games with my students this coming year, and am still thinking about what I want to do it on and which blacklights I want to order from my classroom. We also had a great session with Todd Nesloney and Adam Dovico. During the first official day of the conference, we also had the chance to hear from former students of the Kings, one a college sophomore and one a high school senior, which was an incredibly inspiring experience. I also met two other teachers from my district which was awesome. We teach 5 minutes away from each other, and I'm excited to have new friends in my district.
The second day of the conference, we started by listening to the stories of five phenomenal educators. These stories were so honest, raw and some had me (and the rest of the conference goers) crying. During our first session that day, the fourth grade teachers participated in various stem challenges during STEAM Mania and I can't wait to try some of these with my students. I am incorporating STEM bins in my classroom this coming year, and these activities will just add to the STEM experience for my kids. Then we had a great session on math being more of a worksheet. I am so excited to add lots of new math games to my classroom. I teach math and science, so I'm always. Last, we had a session on reading and making it more engaging/rigorous/relevant for kids.
The third day of the conference was amazing too. We had a chance to ask the GYTO team questions before heading to our four sessions for the day. Our first session was on making social studies important again. Even though I teach math and science, I left this session thinking how can I incorporate social studies into my classroom? I have also loved history and miss teaching it. From this session, I have so much to take back to my team teacher. The next session was my favorite. It was all about incorporating theatre into my classroom. Theatre plays and has played a huge role in my life, and this session got me thinking about why am I not incorporating my strength and passion (and what I have a Bachelors degree in) into my classroom. I'm excited to have my students write and perform skits on content next year. Next, we had another math session and I walked away with so many new activities for my classroom. Last we had a session on incorporating music into our classroom. My head is spinning with ideas for content songs and I'm thinking of the morning song I want to do during Morning Meetings next year. Morning meetings and songs will be new to my classroom, but again I was the choir girl, and walked away from that session thinking, "Why am I not already incorporating my other passion into my teaching?" After that, I ended up leaving before the final keynote and driving back down to Austin.
When people have asked me how the conference was, I feel like there is no way to describe GYTO. It's not a conference; it's an experience. Being surrounded my 4,200 people who love teaching as much as I do was an indescribable feeling. I made so many new friends, have expanded my Instagram teaching circle and have been more inspired than I ever have been. I can't wait to continue planning for this upcoming school year and return to Get Your Teach On next year!
-Elle Norman
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