A perfect example of this philosophy lies within the session on oral histories. As I sat in the beautiful conference room in the Central Michigan University Education building, I could immediately feel the difference. Mary Cox, the presenter, wasn't going to step through dozens of PowerPoint slides. Rather, she found out more about the session participants, and we were as much of the presentation as she was. Finding out more about our writing project site, more about our classrooms, the student makeup, and geographic location, she was able to tailor-fit the experience.
After showing us how oral histories worked within the Rodchester area, she then highlighted parts of the project that directly connected to me, helping me frame how this could be adapted for my own community and learners. In fact, the session naturally became more of a workshop where all of the participants helped each individual participant make meaning from the presentation. It was collaboration, and it was good. In the end, Mary suggested several specific sites and founding sources that might work in the Holland area for Spanish speaking families, and even took my email to get me in contact with others she things might be able to support my initiatives.
In all, pretty much all sessions worked similarly to this. This simple, yet powerful model leaves me feeling differently than I do at the end of most conferences. I feel like I had time to process the information as I acquired it, and now I'm ready to answer the question, "Now what?" This structure is a perfect model of constructivism in professional development.
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