Summer Plans

The end of the school year is here.  This was signaled by the 6th grade taking their annual field trip.  In previous years we’ve gone to a roller skating rink, but since the past few years we’ve had some fairly major injuries we decided to take them to a local water park.  My comment was that now we’re trading possibility of serious injury for the possibility of drowning a middle school kid, but everything went fine.  With the end of the school year, my brain automatically starts to plan for summer break and what I’m going to do with my time (outside of family time, which is a given).

  • Planning for our pilot project next year.  A few teachers on my campus are going to be trying standards based grading as well as some other parts in Mark Barnes’ book Role Reversal.  We’re going to be meeting soon after summer begins to try and plan for next year and see how we can support each other through this major transition in the way we teach.
  • Getting ready for Confratute.  I’m going to be heading to the University of Connecticut in July for some training in gifted education.  There are a number of things that need to be planned.  I need to read up on the course options for my time there as well as some sights to see on my days after.  I also need to figure out how I can help Haley to be successful since she’ll have a four month old and this will be the longest we have ever been apart from each other since we’ve been married.
  • Updating my reading list.  I’ve done my best to collect an overwhelming amount of books to be reading over the summer about a variety of topics.  At the beginning of putting this list together I was trying to borrow as many as I could, but I’m running into a few books that I had to order.  Some reviews to come (assuming I read as much as I plan on this summer)

I also have a number of projects that need to happen around my house this summer.  It should be a busy summer and hopefully a productive summer.  Any ideas for any other ways I can fill up my short summer break?

Confratute Bound

Yesterday evening I got confirmation that I received a scholarship to go to the University of Connecticut’s Confratute.  Better yet I found out that one of my colleagues also got a scholarship to go as well so I’ll have some company.  I really can’t wait for this opportunity to network with people in the education field and to attend such a highly regarded professional learning event.

As I did the first time I heard the name, you might be thinking what is a ‘confratute?’  Taken straight from their website:

“Confratute is a combined CONFerence, and an instiTUTE with a lot of FRATernity in between. Confratute is geared toward providing educators with research-based practical strategies for engagement and enrichment learning for all students, as well as meeting the needs of gifted and talented students.”

Speaking from the perspective of a gifted and talented teacher, if this event can live up to what it claims it could be revolutionary to my growth as a teacher.  I don’t doubt that any of these claims are true based on the people that I’ve talked to that have been and rave about this program.  Oddly enough, I’m also really looking forward to the atmosphere of living on a college campus for a week and spending time getting to know others attending.

Speaking as an outsider looking in, there are some things about the confratute that I’m struggling to understand.  I’m trying to understand the schedule for the week, but it’s not the most user friendly thing to look over.  There are tons of classes, but there are also references to a strand that we’ll take so I’m not sure exactly what my schedule will look like for the week.  I’m also relatively uneasy about driving through the Connecticut countryside, but with my trusty iPhone I’m sure everything will go fine.

I’m not worried in the least and I’m anticipating what valuable resources I can learn from such an event.  Did I mention I’ve never been to the state of Connecticut?  This is going to be an awesome experience!