California Educator

April 2016

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Good Teaching Conference South Members enjoy "awesome," productive sessions By FRANK WELLS CTA President Eric Heins with Moreno Valley Math League educators and students, who demonstrated Android app programming as part of the IFT Teacher Innovation Expo, a pre-GTC Friday session. The league was funded through a grant from CTA's Institute for Teaching. Lynette Bickham and Nicole Moynihan show the results of their "Cartesian diver " science experiment. Muroc Education Association member and high school English teacher Morgan Johnson. "I come from a small district where professional development opportunities are limited. My union shared this opportunity and here I am! It's been really great — I'm learning a lot." C T A ' S P O P U L A R Good Teaching Conference South drew nearly 1,600 edu- cators to Garden Grove in late February. Offering over 80 workshops, the three-day conference provided a unique opportunity for educators to share new ideas and learn best classroom practices. Highlights: • A popular presenter at the conference for nearly two decades, retired Montebello teacher George "Dr. Flubber" Lightholder demonstrated easy and exciting science experiments offering plenty of color, noise, and sometimes goo. Nicole Moynihan of Sulphur Springs District Teach- ers Association and Lynette Bickham of United Teachers Los Angeles, both elementary special education teachers, described the session as "Awesome!" and said they were taking home a lot that their students could use. • "Revision to the Rescue" was a new workshop targeting elementary and middle school students, emphasizing the role of revising (as opposed to editing) in developing good writing skills. Beaumont Teachers Associa- tion member and published novelist Betsy Newmeyer led participants through fun activities designed to help kids take a critical look at their own writing and that of others, and to come up with ways to make it even better. • Classroom management guru and author Rick Morris led packed ses- sions on "How to Create a Happy, Productive Classroom" in which he shared methods to move away from a purely "obedience-based" man- agement strategy (although he says commanding obedience is often necessary), to one that gives students more freedom in the classroom environment. Morris says his approach instills self-determination, con- ceptual thinking, creativity and productivity. Other sessions covered issues in the changing education landscape, such as Local Control and Accountability Plans, student discipline under AB 420, and the unfortunate but very real need for educators to be prepared in the event of a disaster or violent attack. Check out social media highlights from #CTAGTC: bit.ly/CTAGTC2016. 47 April 2016

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