On last week's episode of Plai Around and Find Out, I talked about my excitement for this weekend's AMLE (Association of Middle Level Educators) conference in Nashville. Not only was it my first conference of the 2024-2025 school year, the first conference focused on middle school of my career, but it was also my first opportunity to present live and in the flesh to a national audience (excluding the debate topic selection meeting). The thought of learning from passionate professionals, with a variety of experiences, is always exciting to me. However, the thought of interactions with people and large crowds is terrifying to me (because of my general anxiety and overstimulation from loud atmospheres). So, the prime challenge was how do I maximize my experience, without letting mental health issues get in the way! For the most part, mission accomplished!
There are several reasons why I knew I wanted to attend the conference, but the first big draw to me was being able to see Katie Powell in action. Last year, I was fortunate enough to read both Boredom Busters and Frustration Busters. I even discussed how much I loved the former, and the impact the boredom busters had in my classroom on episode 2 of the podcast. Her books have had a similar impact on how I think about education in the same vein as the Like a Pirate series or anything Matt Miller has ever written. In fact, the advice Katie provides in her book is what got me interested in submitting a presentation idea, because "the worst they can say is no." There will be a future blog post dedicated to both of her sessions I attended.
The second reason I wanted to attend, was to brush up on pedagogy 101. It's been a long time since I was in my pre-service education program. While I have read many books and articles helping me re-frame my brain by thinking about middle grade students, I both wanted and needed some PD driven towards how to be the most effective middle school teacher I can be! Ya'll will be proud of me. For all of the AMAZING technology sessions which were offered, I attended 0 (aside from a session which focused on how to approach technology using appropriate pedagogical frames). Every. Single. Session. I attended focused on active learning strategies, differentiation, accessibility, and the developing adolescent brain. Basically, my experience can be summarized in this gif:
That's right, like drinking water from a fire hose. I loved every second of it. I'm well hydrated and ready for more!
The final reason I was drawn to attend (anxiety be damned), was to meet and connect with other educators. I was excited to know that a few folks I already knew from online PD would be there (shoutout to Megan and Cathy), but I knew I wanted to add some non-tech-oriented middle school folks to my PLN. While conversations and small talk are difficult to me, I did find some moments to meet some interesting folks. One of the things which helped me was the conference app, Whova, where I could engage with discussions with anyone while embracing my digital extroverted personality. The other thing that "helped" was screwing up in a big way and made myself noticeable:
I screwed up and won a round of Middle School trivia. Which was nice for my competitive side, but terrifying because I had to go up on stage in front of EVERYONE to claim my prize. But I got to meet Katie who was the emcee, and it was nice to meet one of my edu-idols, she even said hi each time we saw me, and that was a WILD thing to know given that she is one of the ORGANIZERS of the MASSIVE conference. But, this also helped show that my online presenting has helped build some recognition with folks, because I had several people come say hi because they attended some of the online PD I'd done with Edpuzzle, School AI, Wakelet, and others. So, it was nice to see that I've built some name recognition with others.
Throughout the rest of the day, I'm going to reflect on the rest of my experience with individual presentation sessions and other thoughts from the conference. Needless to say, I loved every second of it. Not only do I want to come back next year, but I'm thinking about potential presentation options for #AMLE25 but also how I can energize myself and prepare for future conferences. If you are a middle-level educator, and have never been, find a way to beg, borrow, or steal (does remix work in this context) to #AMLE25 in Indianapolis next year, you will not regret it!
Thank you AMLE for the great time!
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