Interested in an "Unofficial" Educator Workshop at TAM6?

MattusMaximus

Intellectual Gladiator
MattusMaximus
Joined
Jan 26, 2006
Messages
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Howdy all,

At Claus's suggestion, I decided to start this thread to pose a few questions concerning a proposed "unofficial" workshop at TAM6. There seem to be a decent number of teachers on these boards who want to some kind of explicit teacher-oriented workshop at TAM6; however, due to time and other constraints it looks like no such official workshop will be scheduled. So we're looking at the possibility of hosting our own pseudo-workshop in conjunction with TAM6.

Some ideas/questions to ponder:

1. How many people on the JREF Forum are interested? Will you be attending TAM6?

2. What should the forum for this workshop be? Should we meet in a hotel room, over lunch or dinner, or in a side conference room (if money and attendance allow)?

3. What should be the format? Lecture? Sharing of stories, strategies, lessons? Planning for a larger & more official education workshop at TAM7?

4. Is there anything in particular you'd like to see addressed at such a workshop? What topics and/or issues are on your 'hit list'?

5. General questions, concerns, and criticisms? Also, what was left off this list?

Let's hear your thoughts on these questions. Fire away!

Cheers - Mattus
 
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1) I'll be there and interested.
2) Placing depends on availability of venues. I'm not sure how the booking of places works with regards to side rooms etc. I'd suggest contacting the JREF and inquiring of possibilities.
3) I think a free-form 'share' session might be the go, with somebody chairing it and seeking ideas on how to form something of an education group, to see what the issues are.
4) I'm always interested in sharing how to make use of the environment at hand to develop critical philosophies in people. In other words, how do you do more than just give somebody information in the vain hope they take it on board and believe you.
5) Sounds good. :) I might suggest looking at the timetable, suggesting a time slot and - at the event - putting up a flyer or a sign-on list for those interested with more details on the situation.

Put simply, it's very hit-and-miss when it comes to dancing around the TAM events and locations. Otherwise it means going after hours, by which time people are ready to relax and party a little.

Athon
 
1. YES, I'm interested. I'm 19, so I still remember how highschool was like, plus I just finished 4 years of college so I know what goes on at college as well.

2. Dinner might be distracting. But I don't mind where it happens.

3. Sharing stories and planning for future TAM workshops. However, each person should have prepared beforehand what they would like to share (of course digressions are okay, but being a bit organized helps).

4. I'm not sure...how to inject critical thinking into the classrooms while not making teachers freak out at the fact that we're not preparing for standardized tests? How to make science and critical thinking relevant to kids today. How does one change minds?

5. Great idea! I can be the guinea pig.
 
Uhm... it seems I have volunteered myself to be the information distributor for this interest in an Educator Workshop at TAM... please PM me with some sort of contact information (e-mail most likely) to be able to distribute information to you folks. :D
 
Count me in.

Seems it would be best if we had a classroom-sized room.

Scheduling... not during "official" TAM conference business. But TAM sideshows seem to blossom so as to occupy every waking hour of every TAM day; I don't know that we could schedule a time when nothing else TAM-related is going on.

Best if we have an LCD/DLP projector for the room.
 
saganite said:
Whoa.
Click to expand...
I thought you knew that about me already.

Anyway, just so you know, it was not a good idea...it totally killed/destroyed/mangled my social development.

It would've been better if I had stayed in high school but took junior college classes at night.
 
DiskoVilante said:
I thought you knew that about me already.

Anyway, just so you know, it was not a good idea...it totally killed/destroyed/mangled my social development.

It would've been better if I had stayed in high school but took junior college classes at night.
Click to expand...

True that may be...and it probably would have been better if I'd graduated college like my parents wanted me to instead of dropping out after two years and entering the work force at 19 when my outer shell was still soft and dewy, but these are the mistakes that make us the interesting people we are today, even if they were gut-wrenchingly painful at the time, no?

Like it or not, though, that's a very impressive claim you've got.
 
1. How many people on the JREF Forum are interested? Will you be attending TAM6?
Count me in.

2. What should the forum for this workshop be? Should we meet in a hotel room, over lunch or dinner, or in a side conference room (if money and attendance allow)?

Over a meal seems to be the best choice; the schedule seems to be pretty full however it allwos a couple hours at mealtimes.

