Ed-Co Teachers attend Trends, Tactics and Tools for 21st Century Learning Conference
On Friday, January 2nd, the Ed-Co staff were still relaxing during their winter break –except five Jr/Sr staff members who traveled to West Union on their day off to learn from a talented educator by the name of Kevin Honeycutt. Mike Putz, Melissa Meyer, Ed Wadsworth, Aaron Hamann, and Kevin Kleis along with Mrs. Voss participated in a conference held at North Fayette Valley High School.
The conference was entitled “Trends, Tactics and Tools for 21st Century Learning”. Mr. Honeycutt had a fun approach for explaining what happens when educators step outside their boxes and try new tools. He reinforced the importance of relationships while encouraging teachers to continue being learners through positive examples of student success and self-directed staff development. One point he hit hard was how emotional learning was so powerful to students. “How you feel at the time of learning is more important than the learning itself” was one powerful statement he made referring back to the relationships and connections staff can and should make with the students we spend so much time with each year.
The day ran from 8:30-3:30 and was filled with breakout sessions ranging from formative assessment and standards based grading to project based learning and creating a “flipped” classroom. Mr. Honeycutt spoke with elementary staff and secondary staff separately, focusing the 6-12 session on Social Learning Networks. Kevin can be found online at www.kevinhonecutt.org if you are interested in checking his resources out. The teachers who attended were challenged with going forward and trying new approaches with students even if they’ve never tried it because “If we wait to do something until we are good at it, we’ll never begin.”
