Ryann Regier 

 

 

 

The KTOY 2014 conference at Greenbush in Eudora was definitely an amazing field trip! We had the opportunity to listen to the Kansas National Teacher of the Year and the regional finalists speak. I loved listening to Jeff Baxter and all of his great teaching techniques and tricks he has learned over the years. I can tell that all of the speakers are very passionate teachers and people any student would be lucky to have as a teacher. 

 

Our opening speaker was Brandi Leggett from DeSoto, and she presented to us about Genius Hour. Genius Hour is time set aside in class for students to study their passion on a new idea or skill for a set amount of time. It encourages students to be independent, and learn about something they want to learn about. It guides students to be imaginative, and teaches adaptability and self awareness. Genius Hour is a great thing for teachers to use because it gets students to be creative and curious at their own pace. They have to research their topic and talk to professionals and other people that are related to their topic. This affects me as a future teacher because it is a new concept that schools are coming up with, and it's a great thing for students because it encourages them to grow their learning while researching something they love!

 

The next speaker was Jenny Nash from Paola, presenting to us about Community Based School Projects. I personally loved her presentation the most because I thought it was the most creative! She stressed the importance of building your community, and inviting local businesses to partner up with your school. What I loved most about her presentation was hearing about the school-wide "Night at the Museum." This is where a group of teachers travels to a different museum every year in a different part of the U.S., and they take the information and exhibits they explored at the museum and turn their school into an exact replica. They go into very extreme detail and get every student, parent, and teacher involved. This is an extremely fun activity for the students because it provides a hands-on approach to learning while still having so much fun! I even thought about incorporating something like it into my own classroom someday. 

 

Finally, our last speaker was Marney Hay from Maize, presenting to us about Using School-Wide Behavior Data to Navigate MTSS. Her presentation was about what they do at their school to encourage good behavior and have students follow the monthly character traits. She discussed how they do monthly "behavioral parties" and "behavioral rooms." Students who used appropriate behavior throughout that specific month get invited to the parties, those who do not get to go to the rooms to talk about their behaviors. It seems like this system works for their specific school, but to me it just seems very unfair. I agree that behavior is a serious issue and difficult to deal with especially in elementary schools, but there has to be a better system than something that sounds like prison. Also, she talked about how every student wears a name tag wherever they go, for the whole entire day. This is neat because the students can feel like they are all well known and loved, but at the same time it just sounds like a hassle. 

 

Overall, it was a great conference. I feel like I really learned a lot of good lessons and ideas to incorporate into my own classroom someday.