Off to WestCAST!
My bronchitis is almost all better, final projects are getting completed and it is time to head off to the annual WestCAST Conference! WestCAST is an annual teacher education conference hosted by various education faculties across Canada’s four western provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba). Last year’s conference was actually hosted at my university but I was unfortunately not a part of the faculty yet, darn! This year it is hosted by U of C in Calgary, only a short 10hour bus ride away 🙂
I am really looking forward to this conference because:
1 ) There are so many great sessions to attend. (I still haven’t been able to
decide on which ones I will be attending. Unfortunately there is no WBT
session)
2 ) I’ll be able to spend time with my friends from the faculty of education
before we leave to go student teaching. (We go straight to summer break
following our student teaching so I won’t see many people again until the
fall)
3 ) I’ll be able to visit my fiance’s aunt, uncle and cousins whom we are very
close with. His cousin will be turning 6 while we are there so we will be
able to attend his birthday party 🙂
What I am wondering in regards to sessions is this: Is it better to attend the sessions that I am really interested in that focus on my teachables or to attend sessions that are outside of my comfort level but will assist in broadening my knowledge base? I can’t decide!! Interested in viewing the conference schedule?
How many do you get to pick? I would do mostly sessions that will help you with what you are teaching now, but also a few that expand your knowledge. I wish I could go to a conference! I wanted to go to the LD Association of America conference, which is near where I live this year, but I would have had to take several days off student teaching and I couldn't work it out. 🙁
Depending on which ones you choose you can attend up to 16. The ones I chose to attend are longer workshop based ones so altogether I will be going to 7. I think I was able to pick a good mesh of ones that will assist me in my teachable areas and ones that will expand my knowledge base.
Does your program organize any conferences that you could attend during class time as opposed to missing student teaching?