Step-Up Your Teaching Career by Attending Conferences

IMG_3565-croppedNovice teachers enter the education profession thinking they have learned everything they need to know in their university teacher-preparation program. After a few weeks on the job, however, they realize that this is NOT the case!

The best practices of educating students are constantly changing, and teachers need to stay connected with colleagues in order to keep up with the changing times. One of the best ways to do this is to attend state and national conferences. These conferences provide valuable information about brain research, instructional strategies, classroom management techniques, and the latest educational software and platforms to increase student engagement.

The people who could MOST benefit from these conferences – novice teachers – often do not attend because they are unsure of the process necessary to secure funding and substitute coverage to go! Veteran teachers often do not share the steps necessary to go to conferences because THEY want to attend! Most districts have only a specified amount of funds available for educational conferences.

On October 6th at 5pm Eastern Time, the edWeb New Teacher Help community will host a webinar called Expanding Your Knowledge by Attending State and National Conferences. In the session, Middle School administrator Shannon Holden will share the steps required to submit a successful conference request.

In addition to this timely information, Shannon will share strategies to get the most out of your conference, how to gather as much information as possible (even from sessions you are unable to attend in person), tricks to increase your chances of winning prizes from vendors at the conference, leveraging social media platforms to make new contacts with education experts, setting up a support system to keep you informed when new innovations are discovered, presenting your new knowledge to colleagues at home, accessing online conferences for free, and much more!

You will be so adept at getting the most out of state and national conferences, your district may start asking you to attend because they know they are getting the most results for their money! See you Tuesday, October 6th at 5pm Eastern Time!

Shannon HoldenThis post was written by Shannon Holden, middle school assistant principal. Shannon Holden has been a high school and middle school teacher and administrator, and a new teacher coach, in North Dakota, Texas, and Missouri for 20 years.