Teachers Matter Conference 2014

Personal reflection
Two fabulous conferences- one in Wellington and one in Hamilton. I was given the opportunity to emcee these conferences and when Karen first asked me my initial response was 'nah, I couldn't do that!' but then considering that Karen trusted me enough to ask I decided to give it my best shot. It was a great learning experience.
I have planned and led conferences for Life Ed for a number of years now and presented at numerous seminars too, however doing this for something that I hadn't planned, for someone else's business (someone I admire hugely) and with people who had paid to be there that I didn't know was a step into new territory. So there it was... new territory. Scary... yep and was I shaking when I stood up on Monday morning to welcome folk to the conference... you bet I was! But you know that didn't last forever and I actually enjoyed my time, it was a lot of fun.
So what did I learn or have reinforced from this opportunity...
  1. the skills I have developed previously are relevant in other places
  2. people are kind when you are kind, people are warm when you are warm, people respond when you give energy... it's all about relationships 
  3. there are amazing people out there and I was very lucky to spend time listening to and talking with some of the speakers and presenters... 
  4. to get grounded when I am presenting... I have a tendency to wander :) 
  5. when everyone chips in things flow- if something needs to be done, do it 
  6. thinking on your feet is a skill and it can be developed further
  7. my poetry might be a little rusty but it is still there... 
  8. there are more people that want you to succeed than fail and they will support you 
  9. it pays to take a risk when an opportunity is presented, you never know how wonderful it will be!!! 

Now the juicy stuff...

The Presenters... 

There were so many gems I picked up from all the presenters as I was listening and learning...

Bill Potter 
You can until you can't... a simple statement that challenges us to give it all a go, that we are all capable of so much and the biggest challenge are the limitations we put on ourselves.
Think deep and wide... we are not just teachers... we are youth futurists of the noble profession.
Be BOLDer about who you are and have so much more fun that you are allowed.
He asked the questions:
  • What is one word for your passion?
  • What do you want to pass on to the people with whom you work? 
  • What do you champion? 

Karen Boyes
Creativity is the gold of  the 21st century- Sir Ken Robinson
Allow kids space to get bored... breed creativity.
Freedom of playfulness and fun :)
Creativity... start seeing what isn't there.
Neat wee teaching idea... instead of grouping children by lining them up with a 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc do with awesome, brilliant, fantastic, spectacular, awesome, brilliant, fantastic, spectacular etc... much more fun to be in group awesome than group 1
Check out TED-X and TED-ED
Perturbation- when you add pressure something comes off (natural phenomenon)- relating to people, when we add pressure we get e-motion... and it's not always negative... in fact after a good cry we feel better.
E-motion= energy in motion.
Some more questions...
  • How do we add pressure with love, support and kindness?
  • What are your children becoming because of what you are doing?  
Let boys be boys so girls can be who they are. 
Don't rescue- ask them what do you want. 
Allow our kids to be who they are... every child is born FULL OF MAGIC! 
When you have someone troubled sit with them for a while in their reality and feel the layers (be vulnerable)... you can't save the world but you do need to do what you can right now... listen to your intuition... build your awareness- develop moral courage- learn to listen to your gut. 
If you do not put down boundaries, then you will bleed out... you must carry your soul with you and give give give but refill your soul or you will bleed out 
Questions: 
  • Why did you choose this profession? (teaching) 
  • How do you refill your soul?  

Cath Vincent 
Wake up your WOW! your three most valuable WOW assets- energy, confidence and motivation
Brain is bombarded by 2 million bits per second, we process 132 bits so this 132 bits per second is our reality... we miss the rest.
You can change a habit straight away... it doesn't have to take 21 days.
Any words that follow 'I am...' become true so think about how you talk about yourself
Find a positive thought to start with- affirmations are great but they need to be true
If you force yourself to do something it exhausts your WOW... need to get your conscious and unconscious to agree then it becomes easier to make the change
Mess- debris of yesterday that demotivates you as it is a reminder of what you failed to do
And a big question:
  • What is the microchange that you are going to make? 

There were a range of great presenters taking workshops and unfortunately I did not get the opportunity to really spend time in their sessions but know that there is a whole lot of learning with them that I want to do!!! 
  • Marion Miller is an expert in NeuroLinguistic Programming and she helped me with a wee tip to work on Will's car sickness... so far so good too! 
  • Karen Stent was sharing the FISH philosophy and it looked like a whole heap of fun. 
  • Colin Cox talked about motivation and leadership... couple of wee gems as I passed through... self determination= autonomy, mastery and connectedness, find out what makes them tick and what ticks them off, treats and threats don't work- only fulfills lower needs and doesn't last. 
  • Jo Lewis did some great work on Thinking Maps and the work that came out was practical and stuff that people were keen to put into place in their programme immediately to shift their student's thinking 
  • Bette Blance was talking about Glasser Choice Theory 
  • Catherine Legg was working on philosophy for children 
  • Pallas Hupe Cotter and Maaike Christie-Beekman were looking at our personal brands, attitudes, beliefs and choices  
I will reflect on the answers to the questions asked as I go through this learning journey... some of them I have already started on and perhaps you have too?
If you have got this far thanks for reading my post and I look forward to your comments :) 

2 comments:

  1. Developing moral courage now that's a wee thought for reflecting on.
    Cheers
    Megs

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  2. Shirley, moral courage is a real challenge when we have so many rules and political correctness. I took moral courage as following your gut and doing what is you FEEL is right at that time. She also followed with if you screw (or a similar word) it up and get it wrong then go back and apologise. At least you have tried...

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