Monday conference

Today was a morning of great ideas and information on innovation/creativity and on PLCs.  The afternoon was free to explore the surrounding areas.  I went a bit far away but now I can check touring the Biltmore estate off my list of architectural sites.

From this morning I have more things to read and research that what I will post here.  Here are just some nuggets that were of interest for me.

Alan McCormack “Developing Imagination: A Key Ingredient at All Levels of Course Reform” - spoke about the key role of developing imagination and creativity in order to solve scientific and engineering problems.  The following ideas are to foster creativity and innovations:

• Visual-Spatial Thinking in the Science Classroom
• Droodles by Roger Price - TV series clip - oodles of droodles
• Fleamarket Finds - Find the weirdest items at a flea market that you have no idea the purpose and have students make guesses which they justify with the properties of the item.  Example: What is this?
• Invention Dissections - Collect old, broken appliances and allow students to deconstruct them and discuss how they think it works.  Make up new inventions to solve problems (learning station.)

Joyce Tugel "The Role of Leaders in Professional Learning: Practical Strategies and Approaches for Science Teaching” 

• "Make Thinking Visible" - emphasize this in science (perfect for notebooks, also a strategy reading teachers use)
• effective professional development -  Teachers need understanding of content they teach: “Adult literacy” and also focus on building teachers’ understanding of how students learn content  
• PLC book study
• Windows of Intentionality - teaching intentionally matrix

  	Don’t know why	Know why
  Can’t teach it	Miracle	Theory
  Can teach it	Magic	Intentionality

• Additive professional development (just one more thing to do) vs transformative professional development (changing teaching methods, integrating) – time and structure built in to engage with each other as a professional community.