National Middle School Association Conference
I was very fortunate to attend the National Middle School Association Conference in Indianapolis from November 4-7 (www.nmsa.org/). This is a fabulous conference. I heard some amazing speakers and attended great sessions. Here are some of the highlights:
Talk by Daniel Pink: This was amazing! Mr. Pink spoke about the economic imperative of helping students develop the right brain. While the left brain activities which focus on linear thinking, are still important, they are no longer enough. Most tasks that require such thinking can either be outsourced or computerized. What is more important now is the creative thinking afforded by the right brain. This includes things like understanding context, feeling empathy, identifying problems, and thinking outside the box for many possible solutions. It made so much sense and also scared everyone in the audience to hear how our education system tends to favor left brain over right.
Talk by Alan November (go to www.novemberlearning.com): Mr. November, who focuses on the internet and ways to use it well, spoke about the need to explore the globabl perspective in all we do. He shared how to look for foreign websites when we research a topic to see what people around the world think of that topic. For example, reading an article by a British historian on the American Revolution.
I also attended workshops on topics ranging from understanding the adolescent brain to setting up an effective advisory program.
Nellie Perera (Henry Street Settlement) and I ran a session, “Demystifying Historical Documents With Drama” that was very well-attended with people ready and willing to participate in our tableau activity. It was a lot of fun.
This is maybe the best conference going. I encourage everyone to go to their conference in Baltimore next year!
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Yes, the conference had a variety of highlights.
On the level of locale, both the Jimmy Carter Center for Peace and the Martin Luther King Jr. center showed how through in depth story of their life, so many themes of government, citizenship and peace negotiation are understood so much better.
On the level of pedagogy, primary source readings and documents were the focus for workshops on fine tuning differentiation and one on discussion techniques–from socratic seminars to debates to problem/solution teacher led discussions. I wondered why accountable talk in small group student-run discussion groups is slow to creep into history conferences. Something like Literary circles for history. I wonder if any of you struggle with that???
Finally, technology and REAL quality learning and projects infused most sessions and poster presentations. With the explosive array of tech tools, quality rigorous-learning-worthy applications are rare. That is, simple slide shows of Vietnam photos are to pass for High Quality products. Rubrics did not emphasize (even omitted) quality of evidence, quality of thesis argument analysis and similar don’t-have-to-be-boring aspects of student work. Hmmm. Would love to hear of great examples—web site links to them even, that show REAL learning-rich quality uses of tech projects by kids.
On the BIGGEST plus of the conference, there are a number of new web sites that do marvelous jobs of collecting primary sources for us all, even linking them to great learning activities, questioning, and other resources. One BEST one is this site:
Google tps connect or here is the URL
http://www.tpsconnect.org/index.php?option=com_fabrik&c=form&view=details&Itemid=64&fabrik=2&rowid=42&fabrik_cursor=2&fabrik_total=21&tableid=2