"Teacher-y Activities"

 TLT Symposium

This weekend I had the privilege of attending the TLT Symposium at Penn State. This program gave the opportunity to connect teaching with technology. The workshop I attended was fascinating to me. I really enjoyed it as I could view the points and ideas from both a student and future teacher point of view. I attended the "Applying and Workshopping Successful Blended Learning Strategies" workshop. This workshop focused on integrating online modules or portions into a typical lecture class. The ladies running this workshop made a point to say they love this strategy as it connects students to a more “real life“ atmosphere; where not everything will just be on a PowerPoint in front of the room. A major discussion we had during this workshop was how to ensure students are still dedicating time to class and staying engaged during the online portions. The discussions, ideas, and methods brainstormed and experienced from current educators was very beneficial. Many of these I will be able to incorporate into my high school classroom as well. It was also interesting hearing these conversations from a student perspective having taken online classes myself as I could connect with their concerns. A major point made by the one instructor that stuck out most to me was that she stated by incorporating online sessions that are mostly lecture anyway, it gave her more class time to be one on one or hands on active with the students. This is a very useful tip as agriculture teachers are always seeking more time to be able to incorporate hands on skills into the classroom for their students. 

The symposium started off with the keynote speaker, Stephen Dubner. Although I was sadly not familiar with him prior to this, I really enjoyed his talk. Overall as a speaker, I was very impressed as he was entertaining and definitely kept my attention in the morning "sleepy" hours. I was also very impressed and able to relate to much of his speech as he discussed his interest in agricultural economics. He made very good points on how research can or cannot work and it depends how it is done. He also stressed that technology has increased research methods and is very beneficial in today’s society. This conference as a whole was a great experience and I am extremely pleased we were given the opportunity to attend to gain so much knowledge and tips for myself to take into my future classroom.