2024 ICTE Fall Conference

The 2020s haven’t been easy for many educators. Having to guide students through staff shortages, rapid societal shifts, and a pandemic and its aftermath put a great strain on many teachers. Further, the news around education has so often been overwhelmingly negative, with each new news report making the current political disputes, increasing student mental health challenges, and funding issues feel intractable.
These struggles and issues are real, and yet lost against this backdrop is that the 2020s have also quietly offered more innovation and fresh solutions to old problems than ever before. Losing the face-to-face classroom for a while gave us a better sense for what matters, and recent years have seen a renaissance in our understanding of learning, the brain, and best practices. 
Lessons from the 2020s—led by full-time classroom teacher and author Matthew Johnson—looks to share what we’ve learned from this decade so far to take on the multitude of challenges we face in a better, more balanced, and, with some luck, a more joyful way. 

Gather with interest-based groups to discuss the chaos you're currently facing and process ways to move forward with hope and joy.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/16t1V0IHAoFO-N4L_Y3eRNSRV-Z3uhaDcTFU0MI8cn4I/edit#slide=id.g24c2ee36dc1_0_21

Parker Palmer said, “The place where paradoxes are held together is in the teacher’s heart, and our inability to hold them is less a failure of technique than a gap in our inner lives.” The last several school years have brought many paradoxes and challenges to the classroom–most from outside sources that feel out of our control. A lot of us feel stuck–and a bit defeated. However, to get unstuck, we may need to turn inward and figure out how to embrace the ambiguity present in a human, helping profession. In this session, I’ll share both conceptual understandings from my masters research on teacher burnout and concrete strategies for setting boundaries from my learned experience. You’ll walk away with knowledge, power, and routines to bring your whole, conflicted, valuable self to your students each day. 

Teaching has always demanded much from those who are committed to their students’ learning, success, and well-being; we do not, however, always take care of our own well-being when it comes to juggling the personal and professional demands on our time, attention, and energy. This session will focus on how to help you not just endure but enjoy your work, not just survive but thrive in your classroom and life outside of school. In this session, Jim Burke will share a range of resources and strategies from his latest book Teaching Better Day by Day: A Planner to Support Your Instruction, Well-Being, and Professional Learning. It is these resources and habits, developed over the course of many years, that enabled him to so enjoy his work in the classroom for thirty-five years and which he will share with you so that you can do the same. bit.ly/ICTEbewellhandouts bit.ly/ICTEteachwell