Recap: FallCUE 2019
Friday
FallCUE was in the plans since June when I met my tribe at Rockstar Big Bear after an evening of karaoke in a dive bar. Amy, Angela, Kim, and I decided that we’d get a house together in Sac; several tears were shed that MaryAlison wouldn’t be able to join us. Surprise, surprise upon arrival at ONT that we found other local affiliate members ready to hop on the same flight to Sac. It was most definitely a #CUEmeetup happening right there with IACUE, CoachCUE, OCCUE and SGVCUE being represented. We got to catch up and share all the updates in our professional lives. This weekend was starting off to be magical already!
Flying out of LAX, Angela’s pilot was super fast and she got in almost the same time as we did. We picked up the rental car and vroom vroom, we were off to our first stop in Sac: Target! What teacher conference doesn’t start with some supply purchases at a local Target or Dollar Tree? Ha. Playdough? Check. Snacks? Check. Special beverages? Check. Check. Check! Since we were in Sacramento, it was absolutely necessary that we stop by Gunther’s for some homemade ice cream. We beat the crowd and sat outside to enjoy our dessert as we watched folks line up.
Next, we checked into our AirBnB, which had all the amenities, even a pool! It was waaaay too cold to jump in. We claimed our rooms, resolved the WiFi issues and the three of us were on our laptops finalizing our presentations and/or planning our day. Dinner was lovely at a local joint and it was back to the airport to pick up Amy. What a bombshell of energy! Woop!! Back at the AirBnB, I practiced my Boom and got feedback, because obviously, Kim is queen of #IGiveFeedback. They helped me work out some kinks. I worked out some wording/ideas/connection issues. Work work work, then off to bed so that we would have a good night’s rest for an early 7:30 departure to get to Cordova HS!
Saturday
Thank you Starbucks for powering teachers around the world. Honestly though, we were amped anyway. At check-in in the gym, we saw a bunch of familiar faces and thus began the selfies and connecting with our PLN IRL. A pit stop by the CUE store to pick up new gear and quick walk through to check out the vendors was in the works as well. Oh, I found Steve, my ultimate presentation partner in crime for this conference. When it was time, Steve, Kim, and I slowly made our way to the Performing Arts Center to hear Catlin Tucker’s keynote. Even in the PAC, we stopped randomly to say hello and give hugs to educators we only see at conferences.
Catlin Tucker’s Keynote: Finding Balance
Catlin started with a list of duties that teacher generally do; a quick, non-exhaustive list. Then she categorized it by things that are done between 8am and 3pm (contract hours) and those that are done afterward. It was evident right away that the 4pm list was much longer. No wonder teachers are overworked and burned out. So, how we create more balance in our career? She listed 4 shifts that needed to happen:
Teach students to track, monitor, reflect, and communicate with their parents about their progress
Provide timely, actionable feedback to students during class time
Make time to grade final products with students sitting next to you
Partner with students and prioritize their agency
Initially, this sounded almost impossible. She made a good point though: why are we working harder than our students for their success? Our students need to learn to advocate, communicate and understand the work process. Furthermore, the preparation and transition of this in our classroom may require initial and time dedication, but it will save time and make our after hours lives so much better in the long run. A more detailed recap of her keynote will be written at some point. Nevertheless, her book with this method can be purchased! You can also listen to her keynote here.
Sessions
After the keynote and multiple minds blown, Steve and I finalized a few details of our presentations together. Did I mention how lovely it is to work with Steve? He’s been a colleague and a true joy with whom I can often share ideas when bridging research with practice. We were presenting two sessions together. The first, Creativity-Powered Learning was a concept that he had come up with and had presented as a poster session at ISTE. The model guides teachers to step toward small bits of discomfort to lead a classroom that encourages students to be creative, but starting first with the teacher.
We were able to attend Ben and his team of awesome teachers’ session on tips and tricks with Chrome and GSuite. Oh, the suite, suite life and all of its hacks!! I don’t know why I never knew that I could pin a tab. Not to mention, the use of Sir Links-a-Lot to do all sorts of necessary work w links. Slides to his session can be found here. After Ben’s session, we got carried away chatting w a few people before grabbing our lunch and setting up for our presentation. Thank you to the Cordova HS students for creating all of our lunches and having a vegan option with their homemade hummus. Anyway, Danny saved the day when our internet wasn’t working and we couldn’t project. Hans and Tom came to our session! I like to think that we had a really successful session and our attendees were engaged.
