BYTE 2013

This was my first year attending BYTE (Building Your Teaching Experience) which was held in Neepawa (my home town) this year. What a great day full of amazing information and networking! The main problem I had with the conference was narrowing my sessions down to four. . . so many knowledgeable presenters to choose from!
The first session that I attended was Safe and Caring Schools in Cyber Times: Making Connections and Building Community with Kate Roberts. Kate's presentation focused around how we need to make school an environment that is safe for all students. She talked about how educators need to look at technology in regards to the doors that it opens and the connections that are made instead of focusing on the negatives. Kate also touched on the importance of the community being involved in protecting students. She shared some different programs such as: Sources of Strength, Roots of Empathy, Reclaiming Youth International and Responsive Classroom that are being used to develop healthy connections between kids and the community. This was a very informative session and focused around how we need to teach kids, not programs. By getting to know our students and connecting with them, the students will feel safer in their school environment. The feeling of safety will also help students to feel comfortable to come to their teacher if they are feeling unsafe in any situation.
The second morning session was They All Have Computers, Now What? Teaching in a BYOD Classroom with Roy Norris. This presentation was excellent! Roy is one of the initial teachers at Dakota Collegiate in Winnipeg that fully integrated BYOD in his classroom. Roy talked about how the students in his classroom are more engaged and involved because they are learning through their "normal", using their own devices. In Roy's classroom, BYOD actually means bring your own computer. Although he does not discourage other devices, he requires that each student have their own laptop so that they have a device that they can use to create with. Roy also talked about the different policies, successes and challenges that Dakota has seen since implementing BYOD. It was exciting to learn about a school that has been able to successfully implement BYOD!
The third session (after an amazing lunch - thanks BYTE!) was Edmodo in a Multiaged Classroom with Barry Waldner. This session was good for me in the sense that I have never done much with Edmodo. That being said, I don't think that it is a program that I would enjoy using. After seeing Blackboard and using Moodle, I think I like these programs and their options more than I enjoy Edmodo. One thing that I do like with Edmodo is the aspect that parents can be linked in and see the progress that their children are making. Even though I am not sold on this program, I enjoyed being at this presentation and having a chance to be exposed to it from a different aspects of it from a different point of view.
The fourth session of the day was 21st Century Learners by Sophia Palahicky. I was excited to learn from Sophia again as we had had her the day before in our I4Ed class. The format for this presentation was more of a discussion than a presentation which I really enjoyed. Sophia had a lot of great leading questions that really got everyone talking and sharing ideas on the 21st century learner. I really appreciated the opportunity to listen to the views of different teachers that are in different levels of education within Manitoba. As a pre-service teacher, the opportunity to gain knowledge from those in the field is really important to me and this session provided that opportunity. The ideas that were shared were meant to make us think deeper and reflect on what is important to us as teachers and how we want to approach educating the 21st century learner.
Overall this conference was amazing! I can not wait to go back next year and continue to learn and network with some amazing educators and presenters. I would highly recommend BYTE to anyone in the education field, you will not be disappointed!