TDSB Eureka 2012

This years conference was very successful and teaches us the importance to come together every once and a while and share.  This is the 3^rd one I have been to and first one I have presented at.  There is always something for everyone from things as small as nano particles to as large as global warming and black holes.

Alan Nursall (@alannursall) did an amazing job opening up the conference.  He engaged us with unique demos that got us all thinking of how to further open the minds of our students to science.  He discussed the importance of shared learning and understanding science.  This is modeled in his show on Daily Planet.

My presentation “Not another boring brochure! Using Wiki’s for STSE projects” went extremely well.  This was my first time presenting at a conference as I have hosted demo classrooms for groups no larger than 10 in my class.  (See here for the wiki we collaborated on and the handouts and power point notes http://mrzoras.wikispaces.com/).  The most important part of my session was to have each teacher leave with a functioning wiki, a better understanding of using STSE education (Science, Technology, Society and Environment) and a list of their own wikis so we can collaborate in the future.  I really enjoyed presenting and made me think that if someone has a good idea its best to share it as we have seen people who like to keep ideas to themselves.  Within a public education board, we are all paid on a grid not on what lessons we produce.  So why not help other teachers as I can only support my 90 students a semester and they shouldn’t be the only ones benefiting but if I help 35 teachers, do the math!  We should all be collaborating, working on fluid projects that look at how to make ALL students successful.

I attended two other sessions, one “Incorporating Literacy, STSE and Co‐operative Learning in Gr. 10 Science” by Leila Knetsch, who I have had the pleasure to work with before.  She did a great job sharing and modeling a wide variety of hands on activities to explore STSE components.  The other session was about a site with online lesson plans and virtual classrooms. http://www.greenlearning.ca/ is a site about climate change and science.  The subsite Cool 2.0 allows for collaborative, rankings and submissions of lesson plans and activities.  This is a great way to share resources that are approved and classroom ready.

All in all, great conference and now with one conference complete I will be looking for ways to share at other events!  Thanks to Nandanee Sawh one of the instructional leaders of science from TDSB for organizing such a successful event.