Senior Conference '08

by Krystle Wiggins (senior)

I attended Senior Conference over the summer, and it was FANTASTIC! This was a weekend trip to Lenoir-Rhyne College in Hickory, NC. It was a great way to begin my senior year, and it really motivated me to begin my teaching career. We heard four different speakers, and they were all great in their own way. Brad Cohen spoke about his childhood and how he became a teacher with Tourette Syndrome, and how he “got to be the teacher that he never had.” Richard Schwartz is an attorney from Raleigh, who specializes in Education Law. This was helpful because he gave us insight into the challenges that we may face as classroom teachers. Then, we heard from Ron Clark!!! I was so excited, because he was a NC Teaching Fellow from ECU! He was named Disney’s American Teacher of the Year, and he was full of motivation. He told us all about his school, how he gets the students motivated to learn, and how important it is that we stay excited about learning no matter what. Lastly, we heard from Michael Geison, who is the 2008 National Teacher of the Year. He expressed the importance of teaching and learning through creativity, collegiality, community interests, and the individual. All of these speakers were inspirational and a great way to kick off the beginning of my senior experience.

Don’t worry, we didn’t sit and listen to speakers all weekend. We also socialized for the last time with all of the other Teaching Fellows in our class from across NC. This is what made this last conference bittersweet. Also, we participated in workshops of our choice. I went to one about dealing with difficult kids, what to do on the first day of school, and a massage therapy session. All of these were great and informative, but the massage session was very relaxing. I learned how to give head, hand, and foot massages, and we even practiced on each other. Very relaxing! Teaching Fellows has given me many great experiences, but I feel that this one really got me pumped up about graduating and getting into my own classroom.