3. What should be the format? Lecture? Sharing of stories, strategies, lessons? Planning for a larger & more official education workshop at TAM7?

Sharing, if we meet over a meal. Otherwise one will be lecturing while everyone else is picnicking. We should meet wherever the meal is being held, but have our own table or corner away from all the unrelated chatter.

4. Is there anything in particular you'd like to see addressed at such a workshop? What topics and/or issues are on your 'hit list'?

I'm a teacher-in-training and I'll sponge up anything that's discussed. :D At this time I'd like to know how to deal with younger students who have not been through their general ed yet and therefore have not yet taking critical thinking (which is typically an english class). I have that problem even as a student among other students. How does one introduce such minds to critical thinking without turning them off to it?

5. General questions, concerns, and criticisms?

Not yet.
 
Folks if you are truly interested in getting together for this I STRONGLY suggest that you PM me to let me know so I have a preliminary head count and an e-mail for contact purposes and sending materials if it turns out you can't make it to the meeting.

For the moment I'm suggesting a meeting time one hour BEFORE the TAM Reception on Thursday so we keep the meeting to no more than an hour and we can all walk together to the Reception. As for a meeting place, since the current interest seems to indicate a small crowd we may not need to reserve a room. I suggest we meet and greet at the hotel lobby... and then play by ear based on the size of the crowd. I'll try to wear something ridiculously recognizable to be the "beacon". :D
 
seismic_cowgirl said:
For the moment I'm suggesting a meeting time one hour BEFORE the TAM Reception on Thursday so we keep the meeting to no more than an hour and we can all walk together to the Reception. As for a meeting place, since the current interest seems to indicate a small crowd we may not need to reserve a room. I suggest we meet and greet at the hotel lobby... and then play by ear based on the size of the crowd. I'll try to wear something ridiculously recognizable to be the "beacon". :D
Click to expand...


Sounds good to me. I had thought this might be a dead idea, but perhaps if a few of us can get together and meet informally we can start planning something for next year's TAM.
 
1. I am NOT an educator, but I might be interested in this, since it does not seem to conflict too much with anything else. I have a general interest in education-improving efforts.

2. I guess we already decided to meet before the reception, and figure out what to do from there.

3. Not sure what we can accomplish with this time. Brainstorming for TAM7 might be fun and all, but we can even do that on this Forum.
Sharing of stories and info, in the field of education, might be interesting. I have cousin who is making innovations in teaching science, that I can brag about. (He might even be joining this Forum, soon. I keep reminding him to.)

4. Some hit-list topics I thought of:
How can we train young minds to be responsible, critical thinkers, in general?
At what age is it appropriate to teach about proper ways to resolve cognitive dissonance?
What are some fun ideas to make the classroom more engaging and interesting, and interactive?
How can we make the best, most proper use of computers, in the classroom?
Magic as an education tool. (Accusations of "Wizardly" aside.)
Something about Evolution, because it is always a hot topic.
What, exactly, does one learn from watching the Teletubbies?

5. I was wondering if there was some way to advertise this gathering more effectively. Since a lot more educators will be at this TAM, than previous ones, I would gather there should be lots of folks interested in this unofficial workshop.
Last year's official educator's workshop was standing-room only. Although some attendees, from last year, would not see the point in repeating such an activity, we can emphasize that this one will be different. Less formal, perhaps; more free-flow. And even free-of-charge?

6. I don't think the Audubon Society would appreciate that very much. Maybe we can use boysenberry pies, instead.
 
BUMP!

Alrighty, from the response to this thread, I'm not expecting a big crowd (less than 12 people) to show up for this. I'm going to make up a flyer to put it on the activities booth but I'm not planning for this to be very big. I'm scoping out the hotel during the day to find potential areas to meet in the "quiet" sections.


Anyhow, THIS little meeting of minds is planned for 6:00PM (18:00) on Thursday June 19 BEFORE the Reception. Meet me at the hotel checking lobby and look for me to be wearing this t-shirt:

100_0949.jpg


AGU stands for American Geophysical Union... Okay It was the ONLY geeky thing I had that was educational enough... the "Pluto IS a planet" t-shirt* might not be so bright an idea with Tyson being around.... :boxedin:


*There's a story about how I got that t-shirt... and I didn't pay a penny for it...
 
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