MCTE Conference Review
On Friday, October 5th, I attended the MCTE Conference in Lansing. I arrived just in time to get my extremely awkward name badge and sat down in order to hear what the keynote speaker had to say. I would like to continue with the grudge I held (I am over it now) with the name badges. For some reason, those of us who registered early had to have an additional name badge to hold the one with our actual name on. The slackers who waited until the day of the conference to get their name badge only had to wear one name badge and their name was spelled correctly because they were able to write them. Back to the confrence, the keynote speaker, Kathleen Blake Yancey was very informative and had a lot of interesting things to say. From where I was sitting in the room it was a bit difficult to see either of the slide shows and I felt like she should have done more with our first task of “defining literacy.” I do believe that her message was effective in setting us up for the rest of the day.
The first session I attended was Dr. Jill VanAntwerp’s advice for new teachers. I guess I was hoping for something a little more “mind-blowing” maybe. Having already been a teacher for three years, I only have two more before I am past the “5-year mark.” Unfortunately, everything that she said, I was aware of and it felt as though she was “stating the obvious” but this time it was in alliteration. She seems like a very nice lady who doesn’t want to see anyone fail, and I appreciate her effort in giving advice on how to be a successful teacher.
The second session I attended was the session on digital story-telling. I was slightly disappointed at this session as well. I guess I was expecting an amazing 3-d slide show or powerpoint presentation, but it was just a regular slide show with a student telling a story. Despite the numerous technology issues the presenters experienced during their presentation I do think it is an interesting idea. The main idea behind digital story-telling is having a student write a story and as they read the story pictures that enhance the story are shown. Unfortunately, teaching digital storytelling takes 2-4 weeks so you could probably only use it once a year. It did occur to me, however, that digital story-telling could facilitate a successful business. Just imagine: A wedding slide show using digital story telling. I am still considering it.
I believe the MCTE conference is an excellent thing to attend. If I wouldn’t have had to work I would have stayed for more. Maybe next year!
