Review of the Get Your Teach on National Conference: Day Two

The first full day of Get Your Teach On was everything I knew it would be and more! I loved the different themed rooms. I was in the fourth grade room and it was a super cute Angry Birds theme. Each table had a green box containing group supplies. We also had small decorations. My table had a slingshot and an Angry Bird plush along with pompoms. Some tables had TNT made from pool noodles. The stage had a backdrop with cut-out letters of GYTO. There were boxes scattered around and some other plush characters....very cute. 

This time this is what the notebook looked like I loved the muted tones. I like the retro color scheme. 

Here is a close up picture of the table.

A quick view of the front of the room, the stage area, but the speakers definitely did not stay up there, they had a few chairs scattered around for the speakers to stand on. 

This is the bag we got and it had a few freebies inside. We got a tie dye face mask, and a cute lanyard with oversized beads. I was thinking we would get a small notebook because last time we. did, but it was not included this time, so I thankfully had brought my teacher idea hard cover notebook and I used that. We also got a Seat Sack. The third day, we got a tiny sign from the Simply Stained Shop.

My first breakout session was Amelia Capatosta. She is one of my favorites. Her session was a Greatest Showman circus theme. It was absolutely amazing and filled with fun ideas for making reading class one that students will always love. 

This quote resonated with me. You don't have to give a grade for everything, some things can just be for practice and there is nothing wrong with that. Students need time to practice to get better and master a skill. 

Here is a fun craftivity we did with vocab/spelling words. Students would build these little circus tents, the lid removes and they sort the word by the featured sounds, in this case "ai".

This one, also very fun, was using different roots and students build a cute popcorn box to hold their popping' words for some vocal practice.

Who doesn't like cup stacking? This one includes the roots as well and also a ball to knock over the tower. Then students try to make words using the roots.

And of course, it wouldn't be GYTO without meeting my teacher heroes. 

Steve Spangler showed up and when he shows up, he shows up big. It is a lot of fun to watch his science show. He is amazing! Lots of quotes to think about, but one that sticks out is, "If it gets to the dinner table, you win." Create experiences over activities. He says that you want to get kids talking about what you are doing. If they talk about it at home, you have won. 

Chris Pombonyo and Josie Bensko presented a fun sports-themed Wide World of STEAM breakout session. We did some STEAM challenges and talked about what STEAM looks like in the classroom, including assigning roles to each student. 

1. Coach: Speaks to Teacher

2. Manager: Manages Materials

3. Reporter: Writes and Communicates

4. Player: The Tester

5. Referee: Makes Sure the Rules are Followed.

We also learned about the six steps to STEAM learning. It was a lot of much fun! These two have so much energy and it was contagious. 

We all got a sweatbands and jerseys to wear for the breakout session. I know students would love this! Who doesn't love a good theme?

A quick picture with two more of my teaching heroes. These two are awesome!

If you follow Shane Saeed from Fantastically Fourth, you know that anything she does is top-notch. This breakout was no different. It was called, Making Math Stick.  It was all about retrieval practice. My favorite highlight was using brain dumps before testing to increase scores. Basically you have the students write down everything they remember from the topics you have studied before doing the actual test. This helps them retrieve the information that they are about to be tested for. When you do this, it is proven to raise test scores. 

 

Of course I had to meet Shane, who I have been following for a while. 

One more up close picture of the stage area of the fourth grade breakout room. It was pretty cool in there. Loved the vibe.

 

They had the sweetest little VW bus it was basically there the entire four days and everyone could get pictures in it. 

So there you have it, day 2 was a hit! 

Review of the Get Your Teach on National Conference: Day One

The disappointment was palpable as 2020's GYTO, to which I had scored tickets, was cancelled in Orlando, due to Covi-19. I gave up on my dream of being able to attend the GYTO National Conference. Months later, I found out that once again they were going to be bringing the National Conference to Orlando. It was perfect, I would be able to go after all. I could not have been more thrilled. I had been to a regional conference a few years ago, but this was going to be longer and I was going to be staying at the hotel, even if I was going alone. 

I arrived early on the day of the conference with plenty of time to get checked in, visit the GYTO merch sale, and walk around looking at the amazingly beautiful displays while dreaming about what the next three days were going to hold. 

Capturing pictures of my experience was of number one importance. There was lots of eye candy everywhere you looked. To say that the team went all out would be a major understatement. 

 

Love this greenery wall and wish I could afford to put one up in my classroom. 

This was the entryway to the keynote presentations. 

I was more than ready for this day. I had been counting it down since purchasing my tickets and it was finally here!

Getting to go to the meet and greets was a huge thrill! Love talking with educators that I admire on the teacher gram. Babbling Abby and Maniacs in the Middle were kind enough to pose with me for a picture (if my smile looks weird in all these pics, it is because I was trying to cover up the entire row of stitches that were along the entire row of my top teeth due to oral surgery).

During the regionals, I was in this Toy Story themed room and got to see STEAM Mania, which I was dying to do in my own classroom. I also saw it in action when Hope King was at the Ron Clark Academy. I have since been able to make that dream come true a couple of different times. You can see more about this here, here, and here. 

I was super excited to finally get my Wild Card book signed by the amazing Hope and Wade King. Last time I was at GYTO, I had forgotten it. 

Hope King is one of the educators I admire most and I loved getting another picture with her. Check out those cute pants! The theme was 60's, so it was perfection!

One of my regrets was that I totally did not even think to bring the book Unpack your Impact that was cowritten by Aprons in Education. Day one was low key, but ended with a bang with the keynote presentations by Deanna Jump and Dave Hollis, followed by a concert by an Elton John impersonator. Amazing Day one and the conference had barely begun!

Get-Your-Teach-On-Review

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

Amy Lemons and Chris Pombonyo

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.