EDAD 693 Practicum/Internship Artifact

Standard 2.0 School Culture

Element 2.3 Apply Best Practice to Student Learning
Activity: Indicator c: Candidates demonstrate the ability to assist school
personnel in understanding and applying best practices for student learning.
Time: 30 hours
Artifact: List of Strategies from NCTE Conference
Description:

I had the opportunity to attend the 2010 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)
Conference in Orlando, FL. The conference offered a high-quality of professional development for
elementary, middle, secondary, and college level educators. Through the attendance of various sessions, I was
able to learn about various cutting edge strategies utilized to enhance student achievement. Also, I had the
opportunity to meet many authors and share with my students the signed copies of books.

Reflection: Attending the NCTE conference provided great benefits for both teachers and
students. I was so excited to come home and tell the students about the authors I met. I was able to
obtain many free items to give to my students such as books and bookmarks. I felt the conference
provided an enriching experience that will have an impact on education at Braddock Middle School.
One of the sessions, Integrating Middle School Curriculum: Picture Books and Related Text Sets
provided interactive demonstrations in which the educators were the students. This allowed for a
greater understanding of the strategy as well as an opportunity to see the various strategies in action.
This was especially true during the demonstration of the Circle Learning Strategy. Also, during the
session, we were introduced to twin text sets and the varied uses and benefits for implementing this
strategy. I actually used this strategy during my involvement of writing the lesson plans for the new
Common Core curriculum. Handouts were provided so that I was able to reference them upon my
return and able to share them with colleagues. I presented several strategies during the language arts
vertical team meetings. Many of the teachers at Braddock are using some of the strategies that I
presented. I attended another session on reading/writing workshop and how to relate the principles
of a workshop to the standards of each state. My colleague and I were presented with data that
outlined the benefits of this strategy. This group of presenters also provided all their emails and
encouraged participants to email them with questions and requests. This allows for a wonderful
opportunity to continue interacting with peers in other locations and situations. In addition to all the
wonderful sessions, there were a number of sessions with authors. They were able to provide insight
as to their purpose and motivation in writing as well as ideas in ways they would like their books to
be used in the classrooms. There were also, many opportunities to interact one on one with the
authors during meet and greets and book signings. Having been able to participate in the varied
activities with authors and interact with them allows us as teachers to share experiences with our
students that many of them will never have the opportunity to experience. It is exciting to tell
students that you have met an author of a book that they are reading or have read. Class discussions
are enriched by this knowledge and students become excited and actively involve with the text.
Attending this conference was an amazing experience.