I got this question from a group member:
…if I could go to just one of the conferences (NTPRS or iJFLT), which would you recommend? I think I can only manage one and I would be at a loss to choose the one that would be best for me….
David Young commented on what he sees as valuable in the iFLT conference. He knows what NTPRS did last summer with the paired presenters and he agreed that it works really well. I asked Diana Noonan how she might characterize iFLT and she immediately pointed to the fact that at iFLT real teachers are going to teach real kids.
She made the point that all teachers who come to DPS have reported that her Learning Labs, which are unique to DPS but should be done everywhere, where teachers see experienced CI teachers in their classrooms teaching their real classes, are the best, most effective and fastest way to learn the method.
The decision as to which conference to attend if a person can only attend one is therefore a weighty one. Here is the email I got back from Diana on this topic:
I can answer this simply. The one most powerful and valuable learning experience that DPS teachers tell me about, in terms of becoming and getting better at being a TCI teacher, has been the Learning Lab experience. Watching master teachers teach kids using these strategies by far outweighs all of the “talking to teachers about what works”.
Demos with adults are impressive, but how many teachers watching these demos and listening to the master teacher ‘talk about how to do this’ go back to their classrooms with real kids and find out that they can’t do what they saw demo’d in a class with adults? What I hear from teachers [who learned the method in a very short amount of time], for example, is that the Learning Labs helped them the most to be able to quickly use TCI in his classroom.
iFLT will provide the opportunity to watch experienced teachers with real kids.
I would say also….I don’t really know what NTPRS is doing. I do know that the ‘team approach’ is awesome and it looks as if they are once again possibly doing this. It is not new to those who have seen and heard most of the presenters, and it might be better for a true “newbie” at this method. But what makes iFLT appealing is that what we are doing is new and different and involves ….what I described above.