In a Democratic Society
On Monday, October 6th, 2014 I attended the Jenison Public Schools School Board of Education meeting. This meeting allowed me to understand how the school board functions in a school district, how they represent the community and how they make decisions that affect the community, especially for the schools. The School Board honored a Junior High and high school teacher for their excellence in education in their school district. I was able to see how the school board represented the school district and how they conducted business/made decisions to promote high academic standards, increase student achievement and develop student lifelong learning skills so students become a well-rounded individual in our society. The community can make a huge difference of what learning opportunities each of the school districts can provide to the students and the parents. I was able to understand how the school board is a representative body which implements the state and federal educational policies into their school district. After I am hired, I plan on attending school board meetings to see who represents our school board, stay updated on current business with our school district and how the administration can represent my needs as a math educator in the classroom.
On Monday October 20th, 2014, I attended the Fire Up! Student Teaching Conference at Aquinas College. This was my fourth professional educational conference. Within this past year, I have attended Fire Up! during Fall 2013, EDCampGVSU, Math in Action 2014 and EdCampGR. While at Fire Up, there were various sessions one could attend ranging from technology in education, classroom management, the hiring process and how to be an effective teacher. The objective of the conference was to allow me to become more familiar with the current topics in education and how to take steps to become an effective educator. Also, the conference was a great chance to meet and interact with other colleagues from other universities and colleges. I was able to attend sessions which appealed to me and take an opportunity to learn how to improve my teaching practice. After attending each of the sessions and talking with the presenters, I was able to connect to more educational colleagues. I asked them if I could connect with them on twitter and use them as resource in the future. This gave me an opportunity to collaborate and share ideas with other colleagues. Also, I learned that my digital educational imprint I have created online will help me to standout from other first year teachers with my professional twitter and online educational portfolio. I learned how I can use other resources from the presenters. I would like to implement them into my classroom and practice. For example, I learned how to integrate i-pads in the classroom, which will engage students with the various applications. Also, by utilizing digital publications (blogging and twitter) within the classroom, this allows one to collaborate with one another and be able to share ideas to others. I plan on using the information from this conference for my teaching practice and looking forward to attending other professional conferences coming to Grand Rapids and Michigan, for instance, the EDCampOAISD and 2015 MCAUL Conference to continue my professional growth in education.