On Saturday, April 11, the Cotsen Foundation for the ART of TEACHING hosted more than 250 educators at our inaugural Spring conference. Guest speaker for the event was the highly regarded consultant and author on literacy development, Harvey “Smokey” Daniels. Daniels’ focus for the day was creating, sustaining, and renewing student-centered inquiries and discussions.
Jerry Harris, the foundation’s executive director, launched the conference with opening remarks. “Today is a day that has been designed specifically for you, the core of the Cotsen educators’ network,” stated Harris. “The collective talent, expertise and instructional artistry assembled in this room is a formidable force for teaching excellence, and we are pleased to support that force.”
The daylong conference included catered breakfast and lunch at the Hyatt Regency in Long Beach. However, for the dedicated Cotsen educators in attendance, the highlight of the event was undoubtedly Daniels’ dynamic presentation, which explored the powerful effects of inquiry and written conversations, strategies that tap into children’s natural curiosity and impact their learning in significant ways.
During the workshop, Daniels engaged the audience in mini inquiries on a variety of topics that participants selected themselves. As expected, the activity resulted in high level thinking and academic discussions, but interspersed throughout the session were laughs and camaraderie.
“Smokey Daniels reminded us of the importance of fostering our students’ curiosity,” reflected Melisa Lauer, a Cotsen alumnae from the Los Angeles Unified School District.
Lauer continued, “I walked away with a renewed drive to engage our students’ hearts and minds with inquiry. The first action my colleagues and I talked about is to simply listen more closely to our students’ questions about the world and be open to using their curiosities to drive our instruction.”
In summing up the conference, Harris remarked, “Today we witnessed the magic that happens when an artful teacher engages his students in powerful learning experiences. Smokey Daniel’s knowledge and skills mixed with the palpable enthusiasm and joy of learning of the teachers who attended resulted in a truly exceptional day.”
Following the conference, Sylvia Jimenez, a Cotsen alumnae from the Santa Monica-Malibu School District, noted, “I implemented written conversations right away. I found it to be a powerful strategy that allowed all of my students to participate in an academic discussion.
“I was delighted to discover that my students were adding on to ideas, agreeing, disagreeing and backing up their thoughts. I will definitely continue to utilize written conversations across the curriculum.”
While this is Cotsen’s first Spring conference, the foundation is no stranger to hosting large scale professional development events free of charge to its program participants. The foundation’s annual Fall conference typically draws more than 500 educators from Northern and Southern California, and attracts some of the field’s most sought after speakers and presenters. The foundation plans to host an early Spring conference annually to provide its hardworking network of teachers and administrators a midyear boost of professional learning and support.