Fall Learning Conference Feedback

"The closing session was poorly presented and simply changed the language and how ideas are merged, from work we are already doing and have been doing in the division. It was the worst PD session I have attended at FSD. It is unreasonable to put 3 different concepts into one day and think we would be able to walk away with things to implement on Monday, especially with all of the added responsibilities we have with respect to COVID. To sit and listen for almost the entire day is poor teaching."

What they said - Couldn't agree more with this take!

Garfield's presentation is becoming repetitive, and there were still some tidbits I was able to take from it. I would have preferred having time to implement those tidbits and work through them with school based colleagues than going into the next session. The closing session was poorly presented and simply changed the language and how ideas are merged, from work we are already doing and have been doing in the division. It was the worst PD session I have attended at FSD. It is unreasonable to put 3 different concepts into one day and think we would be able to walk away with things to implement on Monday, especially with all of the added responsibilities we have with respect to COVID. To sit and listen for almost the entire day is poor teaching.

I liked participating in the Learning Conference on Thursday and then consolidating the learning with our teachers on Friday.

We appreciated having some ideas for professional learning for the Friday sessions

We felt as thought the structure of the conference lent itself to shared leadership in our building because staff members shared ideas and insights from their own sessions with the larger group

This was the third time I have seen Garfield Gini-Newman speak, and while he is a dynamic, engaging and enjoyable presenter, I do not think that many "new" ideas were shared during the session that we had not already heard before. I found the entire day to be too much time on screens. We would not ask our students to spend multiple hours in Zoom sessions each day. While I understand the limitations placed on us due to Covid-19, and appreciate the challenges that having such a large group creates, surely there is an opportunity for some variety to be incorporated during the day (i.e. an opening keynote on Zoom, then breakout time with school-based staff or time to work individually on concepts from the keynote). It was difficult to remain engaged in front of a screen for essentially an entire day. As others have commented, I also found it surprising and a bit insulting that this year's focus continues to remain on traditional division-wide PD when there are so many additional challenges and burdens on teachers as we continue to navigate our roles during the pandemic. As all our schools have individual challenges and issues to work through at this time, I feel our learning and development time would have been better served working with our school-based teams. I ended the day feeling "too full" of new information at an already challenging and professionally taxing time, which I don't think was the intention of the sessions. Personally, I feel like the "big" PD can (and should) wait until we are in a state where we are ready to learn in this way again. I think that at this time, most staff are not ready for "more" - what is really needed is time to focus on our immediate needs. It is more important for FSD staff learning at this time to reflect the current situation in our schools (rather than what we envision as an ideal learning environment or ideal learning design), and to support the physical, mental, social and emotional health of school staff.

I enjoyed the format of the conference. Some of the LCF had the day off so they can stay home to learn while most of us went into our schools to focus on the new system called OPAC. I really enjoyed having time together with the LCF to understand what our year would look like due to the changes of COVID. We seem to have a lot still going on in our spaces which is so exciting for the students and their futures. We had 1 day of Learning Conference which was plenty of enough time.

I appreciated the opportunity to spend time with our staff during the opening and closing keynote. I did not find the closing engaging or helpful. My choice session was wonderful. Thank you for continuing to ensure that we receive excellent opportunities for growth.

It was great!!

There are so many specialist subjects that there needs to be something directed toward those subjects. Felt that there was very little application or new knowledge for fine arts and cts teachers. Additionally, the closing keynote was so unenjoyable and bland that it was almost insulting to sit through.

Nothing new was offered and the afternoon keynote was without doubt the least engaging session I have ever seen!!

In the quarter system, in an already shortened timeframe, after a major disruption to learning last year, the loss of time with my class further disadvantages students who are already worried about getting through the learning prior to their diploma exams.

While I don't think anything new was presented in the keynotes, it was really nice having it on zoom because when I heard something that struck me, I would turn to a colleague and quickly dissect how that worked in our context. After we chatted briefly I would return my attention to the speaker, without worrying about distracting everyone around us or being the annoying person talking in the crowd.

The morning/afternoon session likely just depended on what you were doing and how engaged the presenter was with you. I got the opportunity to meet some new friends and work on some ideas in the background as I listened to speakers and break out rooms. Some colleagues had self guided video sessions that I don't see as very valuable.

Garfield is a good speaker and has good resources, but we have seen this presentation or similar many times. The organization for the breakout rooms did not make sense. We were put into subject groups with teachers from other schools, but all the teachers from the same school were in the same room together. The meant that in one room there were multiple conversations going on at the same time and teachers from the same room speaking to each other over Zoom. This would have run much more smoothly if we had been at home.

The morning session offered by Garfield Gini-Newman was engaging and allowed me to reframe various learning plans and models in my classroom. The remainder of the day was not useful to me. I would have truly preferred just the morning session, time to work on that learning with my colleagues and perhaps be asked to submit my work around Garfield's topics for the day. I found the breakout session to be very content heavy without any application into my classroom, which was disappointing. I found the closing keynote presented a third major concept for the day, which was way too much for me and I didn't take away any new information, nor was it engaging. I felt as though the majority of the day was not useful, when I really wanted to work on the morning learning and my own personal tasks as a teacher. I found it really surprising and a bit insulting that given all the new procedures and routines that are in place within the schools, division placed such a big focus on this type of traditional PD, when likely most teachers feel they really have other priorities right now to work through with colleagues. It appeared as though you wanted us to focus on three big concepts, rather than plan for high level implementation of one concept (mixed messages about what you want and expect from us as a staff). I hope the remaining PD allows us more opportunity to seek out personal plans with some format for accountability or idea sharing - and allows us more time to focus on our own health, relationships, and connectivity as a school staff, given the many new structures that create distance between us. I feel this format will allow us to flourish as a staff, so that we may lead students to realize the best selves as people and as learners.

I think the Opening and Closing keynotes are an excellent way to have staff meet and listen together. In this Zoom world, having teachers on their individual computers can add to the isolation, so being together in one room hearing the same message was very important.

I enjoyed the breakout sessions and the learning for the Lead teams. Sometimes further breaking out into chat rooms/groups can be awkward over a computer, and so I prefer having the lead instructor guide the conversation and share the pertinent information.

I loved the wellness lunch time choices.

I appreciated the length of each session and breaks; perfect timing.

There was good take away information in the morning with Garfield, however, it didn't seem to flow with the afternoon presentation by his wife.

The ability to have a day of system, aligned learning, along with a day of school based learning, later in the month when we have gotten to know our students, was a great way to ensure everyone's minds were ready for the rich learning.

I did appreciate having this opportunity early in the school year so that I could begin to implement the information and ideas that I got from the conference.

allow specialist groups have their own sessions, band etc. These sessions are primarily for core subjects.

This is the fourth time I've heard Garfield Gini-Neuman deliver the exact same slide show. It's good stuff, but we need some new ideas.