This past weekend, I attended the VCTM Academy at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. I was surprised that there were not more sessions dealing with technology. I was surprised that the overarching ideas of the sessions did not have more to do with technology. The sessions dealt with important topics but were basic topics. I guess each session could have included its own technology portion.

            I attended Dr. Mason’s session on Geometry in a Collaborative Setting in Middle Schools. I had already went over many of the geometry ideas with Dr. Mason in the past, but it was interesting to have the collaborative settings mixed in as well. This session mixed in some technology when talking about different disabilities and ways to help students. One technology that was shown in the session was virtual manipulatives. Also many other hands on manipulatives and ways to use them effectively in the classroom were shown.

            This “Academy” or conference helped to show me that professional development sessions are not as bad as some teachers make them seem. I am sure some opportunities for professional development are better than others but I enjoyed attending the conference. Dr. Mason’s session had many things that could be applied straight to the classroom without a lot of extra work on the teacher’s part. I believe it is important that conferences such as these provide lessons and activities that teachers see as applicable to take back to the classroom. Dr. Mason also provided a cd of the handouts so that not only did one have the paper copy but also an electronic version that would be easy to change and redesign as needed. I think that having something to take back to the classroom is important to teachers when they attend conferences. Conferences such as these can really help a teacher look at something in a different way and find a new approach to teaching an old subject.