After our session, I practiced my 3 min mic-drop message with Steve to get his feedback. I was nervous, but I felt ready to share my thoughts on including more opportunities for failure in the classroom. I went to the PAC early and caught the last of Kid Booms while finalizing #CUEHike plans with Hans.
CUE BOOM
Woah. What an experience. The team of 10 boomers under the lead of Amanda and Abby. Each of us had a great message to share. Backstage, we were all nervous, but it was time to get started. We got in order - alphabet name order, and patiently - excitedly - listened to each other. As each boomer finished, they had a row of us giving hugs and high-fives. I was last to go on stage and was pumped to share my message on failure. There was some laughter, agreement, and BOOM! Afterward, some people asked how we had this wonderful thread and connectedness in our overall message. The crazy part is, that wasn’t planned. We just flowed together. A new tribe was formed through this shared experience and we are now voxing. Our Booms are available here.
At the end of the day, we all headed over to hang out at a local brew pub to mix and mingle with everyone. I have so much love for this group of educators.
Sunday
#CUEHike was in order at 5:30. Hans and I were the two crazy souls who showed up. We ran along the river at the park beside Cordova HS. He and I got to catch up on all the professional and home life events. By the time I got back to the AirBnB, the ladies were awake and getting ready for a second amazing day. But first, COFFEE and breakfast. Thank you, Starbucks, once again. People must’ve been out late, because campus was a little quieter.
A sketchnote garden was made available for all of us. I got to meet and listen to the guru, Silvia Duckworth, talk about the items we could draw. I shared my whiteboard markers with other participants and Kim, Amy, and I got to work on our creation. Then we walked around to see others’ representations of themselves via a sketch. This is quite the powerful and reflective process. Check out sketchnoting!
Ed Campos’ Keynote: Family Time
Hot damn. Ed’s message of multiple representations was orange sauce hot. He talked about math anxiety and how we’ve been approaching math all wrong, asking for only one answer. What happens if we let our students think about the process? Let them create understanding to the problem so that they can find the solution that makes the most amount of sense? He introduced us to the fearless female mathematicians, those who influenced him in his practice. He shared his journey of using a program as a crutch, when he really needed to have strong pedagogy and love. Most importantly, he shared his love of CUE and his CUE family, his tribe, because this was the group of people who helped him become a better, more effective teacher. His keynote was ridiculously amazing. If you have the time, watch it here. The best part? The song and rapping.
Sessions
Steve and I headed over to the gym and represented for the Higher Education Learning Network. We spoke to a few people about our purpose in CUE - bridging the research and practice for teachers, helping teacher preparation programs prepare teachers, and so much more. We mostly got to hangout and bounce ideas off each other for anything and everything.
After that, we grabbed some lunch and set up for our second presentation, Failing into Success. Steve and I have been working on this for several months since writing our proposal. It’s been a while since I presented on research and realized midway that I had to do a lot of talking and the attendees were just sitting. There was interaction, thanks to Nearpod, but it wasn’t near my expectation. Normally, I don’t do as much talking. We’ll hopefully find a way to make the session more interactive. I got some feedback to know that it was an informative and affirming session on the teacher’s practices. Yay, that’s good news.
After our session, we went over to Kim’s and Carrie’s where we got to have a meta experience of WICOR in AVID. This was a really neat learning experience as I’ve never experienced AVID’s processes before. Not to mention, I got to see Peardeck functions in action. So. Totally. Awesome. I loved loved loved the meta experience to learn about the practices while doing the practices. Hoorah!
The Delay
Toward the end of our session with Kim, I received the message that our 7:20 had been delayed to 9:40. WAH! We hung out on campus for a while, chatting away with everyone, catching up, etc. Anyway, we were troopers and got to the airport as we had planned. Our buddies were there, too, already chillin’ at Vino Volo for a serious CUE Meetup. There were about 10 of us who were all on the same delayed flight. Well, our flight got delayed to 11:40 at some point. We lined up to see if we could switch to the 9:45 flight and were put on the waiting list. Hoorah waiting lists by the magical numbers of the Southwest system. Meanwhile, some buddies got to hop on their flights that went to Long Beach, SNA, or LAX. Anyway, this was some good times with incredibly hilarious stories shared. I was lucky and got to go on the 9:45 flight to get home around midnight. Kim wasn’t so fortunate and got home around 1:30.
FallCUE is seriously one of my favorite conferences of all the conferences I attend. Thank you so much for this tribe and family. I have so much love for y’all.