Christensen Confrence

I was unable to attend the Teacher talk segment on Thursday but luckily the Friday morning conference included another intro/activity that allowed us to get to know Christensen. I don't really remember us discussing the Tea Party in class, but I did remember reading about it in the book and after actually participating in one I think that is a another innovative way to get students interested in learning. I think that students respond so well to teachers who can make learning fun and I feel like we are learning really great ways to make learning fun because I myself enjoyed High School (yeah I'm a proud nerd!) but I think a lot more people would have enjoyed it if they experienced these methods of teaching.

I really didn't have any expectations about Christensen; I have saw on others blogs that they expected her to be different I really didn't expect her to be anything. Maybe i should have? I don't know but interacting with her was a great experience. I enjoyed the fact that she took time out to give us advice and to explain her methods. I never got a chance to ask my question about why she focuses on problems more than successes but I think I understand more and more why she wants her students to be aware. I mean look at the economy and the state of America, its crumbling and maybe if more teachers taught and focused on the wrongs in America their students might work to improve them.

I basically just enjoyed the fact that the conference was more like pointers workshop for us future teachers I came in thinking it would be a lot more hands on but I guess that would not benefit us as much as hearing and asking questions about what others have done with their students. I enjoyed the poetry workshop it was great to here from someone just starting and out. She really had dig in order to get her students to truly interact with her on a personal level and I never really thought about that aspect of the job because although I feel like I can relate to kids, they just might see me as this old dinosaur that could never understand them . I really though : "Hey! Their gonna love me!" Now I'm not so sure. But I guess we will see!