I spent Thursday and Friday at a teachers conference for Lutheran school teachers in central and southern Illinois. I LOVE conferences. This is the point in the school year where the year is no longer new and exciting. Besides the fact that it gives me a short break from my kiddos, I love learning new things and always come back to school with great ideas and the motivation to keep going. I thought that I would use this blog post to share some of the exciting things I learned with you!
One really helpful sectional was about vision problems and how to recognize them. (When I say vision, I don't mean eyesight. While related, they are not the same.) I also learned the majority of indicators for vision problems and AD/HD are the same. This blew my mind. While the optometrist that led the sectional is local, her website does have some good information: http://www.visionforlifeworks.com/addadhd.html.
Another sectional was led by a senior educator at the St. Louis Science Center about teaching chemical inquiry (even for lower elementary) in the classroom! We did a really fun investigation with ice melt, cabbage juice, vinegar, and baking powder that I know my kids will love and learn from! (Any time you get to change colors, temperature, or make something explode, my kids will love it.) They have great resources here: http://mysteryofmatteroutreach.org.
I also attended fantastic sectionals about developing phonemic awareness (something I work with my first graders on quite frequently) and using number talks in the classroom. While they were great, I don't have any great resources to share with you at the moment. Those were more "you needed to be there" sectionals.
I hope that some of the information I learned has been helpful to you! It has certainly inspired me to get back to my students on Tuesday!
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