Teachers' Conference

What a busy week! First the BETT exhibition and then on Friday and Saturday, our Teachers' Conference.

I love the Conference. Every year, I come away re-invigorated after meeting so many enthusiastic teachers. The energy everyone seems to have as well as the ideas and creativity shown by so many is just brilliant. It is contagious- I can't help but come home feeling exhausted but determined to try out something new that a colleague has been generous enough to share.

Generosity is probably the one word I would use to sum up the Conference. So many people give freely of their time to share their best ideas, pass on invaluable tips and discuss problems openly. Behind the scenes, the IT support team do a fantastic job, making sure everything runs smoothly and there are no hitches with equipment. The catering team made sure we were well fed and watered and the organisation of the whole Conference, though a nightmare at times, I've no doubt, was so efficient that the entire Conference seemed to pass off smoothly and like a well-oiled machine. My congratulations and thanks to everyone involved this year.

I was fortunate enough to give a couple of presentations this year - one on some of the tips I have learnt about using IWBs and the other on my James Bond lesson. Everyone who attended my sessions was so kind, warm, supportive and positive. That kind of audience gives back so much to presenters, I felt priviledged to stand in front of them. I don't think I walked down the stairs after the IWB presentation and into lunch - I floated!

I attended a fantastic "bring and share" session where we discussed ideas to try in the classroom to help support language learning. This was just what I need, loads of new ideas to try - interestingly, the session was run by an English teacher but all of the ideas discussed could be adapted for use with any subject. That is another reason for attending the conference - getting to meet and discuss ideas with teachers of other subjects is a rare opportunity and always shows me how much we have in common, rather than our differences. Being open-minded and prepared to think beyond the obvious brings huge rewards.

Once again, the Conference demonstrated the pace of change in the classroom and outside. Technology is advancing at a frightening pace it seems and our students will use gadgets and social networking that could leave us behind unless we work at it to keep up. More importantly, we were reminded that they will use social networking sites and gadgets whether we invite them to or not. Much better that we start using these as well to encourage and enhance their learning. I left the Conference determined to think even harder about using Twitter, Blogs (maybe a class Blog?), forums and the like in class as well as "flip" cameras and other gadgets.

I also need to go through my bag of goodies and leaflets from BETT to decide what to investigate further and what to place in the "round file" and then to get on with it all rather than leaving it until tomorrow. Figuratively speaking, that is!

I'm exhausted but excited by the prospect of it all.