thesisthoughts

OK, it’s 10:20 pm, my parents have gone to bed and so have the kids. I am giving myself an hour at the most to write about my experiences at the AATE conference in Hobart. I really want to thank nb for this post, since she wrote a comment saying she was waiting for the post, it hasn’t left my mind. Knowing there are readers around really does make a huge difference to the weary blogger.

I arrived in Hobart a week after arriving back in Australia. I flew down with my mum and left my daughter and son with my sister. Mum booked us in at Wrest Point which was fantastic. Tasmania is a beautiful place and although we didn’t go touring at all, the view from the hotel was spectacular. Being in the hotel made it easy to hop backwards and forwards and I could spend time with mum before, after and between sessions.

 I was extremely nervous about giving my paper but was determined to make the most of the program.

Some of the sessions I attended were:

• Professor David Pearson from Berkley, “The pedagogy of promise…”. The paper discussed the teaching of reading in a time of uncertainty. A broad overview was given of the new reality in the United States and the possible implications for Australia and the rest of the western world.
• Richard Flanagan – Why Novels are Power.
• Prof. Peter Freebody – Uni of Sydney – Bridges and Divides in High Stakes Curriculum knowledge, language and Literacy in the Classroom: What Governments Should Want to Know about Literacy Achievement in Schools.
• A session on Interactive Whiteboards and their use in literacy classrooms.
• Natalie Jane Prior – Please I’m Stuck: Common Creative Writing Mistakes Children Make and How you can help them Avoid Them.
• Teaching Reading and Writing: Engaging with the Professional Community – Marion Meiers. This interesting session was attended by a small group of educators, and all participated actively in the workshop. The discussion was around encouraging teachers to write for the professional journals of AATE and ALEA. Together we brainstormed on the theme of the next edition of Practically Primary. I was reminded by this session how few publication opportunities there are in Israel for teachers. The idea of brainstorming about possible writing opportunities in a staff meeting seems to be feasible and sensible.
• I was thrilled to hear Professor Ilana Snyder speak and was even more excited to finally meet her. She is another of those influential people at Monash who have encouraged me in my study and inspired me to learn.  At that session I was also very happy to meet Scott Bulfin. After reading so much of his writing and building a lot of my thinking around his early articles, it was exciting. I was sorry not to hear Scott give his paper, he spoke at the same time that I did.
• A fascinating talk with author Christine Harris about the use of memory jars in writing.
• One of the highlights of the conference for me was to hear Graham Parr talk for the first time. His paper was titled Literature Teachers learning in the Age of Standards-Based Reforms. I was interested in hearing the work I have been reading spoken out loud and was interested to hear the questions posed by the audience.
• Bridges to Improved Pedagogies: Lessons from Singapore – Scott G. Paris. This paper was mainly about the high price teachers and students in Singapore pay  for their high achievement levels on international examinations.
• Marion Meiers, ACER, Identifying the Outcomes of Teacher Professional Learning Programs. I should write more about this session later.
• My paper was at the very end of the conference and I do have  a lot to write about it. I promise to do that in the next day or so. Now… I must get to bed.

Good night!

Another way I am continuing my professional learning is through my voluntary work as a reviewer of literacy articles for the Broader Middle East and North Africa Literacy Hub. The organization strives to improve basic literacy in those countries and in particular, to increase the number of girls attending primary school frameworks.

I am always interested by the materials I receive and meet a variety of literacy issues in my reading. Although I have been reviewing articles for the past two years, I have no idea how they found me to invite me to be a reviewer for this international project. The connection may be my International Reading Association membership.

p.s – Yet another kind of professional learning – as you can see, I have finally learned to hyperlink… about time. It was one of my goals before going back to school and I’m happy to report that I’ve done it.

Free image from:  http://www.everystockphoto.com/photo.php?imageId=2652745