I have been to a lot of teacher PD over the past 20 years, but the Get Your Teach on Conference is in a class of its own. This is seriously the most fun I have ever had at a PD and that's saying a lot because there are very few conferences that I have not enjoyed.
Of course, the moment you walk in, you get to sign this huge apple. It feels real once your name is up there with hundreds of other educators. My dreams of attending this conference were becoming a reality and I could not have been more excited!
This is the room I was in for the conference. It was so fun, because last year, when I went to the two-day training at the Ron Clark Academy, I saw some of this decor up in Hope King's room while she was doing her Toy Story STEAM transformation! It was amazing! You can check out my posts about the Ron Clark Experience over here and here.
I needed a picture in from of the giant cards from the Wild Card book party.
Everywhere, throughout the entire space for the conference, there was amazing, inspiring decor. Here I am with my daughter, who went to the registration with me. I am about 99.9% sure that she's going to be a teacher...based on everything she does when she plays and talks. If she does continue on this path, she will be the 4th generation of teachers in my family. I come from a long line!
More of the fun decor in my room.
Of course there were a few freebies waiting for us when we came in the first day, including this super cute Get Your Teach On bag. I love the colors!
This was the table set up for the first day of learning fun. We each got one of these binders, which were so cute too!
One of my favorite things about this conference was that several of the sessions revolve around a theme and that made it super fun. I mean, I love having a theme in my class and I have done so for years. It just automatically builds excitement. You can see some of my themes and transformations over here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here. The first session was a super hero themed reading one with the fabulous Amy Lemons. I have used some of her math units in the past, so I knew this would be really, really good. Everything she does in her math curriculum revolves around a theme and this was no different. There were all sorts of engaging activities to help the babes learn all they need to in reading.
Next up, was none other than Wade King. He brought the music and taught us about how he incorporates it in the classroom.
Next up was an ELA class. I cannot remember the name of the presenter, but she was full of energy and ideas and spoke superfast. She was great! I loved this book that she used for teaching voice. My take back was to use more poetry in my fluency teaching. I loved one of the poems that she presented. It was so much fun!
One of my teaching passions is social studies. It is often a forgotten subject or one that children find boring. But there are so many ways to bring it to life. Over the years I have tried to spruce up my social studies with activities that make it real. Lanesha Tabb (@education_apron) was a great presenter and reignited my passion for social studies. She gave me lots to think about. It motivated me to work on completing my economics unit for TPT...coming soon. I am currently working through that unit with my class and it has been amazing!
One of the sessions had a mystery theme, which if we're honest, we even like as adults....more instant buy-in and engagement. The thing with engagement is that when students are actually engaged in the learning, they are giving 110% and you can take them even farther than you could using the "normal" curriculum. That is why engagement is so important. For this math session, there were a lot of different clues to solve. It was so fun! And the costumes just added to the fun.
Hope King (@heyhopeking) is one of my all-time favorite educators to follow. She inspires me in everything that she does in the classroom and I seriously don't know how she does all that she does. This was my first session of day 2 and the bad part was that even though I gave myself an extra hour to arrive on time, there was a bad wreck...the kind where a helicopter comes to airlift people and so I was 15 minutes late. So sad to have missed some of her inspiring talk.
So much truth in this slide.
Wade King (@heywadeking) and Chris Pombonyo (@chrispombonyo) brought it with their game session! This Double Dare theme was loads of fun! One of my favorite parts was when Chris talked about his Candyland Transformation. I had seen this one on Instagram and had been curious about it ever sense.
Never before had I done any of the escape room or unlock challenges that are so popular right now. This session was all about that. The presenters gave so many different ideas for different challenges to do with this. It was great to try this out, especially since I had never done it before. I think I may be investing in some locks in the near future.
If I had to choose one of the sessions as a favorite, this one would rank pretty high. It was all about STEM. The activities were the ones that Hope King used for her Toy Story Transformation and of course they were amazing.
One of my table mates trying out our Lego marble maze.
Chris Pombonyo and Amy Lemons (@stepintosecondgrade) dressed up as workers at the Pizza Planet from Toy Story while presenting...lots to love about this session.
Team STEM challenges that help build the four C's of 21st century education (creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking). These were both fun and challenging.
I absolutely LOVED this session by Babbling Abby (@babblingabby) and Cara Carroll (thefirstgradeparade). It was about team building but what I loved most was the throwback 90's theme. Took me right back to my childhood with the games they made! AMAZING! I have since used some of them with my class and it has been so much fun.
At the end of the day, Hope and Wade came back to talk to us again. It was great to end with them as our send off. They are both, as I have already mentioned, so inspiring and the presentation with the two of them is hilarious at times.
I am not usually the type to approach people to ask for a picture, but I decided I was going to go for it at this conference and take all the pictures with all the people. I am so glad I did.
Lanesha Tabb
Amy Lemons
Hope King
Wade King
The whole experience was so incredibly magical. It was hard to leave. I am so very thankful that I had the opportunity to go and hopefully I will get to go again someday.
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