Opening Plenary: Anne Sliwaka was unable to attend. Jake and I heard a panel of speakers that covered IB requirements and the training of the teacher of the future. The messages were to interrogate what we do, how we do it and why we do it. One question was the underlining resut of the panel presentations: How can we produce teachers as agents of change.
Regarding research the questions were: How can the gap between academia and schooling could be bridged? Teachers must read their own work site, instead of having interpretations done entirely by researchers. Schools (teachers, students, parents) should be involved in the research. Schools should not be treated as laboratories. We need to learn from the journey, build resilliance. It is hard work and we must have the disposition to stick to it because it is good for the kids. We must not be afraid of failure. Failure is a learning experience too, the real failure is not having a learning experience.
Casady Presentation Children's Land: The kids did a fantastic job reflecting and presenting their experience. As a consequence of the presentation and networking during the conference, we have connected to a reflection researcher in Galway who recommended to read Reflections on the Courage to Teach.
Mac had to change clothing and we missed lunch with the conference. We went to the Spud Town and had lunch there. Then we returned to the conference.
Does Service-Learning Aid retention? Look at the experiential learning process. It is important to have structure: 3 people building reciprocal relationships. Questions: What is going to be the potential problem? How can it be overcome with collaboration, ownership and a minimum of three people who will be working on the project. What is the need that has to be filled in the community, the students, and the other collaborating parters.
Affinity group: Research: Learned about the research that is being done in service-learning
Conference Dinner at the Radisson Hotel: lovely!
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