The Right Kind of Professional Development

I know I complain a lot about the various meetings that my supervisors make us attend because most of them are pointless and just waste our valuable time. Back in January I was sent an email from one of my supervisors asking me if I wanted to attend a slew of technology PDs; however, many of them were very similar to the workshops that we have for TEAM, so I politely declined. A few days later I received another email from her asking me if I wanted to attend The New York City Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform. I thought it sounded interesting, so I read on . . . the featured speaker was going to be Will Richardson. I figured that this was not an opportunity that I could pass up, so I got permission to go and have been anxiously awaiting my March 5th, trip to St. John's University to hear him speak.

He was simply amazing!

Of all the meetings I've attended over my three years of teaching this on was by far the best. I felt like I truly was learning and discussing things that were relevant and important. He even made a few references to his book Blogs, Wikis, Podcasts, and Other Powerful Web Tools for Classrooms, which I have been reading (and I highly recommend). He also gave us a link to his wiki that contains all of the information that he spoke about. If you ever get the opportunity to see him speak, take it! I know I will again!