The Triad Teacher Researcher Conference in 2016 opened with Dr. Silvia Bettez talking about the importance of education. In reference to Textured Dialogues: A Tapestry of Immigrant Perspectives on the Meaning of Education (with Dr. Hardin), she highlighted how and why education was important to refugees and immigrants that she interviewed in the area. In addition, she made suggestions about how teachers might revise traditional practices in order to reach students. Specifically, she argued that opening opportunities for students to express their knowledge through creative projects was something she hesitated doing in a college classroom because they were difficult to assess. However, this year, a small group of students reminded her of the importance of that kind of work. After showing a hanging mobile made in UNCG’s SELF Design Studio, she illustrated how students’ complex understanding of the concepts in the course was illustrated in this project, made collaboratively in a group. These concepts align nicely with educators who argue for the importance of collaborative problem-solving and positioning students as producers rather than consumers of knowledge. After the talk, I was able to attend a few sessions. I had the opportunity to build a tall tower with spaghetti and marshmallows with three other people. After 20 minutes of attempting to construct the tower, we saw pictures of Kindergarteners building a tower using the same materials in a much more creative and stable way. This presentation taught me about the power of collaboration and the hindrance of background knowledge to creative thinking. In another presentation, I learned about the power of ecoaching and how it can provide the ongoing support of professional development that teachers need when learning and enacting new concepts in their practice. Finally, I learned from the wide range of poster presentations that preservice teachers know how to engage in mini teacher research projects that inform them about the learning and instruction that occurred during the 10 weeks of teaching they concluded this semester. Overall, the presentations reminded me that teachers are their own architects of transformation; they just need the time and space to do it. We hope to see you next year!
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AuthorProfessor in English Education at UNC Greensboro Archives
June 2016
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