KATE Conference

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• I enjoyed Bill Konigsberg’s session the most. I have always enjoyed hearing authors talk about their work and their inner driving force. And in this instance, you have a man that represents the LBGTQ community writing books that young adults can relate to. Because, to be honest, I can sit and say that I am an ally and that I support them, does not mean that I can understand the current of emotions that they are going through. Bill was very personal with what he talked about, and open about his triumphs and tribulations. I honestly cannot wait to be able to start reading these books. (I now have all three.)
• I would have to say that there were two sessions that I found most useful. I enjoyed the “Miracles in the Classroom” session and “Student-teacher to Teacher”. Miracles was particularly helpful in giving me ideas on different material I can use to teach literacy to my ESL students. I have even started to hunt for possible alternate reading formats for my unit I want to teach.  Then there was the “Student-teacher to Teacher” session that I found very helpful. We talked about what will happen once we get jobs, the things we weren’t taught, and the things that people assume we already know. We were told to keep a journal to be able to reflect on our days. Mrs. Tolbert told us to learn the building’s acronyms, and to make friends with security and the custodians. She advised us to stay away from the negative people in our building, and to “Document! Document! Document!” and finally, to never forget to make time for ourselves and to not feel guilty in doing so.
• Outside of talking to the vendors and gaining some information that I would like to use in my future classes, I was too shy to get to talk to anyone. There were some nice ladies from a different district that I ate lunch with, and enjoyed myself with their company. However, all we had was small talk. I found that they didn’t care to talk about their schools, or districts. But that is okay, I will have other opportunities to network in the future.
• I was expecting more. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but I honestly thought this was small. Considering this was a state-wide conference, I thought there would have been more vendors, more sessions, and more opportunities to engage. I loved the breakout sessions, those were fantastic. I honestly thought that this would have been a great opportunity for companies to come and push their products on literacy advancement. Maybe next year.