If you didn’t attend the 2011 Texas ASCD Annual Conference back on October 30-November 1^st, then you missed a fantastic time.  There were top-notch presenters, wonderful entertainment by area students, many knowledgeable exhibitors and great networking possibilities.  Patti Birney, from East Central ISD, shared some of the ideas/thoughts that a few of the keynote presenters shared at the conference:

The conference kicked off with Rick DuFour presenting on, “Once Upon A Time: Confronting the Mythology of Public Education.” The session focused on the premise that the world’s best school systems embrace the professional learning community (PLC) process with the most effective school systems using PLC concepts to provide the ongoing, collaborative, data-driven, job-embedded professional development essential to continued adult learning. Dr. DuFour used mythology as the basis for his presentation stating that mythology in an organization is found in the unexamined assumptions, beliefs, and expectations that we hold as true.

Douglas Reeves warmed us up for a day of learning on Monday with his session on, “Leadership at Every Level: From the Classroom to the Boardroom.” Dr. Reeves began his presentation by stating how educators should be looked upon as revenue sources as opposed to an expense.  Citing the cost of one class of dropouts in the state of Texas exceeding 35 billion in lost wages and productivity and 1.6 million in medical costs, educators make a huge positive impact on this statistic. Major challenges faced by teachers and leaders were addressed with explicit guidelines on how schools and systems can improve.  Three essential strategies were highlighted: monitoring teaching and leadership practices, building high degrees of efficacy among staff members, and focusing on a smaller number of priorities. As educators we have a ‘to do’ and a ‘not to do’ list but should have a  ‘conscious’ and ‘unconscious’ list in order to make conscious decisions in our roles that positively impact students.

The conference closed with a wonderful session presented by Thomas Guskey, “Grading and Reporting Student Learning.” Tom Guskey provided enlightening insight into effective grading practices focusing on grading and reporting student learning. Reflecting on the purposes of grading grounded the conversation through the topics of grading elements and general conclusions from research on grading. Guskey pointed out many of the questionable practices prevalent in our schools and reinforced that grading and reporting must always be done in reference to the learning criteria. Stressing the importance of fairness and honesty in grading, a variety of ways to report student-learning progress to parents and the community were discussed. Ultimately, the message to participants was to take on a ‘new vision of what leadership means’ when it comes to grading and as educators we need a clear, comprehensive grading system that shows how students are truly measuring up to the standards.

The conference was a great success!  Our attendees walked away with lots of ideas/thoughts and how to implement them.  If you couldn’t attend this year, we hope you can join us in 2012.

Join us next October in the DFW area at the Hyatt Regency Hotel!