Professional Documents
Culture Documents
ARA Conference:
Attending the Alabama Reading Association was a great
opportunity and a great learning experience. The first day of the
conference, November 12th was a very exciting day. Myself and a few
other girls arrived early to help with registration, we helped stuff bags
with gifts and information pertaining to the conference. Once that was
complete it was time for the conference to begin. The first speaker to
start the morning was Jeff Anderson. He would speak on the
importance and power of writing. Teaching children to write and have a
passion for it is very important. Many children loose their passion for
writing because of the environment the teacher has created in the
classroom. Students being graded harshly on writing early on can
cause students to not enjoy and fear writing. It is important as a
teacher to think about how to support positive writing behaviors.
Supporting writing behaviors comes from positive modeling, creative
writing and having students write something daily. At a young age
students are interested in writing and it is important to keep that
interest in the child. Anderson was a great speaker hearing him speak
was a great start to the conference. I was able to learn great teaching
strategies for writing that I will use in my classroom.
Following I decided to attend Todd Geralds session, I was very
excited about this session particularly. When seeing that he would be
speaking at the conference I purchased his book so I could have it
signed. Todd Geralds is the author of Woodlawn. I havent seen the
movie or read the book but I have heard about the story and was very
excited to hear him speak about his experiences. Geralds spent a
majority of the time speaking sharing the process of writing Woodlawn
and how he received his movie contract. He wanted the main concept
for people to understand from his movie and the book was Gods love
and the love we should have for one another. I think this is a great
message for people to read and I think this a great inspiring story that I
am excited to read. Once he was done speaking I was very excited to
talk with Todd Geralds and have him sign my copy of the book.
Dr. Elfrieda Freddy Hiebert was the last speaker of the day. Dr.
Hiebert is the ARA vice President-Elect, and was the keynote speaker of
the day. She spoke on learning words and how they work, the root of
how words were formed. I have never truly learned about the root of
words. She discussed the history of how the English language was
formed and how our minds learn words. There are so many words in
the English, and the opportunity to teach them is outnumbered. This
was very fascinating to me. The majority of the time teachers try to
teach vocabulary to students by having them memorize the definition
of the word but do not allow students the opportunity to use the word
During our first session we took a personality test and the results
we used several times during each of our sessions. It was very
important for us to know our personality so we would know how we can
potential interact with others who have the same personality or a
different personality. When learning about the different parents theyre
we were able to see how to best to handle each one based on our
personality. Being aware of the type of personality I have was a great
way for myself to understand how I handle various situations that may
occur. This was especially important when conveying bad news to
parents. Learning how to convey bad news to parents was one of my
favorite sessions. Receiving insight on things that you should and
shouldnt say and how to receive the best feedback was great
information to have. When conveying bad news I want to do so in the
best way possible for the parents so they can feel comfortable.
I would definitely not mind having more classes with the family
studies students. I think that we could both learn from each other.
Education and Family Studies majors have a great deal in common and
if we shared the information we learned I believe it would make us both
better in our careers.
ELL Training:
This week we had the opportunity of having ELL training. This
was a very in depth training to teach the class how to best teach ELL
students. The training was from November 10- 11th. Having the
opportunity to learn various strategies through this training was very
beneficial to my future as a teacher. My hopes as a teacher is to work
in an inner city school area or to work with students who come from a
less fortunate background so I believe that have ELL training will guide
me to be the most effective teacher possible.
The first day of training, November 10th we covered a great deal
of information. We learned how various strategies and skills could best
assist us in teaching ELL students. To begin the session we discussed
how students inquire language. ELL students acquire language by
listening, speaking, reading, and writing. They learn language through
these four processes. Students learn and master language at different
times. This was one of the most important concepts that we learned
during ELL training. Knowing that all students process language
differently is important for teachers to know. They must be patient with
the students and give them time to learn the language. This was very
interesting to learn about. Students go through five different steps
when learning language. The steps are preproduction, early production,
speech emergence, intermediate fluency, and advanced fluency. Each
student goes through theses phases differently. They can last for an
extended periods. The hardest period I think as a teacher would be
having a student who is in the preproduction phase. Having a student
who does not talk in class or even respond to you I think could be very