Admitting to be able to understand all that was presented would be an overstatement. I read Tom Whitby's posts and tried to get a better handle on his position. I can see and appreciate his point of view about the needs of educators stepping beyond their current situation. I also agree with his point of needing to teach students what they truly need to know. As a music educator, these sessions will be difficult to relate to what I currently am able to do in my classroom. While I feel the need to teach the most fundamental aspects of music to students, I also feel the need to incorporate more. I could use all the technical jargon of the day, but suffice to say, we all know those terms. I am trying to do more each year and challenge myself to grow.
I am personally challenged by understanding education from an international view. I stress this in my classroom often. I also find this new Edcamp model for conferences exciting. I learned this year's ago from attending a conference with several close colleagues. We made our own way of attending sessions that were relevant, by stopping in for a short time, by using our limited time wisely. I always feel like I am shopping when I attend a conference; Looking to see who has the best teaching materials and ideals and then quickly getting the packets and moving on. This is a very fun way to attend a conference. I feel like I walk away with so many more materials, not just the few that are limited by the basic, "follow the plan" attendee. I am also a slightly rude attendee though, because if I learn that the info does not pertain, or I already have that info, I move on quietly as I can.
On a lesser upbeat note, I found Tom to be a little winded. So much information, and it was quite a lot to process. I think his presentation was not one to be viewed late at night, as a "I think I'll get a jump on this assignment activity", but one to view and review several times. I also find reading his blog helps me to understand him and his personal viewpoint as well. I know that I am not quite ready to have a discussion with him yet but rather just continue to take his information and continue the processing angle. I am a slow processor, but love to take bits and pieces to experiment with.
