I have always been very curious about this trendy teacher conference that I have seen popping up in my timeline!
I have seen vlogs of teachers attending them and it seemed like such a fresh and fun take on professional development. I have seen all kinds of teachers attending these conferences, but not too many special area teachers, like music teachers. I wasn’t sure if it would be worth it for us.
When I saw that they were offering a virtual option this summer, I knew it was the perfect time to check it out! With the reduced price point and no travel needed it was a great way to see what it is all about without spending an arm and a leg!
Two days and 18 presentations later I am ready to tell you what I thought!
Pros of the Conference
Take it at your own pace
Conferences are exhausting! Information overload coupled with networking is the perfect combination for a very tired teacher.
The option of being able to fully take in the information at your own pace is a game changer.
It pumped me up!
Day 1
The first day was all about how to take care of yourself and keeping your health and wellness at the forefront so that you can be the best educator you can be! This is something I have noticed has become more and more important to avoid teacher burnout and I LOVE that I got so many tools and tricks to help!
Day 2
The second day was focused more on student engagement. I got so many ideas of how to take my lessons to the next level. We already have so much engagement built into our subject area but you can always do more! My creative juices started flowing and I wrote down new ideas all day!
Variety and Broad Topics
Most of the topics presented on could apply to ANY teacher! When I go to a conference I want to walk out with lessons and ideas I can apply to my classroom right away. These sessions avoided the fluff!
Digital Swag
What does that even mean?! Let me tell you, when I saw I was going to get some “digital swag” I was like okay…what is that? I was pleasantly surprised to find so many cool digital bonuses!
- Digital Wallpapers
- Phone Backgrounds
- Digital Stickers
- Affirmation Postcards to send students
- A DIGITAL PLANNER!
Cons of the Conference
Skipped a Session or Two
There were about two sessions that just didn’t apply. But the beauty of a virtual conference is you can skip right over to something else!
No Acknowledgement of Special Area Teachers
For the most part the presenters were talking to gen ed teachers. They gave a lot of examples directly for ELA, reading, history, and science, but that’s about it. Not the biggest deal in the world, but it would be nice to have a presenter give an example that would work directly in a special areas classroom every once in a while.
In person vs. Online?
I do think the King’s really tried to design a conference that could be valuable to any teacher! I wonder how different their online conference is from in person ones. If you are considering going to a conference in the future, I would thoroughly check the sessions offered to get an idea of if it would be worth it for you.
So is it worth it?
Absolutely!
I had a great experience learning from amazing educators. If they offer another virtual conference I could not recommend it enough!
Want to see more of my experience?
I vlogged my two day virtual journey over on my YouTube channel!
