If you’re reading this, you should consider presenting at your local teachers’ convention next year.
Yes, you.
On what?
On whatever aspect of your teaching you know best. You are an expert and your colleagues would benefit from hearing from you.
As convention season comes to a close, I find myself reflecting on the first time I attended a teachers’ convention. As a rural-based beginner, I found the experience of navigating our large convention center, armed only with a paper brochure, overwhelming. I had no concept of what would be beneficial to me, so I found myself guessing, following colleagues and sometimes attending sessions that weren’t relevant to my needs. It took a few years to discover what types of sessions were the most valuable to my practice, and once I did, I realized there weren’t enough of them for me.
The sessions I find most beneficial are highly specialized to my subject area — high school math and physics — but those can be few and far between. In my early years, I often ended up in general sessions with useful ideas on classroom management or other intangibles. However, a great concept presented for Grade 6 math doesn’t always translate well to a Physics 30 setting, so the idea would be left to linger in my mind without manifesting in my classroom.
When I realized that the sessions I found most useful as a specialist teacher were limited, I decided to contribute by becoming a presenter. In 2020 I delivered my first session, Spreadsheet Tools for Math. The audience was small but engaged, knowing exactly what they were getting: tools to build complex assessment questions without employing the “guess and check” method. Attendees left with a tool they could use the next week.
Leaving a session with a tangible takeaway is a valuable gift. While this could include generalized ideas that fit into any course, I aim to offer specialized strategies or resources for a single subject, encompassing materials like fully developed labs, question banks or exemplars. Teachers can use these right away, or the resource can serve as a model for expanding an idea.
I believe sessions led by local teachers should be a larger part of our conventions...
I’ve now presented at conventions eight times in total, each time focusing on sharing specific, practical tools, from atomic model activities to interdisciplinary novel studies, CTS streaming flowcharts to tools for beginning teachers.
This is why I believe sessions led by local teachers should be a larger part of our conventions: these teachers are more likely to focus on successful parts of their practice grounded in the day-to-day context they face. External presenters are valuable. They can provide research-driven practice, inspire with messages that resonate regardless of context, or provide broad ideas with wide application, but by their nature they can lack immediate applicability, especially to specialist teachers.
Consider the case of a music teacher attending convention. Strategies offered in a generalized session have limited applicability to that unique learning environment. If there are few or no dedicated music sessions, then the music teacher may be left with great ideas, but ones that will require significant adaptation to fit their needs.
Now consider the value of that same teacher attending specific music sessions: maybe it’s one on effective tools in a subscription service, or one on a set of ready-to-print activities that can be used at the drop of a hat. The presenters best equipped to handle these types of sessions are your colleagues down the hall or across town from you. They often possess untapped knowledge. And that knowledge isn’t limited to their “teachables”: the extra passion teachers possess can be the foundation of an options course or a way to connect with a specific child. The possibilities they offer are limitless.
Presenting can be intimidating — standing in front of peers can feel daunting. But your expertise is varied, and even the most seasoned teacher may not have explored a particular idea or approach. The more local teachers who present, the more high-value, subject-specific sessions we will see.
Please consider sharing your expertise and encourage your peers to do the same. ❚
Michael Bayer has been teaching high school math and physics in Alberta for 15 years and currently teaches in Stettler. He is a strong believer in collaboration and sharing resources.
Math and Physics teacher
