BETT 2013 and Continuing Professional Development
This weekend I fulfilled one of my new year resolutions: I went to a TeachMeet, but I didn't start small, oh no, I started at the national TeachMeet which 'sells' 300 tickets. As scary as this felt; throwing myself in with 299 very qualified teachers (I believe I was the only PGCE intern there) who have a huge interest in Continuing Professional Development (CPD), Twitter, Apple and Alcohol (hic), it was one of the most amazing things I've done in my short time as an (almost) teacher.
Arriving at 6 20pm, just 10 minutes before it was due to start, QR code ticket in hand and exhausted from a run of transport issues (bus late, train late, tube breaking down) the first thing that hit me was the sheer amount of people: 300 people never looked so big...I fairly quickly spotted Rachel (@rlj1981 - follow her on Twitter, she's awesome) due to her stunning red hair who gave me a whirlwind introductory tour of the awesome people she knew, and people who all embraced (most of them literally) with open arms.
Before long the presentations began: chosen by a random name generator on screen they were either 2 or 7 minute micro-presentations on tools and theories that people found helpful in their own teaching. The best thing about this was that these were all obviously people who had tried out their ideas in their own teaching; these were people who had been there, done it and got the t-shirt, and come out smiling. No far removed people trying to tell teachers how to do their jobs (I will mention no names), just professional people trying to help out their colleagues. A lot of focus was put on new technology and ways to bring it into the classroom and I gained a lot of helpful hints for my lessons like EdCanvas, Kodu and the humble post-it.
About 1 hour in the announcement of a free bar was made thanks to two very generous men (who's names, sadly, escape me) and I think after this the event turned much more into a social, not that this is a bad thing. Getting to socialise with other teachers outside the work environment was amazing and I learnt so much...before long it was back to hotel to sleep ready for Bett show the next day.
Bett show was very different to TeachMeet, predicatably, being a show for teachers, a huge number of household names had come to sell their wares and encourage teachers to teach to their specification, I spent a good 3 hours looking around, and could have easily spent more but by then I was exhausted and came away with a number of frreebies including Lego and a robot pencil sharpener.
The weekend was amazing and I would definitely recommend both TeachMeets and Bett to other interns looking to start their CPD early: it really never is too early to start
Arriving at 6 20pm, just 10 minutes before it was due to start, QR code ticket in hand and exhausted from a run of transport issues (bus late, train late, tube breaking down) the first thing that hit me was the sheer amount of people: 300 people never looked so big...I fairly quickly spotted Rachel (@rlj1981 - follow her on Twitter, she's awesome) due to her stunning red hair who gave me a whirlwind introductory tour of the awesome people she knew, and people who all embraced (most of them literally) with open arms.
Before long the presentations began: chosen by a random name generator on screen they were either 2 or 7 minute micro-presentations on tools and theories that people found helpful in their own teaching. The best thing about this was that these were all obviously people who had tried out their ideas in their own teaching; these were people who had been there, done it and got the t-shirt, and come out smiling. No far removed people trying to tell teachers how to do their jobs (I will mention no names), just professional people trying to help out their colleagues. A lot of focus was put on new technology and ways to bring it into the classroom and I gained a lot of helpful hints for my lessons like EdCanvas, Kodu and the humble post-it.
About 1 hour in the announcement of a free bar was made thanks to two very generous men (who's names, sadly, escape me) and I think after this the event turned much more into a social, not that this is a bad thing. Getting to socialise with other teachers outside the work environment was amazing and I learnt so much...before long it was back to hotel to sleep ready for Bett show the next day.
Bett show was very different to TeachMeet, predicatably, being a show for teachers, a huge number of household names had come to sell their wares and encourage teachers to teach to their specification, I spent a good 3 hours looking around, and could have easily spent more but by then I was exhausted and came away with a number of frreebies including Lego and a robot pencil sharpener.
The weekend was amazing and I would definitely recommend both TeachMeets and Bett to other interns looking to start their CPD early: it really never is too early to start
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