Friday, July 29, 2011

Reform Symposium

As most of you know, ten days ago I joined Twitter, mainly for professional learning purposes.  It's become a bit of an obsession of mine and with the lack of summer weather here in Vancouver it's certainly helping me pass the time.  At first I struggled with trying to read everything that was posted in a variety of forums, but with time I've learned to pick and chose a little more carefully.

One thing that has been promoted over the past week or so is the Reform Symposium (#RSCON3).  It was being billed as a GLOBAL on line education conference FREE to anyone interested in attending.  Sort of like a conference you can attend, in your own home, while wearing your pajamas (if you'd like).  There is a clear, easy to follow schedule that tells you what the seminars are about.  There is even an option to chose your correct time zone schedule since this conference is GLOBAL and being attended (and presented) by people all over the world so seminars are happening at all times of the day (like tomorrow morning at 1:00 am my time).

This morning I logged onto the symposium (in my pajamas) and caught some of the first keynote speaker about the Finnish School System.  I then had to leave for yoga before returning again briefly for the panel discussion Collaboration Between Leadership and Teachers.  I was out most of the afternoon (hey it was one of our first sunny afternoons all summer long) but returned for the evening sessions.  I arrived late to Kimberley Rivett's presentation on Literacy in the Digital Age.  Then I caught Kathleen Morris' talk on Connecting with Global Blogging Buddies and ended the evening with Chuck Sandy's presentation Critical Thinking 2.0: Thinking, Doing, Changing.  These three afternoon conferences were amazing and have me so inspired. I bookmarked more links, saved their slides, and I am now following them on Twitter.  They made me feel that little me, probably the biggest geek in my school, can do some amazing things with my grade one students.  I don't know if I'll change anyone around me but I will certainly do what I can to inspire those in my classroom.

I can't wait for tomorrow!

1 comment:

  1. Great! I'm glad you liked the schedule - that was mine! I would love to hear how you enjoyed the presentations in days two and three... good or bad. And remember, all presentations were recorded and will be available online in a week or so... even more PD in PJs :)
    @CliveSir

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