My Vicarious MACUL Experience

Sadly, while all of my fellow cohort members were attending the MACUL Conference two Friday's past, I was doing my very best to ensure that Kleenex stays a profitable business. However, thanks to technology and my cohort members' wonderful blogging skills, I was able to see how many of them felt about many of the speakers at the conference itself. In my not attending the conference, I was actually given the interesting position of being able to judge the reactions of others without having any experience of my own to interfere with their reactions. So with that in mind, I'd like to talk about some of the trends that I saw in there various posts.

First of all, the one thing that I saw in all of the posts that I read were senses of optimism and eagerness. All of the blogs that I read had positive things to say about one or more of the speakers and presentations that they observed and attended (Liz Kolb and Friday Night Lights to name a few). Beyond that, they all suggested that there was at least one component of one of the talks that they would like to, or are going to try and incorporate into their classrooms (authentic audiences in English classrooms). This suggests to me that the speakers had some very nice things to say, and that my fellow cohort members were prepared and excited to hear about some things that they might be able to use to make their classroom better. That seems to be a common theme in all of our classes, yet it seems like it was heightened at this conference.

The second thing that I saw was a very sensible and focused nature to the sessions that were attended. I read blogs from science, foreign language, English, and history teachers and they all were attending conferences where they could pick up some information directly related to their classroom practices. This may seem like a pretty obvious thing, but some of them chose to attend these discipline specific speakers in lieu of speakers that they would have found more interesting personally. This suggests a dedication to our profession and an earnest interest in making their classrooms better for the students that come through. Again, this is not something that is surprising to me based on the time that I've spend with these individuals, but it reaffirms the perceptions that I already held.

Third, I saw some very inquisitive minds as well as some challenges to some of the things that they heard. Some of my cohort members were critical consumers of the various speakers that they heard and didn't take what was being said as it was likely conveyed. We have been taught to think about how information supports, extends, or challenges our already existing knowledge and I saw that happening in some of the posts of my classmates. One of the biggest was the value of some of these practices in their own placement for one reason or another. Many of them saw restrictions regarding student interest, access to technology, mentor teacher acceptance, and other reasons. Again, this shows me the dedication that many of my classmates have to the students and to the placement schools that we are in right now. They were considering not how these technologies might be able to benefit some future classroom, but rather how they might benefit the students that they have right now which is wonderful. I'm not saying that they weren't cataloging things for later, because they certainly were, but they seemed to have a high priority on the classes that they are in right now.

Sadly, none of them talked about getting swag from the conference.

 

Finally, I'm constantly blown away by the support and the encouragement that is shared between this group. Whether it is rides to a distant conference, support with some sort of assignment, or a simple text conveying well wishes to a classmate that was unable to attend a conference they were all at, they are compassionate, sincere, and altruistic individuals. And if any profession deserves people such as this, it is teaching.

If you are interested in reading some of the blogs that I refer to above, they are listed below:

http://schoolofgoldfishcrackers.blogspot.com/ (Science)

http://mrpepptalks.blogspot.com/ (History)

http://futurebiologyteacher.blogspot.com/ (Science)

http://croakmonsieur.blogspot.com/ (Foreign Language)

http://emteach.blogspot.com/ (English)

http://historyofyesterday1066.blogspot.com/ (History)

http://gettinstraitas.blogspot.com/ (English)