Pearson Grading Conference Mid Day 1 Review
Interesting conversations taking place at the Portland Marriot Hotel in downtown. Pearson a major text-booking company is publishing a conference on standards based grading or proficiency based learning. They brought in the big names including Ken O'Connor and Myron Deuck. They sold out and opened more seats for those wait listed.
So...Presenter number 1 excellent. Spoke of common stumbles perhaps the most interesting was her link to her work as a professor. Note: To no surprise are we grading in K-12 abstractly different than college professors. So as she is preaching a new grading system she herself is not using it with the top level of students. This did not cause disheartening thoughts at all; however, because she openly discussed her flaws in the transitions. I will include more notes on this presentation later.
Presenter number 2 - Currently sitting in. At this point her thunder was stolen. She was presenting the exact same slides as presenter 1. Ouch it is amazing to sit in two different presentations within a few hours showing the same material. Is it the presenters fault? No, it would be Pearson's.
Pearson should do a better job researching who is presenting what; while many of the session ideas are similar the speakers should be distinguished enough to provide different content especially considering the price tag per person.
Lastly, as noted in previous blog posts, is the information presented at the conference so new and updated that educators will gain? No, it is the conversations that are started, the interactions with individuals, and the opening of the minds of those who I am now saying suffer from "the old man syndrome."
Definition: "Old Man Syndrome" - One who is forced or chooses to attend conferences/learning's on new topics in education, but will not open their mind to see the ideas instead they come up with all the reasons why it is bad or will not work etc etc.
* More to come later; hoping to see one of the "big namers" later this afternoon.
So...Presenter number 1 excellent. Spoke of common stumbles perhaps the most interesting was her link to her work as a professor. Note: To no surprise are we grading in K-12 abstractly different than college professors. So as she is preaching a new grading system she herself is not using it with the top level of students. This did not cause disheartening thoughts at all; however, because she openly discussed her flaws in the transitions. I will include more notes on this presentation later.
Presenter number 2 - Currently sitting in. At this point her thunder was stolen. She was presenting the exact same slides as presenter 1. Ouch it is amazing to sit in two different presentations within a few hours showing the same material. Is it the presenters fault? No, it would be Pearson's.
Pearson should do a better job researching who is presenting what; while many of the session ideas are similar the speakers should be distinguished enough to provide different content especially considering the price tag per person.
Lastly, as noted in previous blog posts, is the information presented at the conference so new and updated that educators will gain? No, it is the conversations that are started, the interactions with individuals, and the opening of the minds of those who I am now saying suffer from "the old man syndrome."
Definition: "Old Man Syndrome" - One who is forced or chooses to attend conferences/learning's on new topics in education, but will not open their mind to see the ideas instead they come up with all the reasons why it is bad or will not work etc etc.
* More to come later; hoping to see one of the "big namers" later this afternoon.
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