What a year of learning

I was reading Facebook as I so often do; it is one of the places I get my inspiration from (Hi to all you FB buddies out there) and there in front of me was a status update that just about blew me away. I am not surprised when I learn from students. This is what one of my former students had to say

Dear 2009, you've taken me on a rollercoaster of rides. I regret nothing i've done this year and I will treasure the memories i've had, and the amazing people that have made this year memorable for me. I've learnt so much this year, and have changed as a person as a result.

I could not have said it better. Thank you, Miss 18.

Happy New Year to all!

Image attribution: Image: 'rain of fire'
http://www.flickr.com/photos/70601645@N00/346555923

The VATE Conference 09: Monday

Lots of laughter, learning and great food, not to mention the buzz of conversation at the VATE Conference today. I have been on two conference event planning teams that happened within two weeks of one another and I have certainly learned a lot. I was helping out in the presenters room for much of the day so I felt I got an overall sense of what happened in the sessions without attending many. Just one in fact. But that one was thought-provoking and presented in a pedagogically interesting way. And I missed being a classroom teacher so much! There are other times that I miss it as well and I'm sure there's another blog post in there somewhere, but that's for another day. The session I went to was called Making Thinking Visible and it was by Nathan Armstrong my fellow co-convenor on the Conference team. In the presenters room, I met up with teachers going off to their presentations and then coming back, often buzzed. When I spoke to them they wanted to keep talking. It was easy to get a sense of the energy that had been generated in the presentation. Two in particular stood out for me. Julie Mitchell's presentation on Using values education resources in English. She had been sharing this resource on Values Education and I will definitely explore that more; and the other was The Global Education Project. I would love more people to be tweeting the conference but maybe they will after my session tomorrow on The power of the online professional learning network :)
cross posted at http://vate09.ning.com