Literature Festival

The literature festival was overall a valuable experience. I took with me important information that I will be able to utilize in my own classroom. I liked that there was a variety of sessions that we could choose to attend. Most of them were valuable learning experiences and offered great advice.
Janet Wong’s session was most enjoyable to me. She was by far, the most entertaining to listen to. It was a great way to start the festival. Not only was she entertaining, but she was also motivational and insightful. Because of her, I left the festival excited about reading and possibly writing poetry. I especially liked her poetry suitcase idea. I think that it is a great and easy way to implement poetry into the classroom that will also be fun and amusing for the children.
The session on classroom management was extremely insightful to me. This is one are that I am particularly nervous about for my own future classroom. Dr. Stocks was very knowledgeable and offered many great ideas for effectively managing a classroom. I feel better about teaching in the future and will most definitely be referring back to her ideas.
I also attended “Oral Histories in the Classroom.” This session was okay. They had a couple of good ideas that I might use in my classroom such as, using aerial image. I agree that this is a great way to get children excited about using maps. I feel like I may have benefited more from a different session.
Overall, the Literature Festival was a beneficial experience. It is neat that we had such well known authors take time from their lives to come to our university and share their ideas, experiences, and insights with us. I feel more confident about my future as a teacher. I feel like I have taken with me many great ideas and wonderful advice from very knowledgeable people.