#edchatnz Conference

Last week I was lucky enough to be invited to the #edchatnz conference at Hobsonville Point Senior School. Myself, Renee Hogg and Sonya Van Schaijik represented Newmarket School.

When Renee and I arrived at HPSS and were immediately stunned by the sea of enthusiastic teachers that greeted us. If I'm being honest, we really had no idea what to expect. Sonya (@vanshaijik) had played a big part in the organisation of the conference and was adamant that we would find it beneficial. Both Renee and I had seen a handful of the #edchatnz conversations via twitter but not enough to really know what we were getting ourselves in to. We picked up our wonderful personalised lanyards and set off to the opening session.

After an inspiring opening talk by @missdtheteacher - the lone nut and reason we were there, where we were given an overall view of what this was all about - we knew we were in for an eye opening 2 days.

First Session: we decided to do a tour of Hobsonville Point Primary (@hobpointprimary) to see a modern learning environment in action. For Renee and I, this was our first time seeing a school like this. Though we loved the school set up, we had a lot of questions about how we could transfer our new knowledge to Newmarket School.



Morning Tea: I think both Renee and I can agree that it was the best chocolate cake we've ever eaten.

Second session: With our bellies full, and as though perfectly planned, the session we chose to attend next was a group of students from HPPS explaining how their self monitor and plan their own days. They were from year 2 to year 8, each student discussed they process they go through each day. They also talked about how the teacher monitors them and referenced specific examples of project based learning they had undertaken. Overall, a large number of our queries were answered just by listening to these students speak.

Lunch: Another winner with the food! Thanks #edchatnz caterers :)

For our final session we went to the eye-opening political debate between National, Labour and the Greens, brilliantly moderated by @claireamosnz. The focus of course bring their views on current and future education policies.

With our brains full we decided to call it a day.

Saturday:
We arrived bright and early on Saturday morning and made our way to our first session: Furware. As Newmarket School is in the process of planning and building new learning areas in the school, we were curious to see and hear about potential furniture choices and how important it actually was to improve learning and productivity.

We then saw @chasingalyx - This session was great, as it was from the perspective of a beginner teacher. Both Renee and I are early in our careers so we were able to relate to the challenges Alyx has had to overcome. Her simple yet interesting approach to how teaching should be transparent was highly beneficial.

After yet another wonderful morning tea, we headed towards @Geomouldey's presentation about creativity in the classroom: and what can I say! Yet another valuable discussion about how to stimulate and inspire students to be creative risk takers.

Overall - we arrived at the conference having no idea what to expect, and left with our minds exploding: so full of ideas to take back to our classrooms and schools, changes to make in our own practice and a clear vision of our way forward. A massive thank you to Renee - @MissRHogg for being great company, @vanshaijik for the push in the right direction, @newmarketschool for the opportunity, @HPSSchool for hosting and all who were involved in the preparation of such a great conference. Awesome!