One upside of COVID is that many workshops that were once too expensive to travel to are now VIRTUAL! I completed two this summer and will share my thoughts on both here. This page will be updated occasionally as I attend more.
Keeping the Wonder Workshop
Cost: $132
Grade/Content: Secondary ELA
Delivery: Asynchronous
Contact Hours: 45 (15 per season, 3 seasons currently hosted)
Certificate: Yes, one for each season
Freebies: TONS of digital files and resources.
Great: Keeping the Wonder was formed by four secondary English teachers who are pretty popular on instagram and teachers pay teachers. I use @WriteOnWithMissG ‘s resources a lot, especially last year when I was teaching American Lit for the first time.
They also invite guest speakers for the mini sessions as well, which is how I first hear about the workshop going virtual– my favorite teacher-author, Stacey Lloyd was a guest speaker in season two and three and shared the information on her instagram.
This workshop is entirely asynchronous, meaning you will get a similar experience now as anyone who has taken it in the last few months. It is divided into three “seasons,” with each season having about 15 hours of content. The great thing is that they are planning more seasons in the future, and if you sign up now, you’ll get lifetime access to the current three seasons and all future seasons, so this is a really great value.
The other thing I love about this workshop is that it is specifically tailored to secondary English teachers. Now, a lot of teachers could find this information helpful, but it is rare to find ALL the information pertinent and helpful in your classroom, and this is the case for me here. It took me much longer to work through the content and play with my new skills in this workshop than it did for the TYHO Conference (see below).
No-so-great: Not much! Everything about this workshop is pretty cool, and the styles are very well curated. The materials they provide are both useful and visually appealing, which is important for me. The only feedback I have is that:
1) the sound mixing is a little off at times– the presenters have clearly been told to provide intro music with a little elevator speech of what they will be sharing with you, and they don’t seem to know how to edit the volume level on the music to come down a little to let the voices be clear. I found myself adjusting the volume often while going through the sessions.
2) The free digital materials are on each individual speaker page and have to be downloaded individually. I wish there was a “print all” option so that I could print all the materials at work and toss them in a binder to work through as I progress through the seasons. I did reach out to Ashley (Building Book Love, the main organizer), and she said it was just logistically difficult since each presenter uploads their own materials. I am hoping at some point they will offer a professionally printed workbook option that you can pay extra for while registering. This would need to be updated with each new season, though, so I can see why that would be cumbersome.
Main takeaways:
Yes, if you’re a secondary English teacher, you should buy this content! Talking with your department chair could help you find the funds to not have to pay for this out of pocket. It might be fun to register individually, but watch some of the sessions as a department and discuss applications in your own school. I am VERY happy with this investment!
Teach Your Heart Out Virtual 2.0
Date: November 6-7
Cost: $97
Grade Content: ALL, but skewed towards Elementary
Delivery: Mostly live
Contact Hours: 15
Certificate: Yes, and optional graduate credit
Freebies: TYHO T-Shirt ($5.75 shipping), tons of digital files, some sponsored give aways.
I participated in TYHO’s inaugural virtual conference in July 2020 and had a really positive experience. I ended up traveling during the first whole day of the conference and could only watch small parts of it live. However, the parts that I did see live were fantastic with very few hiccups. The parts I couldn’t watch live were hosted on the site that evening, and will continue to be available until October.
Great: Teach Your Heart Out is sponsored by TheWrightStuffChics, a popular team of southern instagram teacher-influences. They have a full online store with lots of cute tees and other teacher accessories. The organization was started by sisters Tosha and Lisa Wright in 2016. Both women are absolute #powerfulblackwoman goals and have recently partnered with many of the presenters from TYHO to write The Anti-Racist Handbook for teachers. It’s a digital download, so you can buy it and read ASAP.
The workshop itself was high energy and fun. They had over 15,000 educators at the first workshop and gave away several prizes, including target and amazon gift cards, on both days. They also had some sponsored prizes such as lanyards and the OWL Cam for blended learning.
The general vibe of the workshop felt like it was skewed a little more towards younger grades, but as a secondary teacher I still found a lot of great resources I could use and presenters I found engaging.
The general set up was live key notes and panels, and then about 50 pre-recorded, watch-at-your-own pace breakout workshops that were 10-30 minutes each. I liked this format, and if I am able to participate in the November workshop, I will be sure to block out those days to fully immerse myself in the experience (and use my giant classroom TV).
Each mini-session had an option for the presenter to upload digital resources and notes.
Because this group of educators is exceptionally woke, there was some pushback from participants in the comments section during the diversity + inclusion panels, and I thought Jed, the host handled it pretty well.
No-so-great: One downside is that some of the key note speakers had different arrangements for licensing, so the Gerry Brooks keynote was only available for 72 hours, and another Keynote was only available live and during a single replay the following weekend. Lastly, because WrightStuffChics (TYHO’s sponsoring organization) is very southern, the conference was filmed in Atlanta and we did have the usual 9am EST Live start. 5am is a hard time to get up! The host, Jed Dearybury was very enthusiastic, though, so once I was up, I didn’t get sleepy.
Final Takeaways:
Yes, you should sign up for this conference if you’re free around the first weekend in November, want something encouraging, and are into creative ways of teaching, especially with tech. I expect the second round of virtual conference to be even smoother. You can register now for it. I am hoping to work with ASD to offer a 1-credit CEU class or 15-hour TISS credit for this workshop.
Complete list of sessions here.
HeyKenna 