Conference Time

In the cyclic ritual that is a school year, the first milepost marker, at least in the Midwest, is the arrival of fall conferences. Here, you have a set of parent-teacher conferences in mid-October, and then get a two day break, Thursday-Friday of the third week to attend "professional conferences."

I'll deal with Parent Conferences in a separate post because they are wholly worthy of their own attention-comment-preparation, but I want to talk about the conferences run by the union.

I'll be honest. For years, the two days off in October were godsends and the last thing I wanted to do was to go to the big city, get stuck in traffic, scramble to park and then drift around a convention center in a somnambulant and cynical daze, wondering why no one could speak to issues that mattered to me and wishing I were outdoors raking leaves or working in the garden.

But, now, in retrospect, examining the whole of my teaching career, I see that the real story is somewhat different than that.

In fact, as a youg teacher, I went for five years in a row to the separate and smaller state conference for teachers of foreign language held at a hotel in a smaller city. The language teachers realized that their particular pedagogy was so different and distinct that they formed their own organization and put together their own set of workshops.

And was I happy about that!

It was here that I learned so many tricks, activities and strategies that I incorporated into my overall bag of tricks. In fact, as I mention in the cooperative learning group, it was here that I was first exposed to cooperative learning theory and strategies. It was here that I learned about teaching for proficiency, issues around error correction, paired-activities, project ideas, games, storyboards, and so much more. I was a new teacher. What the hell did I know about teaching a foreign language?

More than anything, what I learned at these early second language conferences is the language around the job I was trying to do. You see, in order to talk about teaching, in order to understand the issues that you are confronting every day, you need to have words and language that describes your experience. It is precisely the "language" of teaching which is the heart of growing into the job because it is language that makes it real and tangible in our cognition.

Once we have words, language and concepts for the experiences we are living out, then we can begin to arrange, fine-tune and strategize around making those experiences better: Seeing patterns. Comprehending underlying issues. Visualizing the learning process in students and how to impact it.

Without that language, the intricacies, the distinctions and the confluence of factors which comprise our teaching day become a jumble, a mush, an undifferentiated glob that never really gets processed, analyzed or figured out.

It really is quite profound. Underlying teaching success is first of all the ability to visualize the field of play: learners, environment, school culture, pedagogy, families, curriculum--all of it. Each of these have foundational terms, concepts and strategies attached to them. The job is about becoming "cognizant" of these areas and slowly moving toward mastery by continuing to learn, refine techniques and strategies and master the language which professionals use to talk about them. Eventually, given enough time and exposure and practice, a teacher arrives at "best practice" and possible mastery.

That's really what this is all about.

And, looking back now, I have to really wonder: if I had not gone to that early conference and learned about cooperative learning, would I still be teaching today? Would I be even remotely the same teacher that I am today?

Answers: Probably not and no.

That's just stunning to me. I realize now how completely my professional life was changed by a seemingly innocent decision to go to these conferences. It just blows me away.

I'm also amazed that, at a certain point, in the middle years, I stopped going.

The reason: I no longer taught foreign language but language arts, a subject that I was more familiar with, and given my use of cooperative groups, I felt as if my classes were going very well--and got that feedback regularly from students, colleagues and parents as well. Plus, I would often require a major project or paper to be turned in the day before the break and thus, used the time--felt as if I needed the time--to do school work anyway.

Yet now, today, interestingly, I have come full circle. As a relatively veteran educator, I have been to two of these in the last three years and found them really informative, rich and stimulating. And, of course, this year, I actually gave one of the dozens and dozens of presentations at the mammoth convention center, and so I was actually a part of giving back to people in the same way that I was ministered to as a young teacher.

It really is a fulfilling process to have made this journey. I can tell you that staying with this profession is very rewarding and very rich.

But, here's what I saw in 2007 at the MEA Fall Convention in St. Paul:

• An excellent presentation on differentiated instruction, a teaching strategy I had heard of but not really understood, by a wonderful principal who works at an elementary school in the same district I went to as a young student.
• A fantastic and mind-blowing presentation about cognitive coaching by just a very highly skilled practitioner from the Center for Cognitive Coaching. This technique, or strategy really, has so much potential to change the teaching profession and should be a baseline preparation for every new teacher in the nation.
• A very interesting presentation by a guy who works at the Search Institute, an organization that I respect greatly for their work on identifying assets in children and what a difference they can make in regular programming for kids. His project is looking at ways to take the same concept of assets and apply it to teaching and figure out what needs to be present on a school staff for teachers to feel supported, nurtured and fulfilled in working with their colleagues.
• And, not least, a highly motivating and inspiring presentation and Q and A with Jonathon Kozol, whose books about life in inner-city schools represent one of the best bodies of work about urban teaching anywhere in the world.
• In between, I made connections with multiple people and organizations, including several of the speakers mentioned above and have a full raft of contacts that I need to follow up on.

So, while I will be expounding on some of these issues again on these pages--and, in fact, as when I was a young teacher, my professional life will likely never be the same--the message I want to send to new teachers is this: There are so many resources, ideas, possibilities and connections out there to help you fully develop mastery in your given field.

There really is not a good excuse for not looking until you find something valuable. Whether it is the fall professional conference, or something else, teachers are in charge of learning for a lot of people. And what that responsibility requires, more than anything, is that teachers themselves be learners: a.) so they can continuously improve and increase their level of performance; b.) to experience the world the way their students do--of coming to something new and trying to grapple with it and make it part of who they are.

Extending yourself on a day off, even when you are exhausted from the demands of teaching, may well be the very medicine that forever brings you greater reward, ease and mastery around the work you do. It's a small price to pay for achieving excellence--not just for yourself, but for the students you are in charge of leading.