Since school let out, I’ve been uber-busy. I know, I know, the busy-ness is supposed to slow down when the year’s over, but it hasn’t. I’m a different sort of busy now.
I’ve three presentations to prepare for this summer.
First up is next week’s district conference on Differentiated Instruction. My presentation is on building community and an environment for risk-taking in the classroom. I’ve been whittling away at an outline over at my wiki, but hadn’t realized the true work ahead until I sat down to put the actual presentation together. I’m facilitating the session once each day of the conference and a little tense.
I don’t want to be that guy at the conference who gets people to say, “Oh, don’t worry about that one, I went yesterday and it’t not worth your time.”
The main source of stress is finding a way to put everything together in a way that’s accessible and succinct. I called Ms. Dunda after one long go at putting the presentation together and voiced my frustration at wanting to show how all of the pieces fit together but also feeling like I have to introduce all of the pieces.
I also want to truly facilitate and not merely present. I value the experiences of each teacher who’s going to walk through that door and want those experiences to be shared and incorporated.
I’ve set the bar mighty high for myself. I’ve got a few days to prepare to reach it.
As for the other two conferences, they can wait until this one’s done.
More later.
Great job today Zach. You gave me a lot of ideas for next year. You certainly had a classroom of engaged teachers. I hope the rest of your pesentations go just as well.
P.S.
Timmon’s bought me a copy of the 55 essentials which we are going to implement as a team.
Wonderful presentation today. I am so excited to implement some of your ideas with my high schoolers. I looked at your class myspace page to get a feel for that component of your program and, based on their comments, it seems as if the students really enjoy having you as a teacher! I can see why. Best of luck in the future. Sincerely, your fellow oregon trailer