My KATE Conference Experience

My, it has been awhile since I have posted on my blog! Anyway the KATE conference was a wonderful experience and I am glad to have attended. I had the opportunity to attend three conferences, "The Beauty of Everyday Conversation" with Jeremy and Beth Gulley, "More than Sexual Orientation.." with our very own Katie Mason, and "Creative Common Core Aligned Lessons.." with Suzy Oertel. I also was able to catch about half of Jay Asher's presentation because a grumbling stomach made leave in search of lunch (I kicked myself for not registering for lunch there. It seemed convenient, and those desserts looked heavenly!) After waiting about thirty minutes for the Marriot restaurant to make me a sandwich, I rushed over to eat my sandwich at a table behind the entrance to the ballroom. Vaguely hearing a few sentences by Jay Asher, I wished I was there to see the whole thing. After eating my over sized sandwich that hurt my jaw to get my mouth around, (it was good though) I took a seat just behind the entrance to the ballroom. Jay Asher was very entertaining and funny and I definitely want to read his book. I was excited to hear that they may have a movie in the works.

I wish I was able to attend "Survivalism 101..." I heard it was great and I bet I could have learned a lot from it. Oh well... Maybe next year.

"The Beauty of Everyday Conversation" was great.  I learned a good way to intrigue my future students with writing creatively. The presenters told us to transform a sample essay paragraph into a dialogue with our own creative twist with how our grandmother (the main character in the essay) and ourselves would converse in a casino. It was fun thinking of my grandmother in a casino because I don't think in reality the scene would ever happen being that my grandmother is very religious. It was interesting to hear the stories read aloud.

I also attended Katie Mason's conference "More than Sexual Orientation..."  I attended this one because honestly I love being read to and her book talks and it seemed like the most interesting session offered at the time. This session was the most informative to me. (I'm really not brown-nosing!) I received a great list of YAL with LGBTQ content that I can include on my future classroom shelves. "Jumpstart the World" is a book I have my eye on to read in the near future. The powerpoint included statistics about LGBTQ adolescents and made me aware what many of them endure in school. I think teachers should make it known that it is important to accept other lifestyles than what one is used to and that bullying or turning a blind eye is unacceptable. If all teachers did this, it would help to fight against discrimination of LGBTQ students. I think that supplying classroom shelves with books that contain LGBTQ content will also help students to understand LGBTQ students by seeing the world through their perspective. Hopefully, this would dissuade bullying as well.

My third and final conference was "Creative Common Core Aligned Lessons." This is the session gave me the most ideas that I will use as a future teacher.  I received some useful handouts from this conference. They spoke about creative and interesting lesson ideas that align with state standards. I will be referencing their handouts to help with with ideas in the future!

Overall, I had a great experience at KATE. I learned a bunch and enjoyed the good food and beautiful atmosphere of the Marriott.  I only would have to suggest that they offer a session on classroom management. I need all the tips I can get! I  also did not really get a chance to network with English teachers since everyone moved about quite rapidly and were in groups talking with people they knew. Hopefully, I will have the chance in the future because I want to attend KATE again. It was well worth the 25 dollars!