CANTON -- The 25th Constructivist Design Conference, sponsored by St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, was held this week at St. Lawrence University. A local student Abbigale Nee, who will be a fifth grader in …
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CANTON -- The 25th Constructivist Design Conference, sponsored by St. Lawrence-Lewis BOCES, was held this week at St. Lawrence University.
A local student Abbigale Nee, who will be a fifth grader in the Canton Central School district this coming year, welcomed 120 local teachers and facilitators to the event on Monday.
Nee, whose mother is a participant at the conference, told the assembled audience that what she liked best about attending the event was the skills she was learning as a member of the conference’s student newspaper team.
The conference is “focused on a mission of helping teachers create learner-centered strategies designed to give students a more active role in their own learning,” according to a news release from the Institute for Learning Centered Education, which is involved with the event.
The keynote speaker for the opening ceremony, St. Lawrence - Lewis District Superintendent Thomas Burns, described the conference as a “testament to partnership,” the ILCE release said. He went on to explain that because of the remote nature of the area, local schools have had to become good at collaborating.
“It is what we do well in the North Country,” Burns said.
He said that he felt that New York State Educational Commissioner Maryellen Elia, herself an experience educator, was trying to return more local control over education to local districts and teachers.
The commissioner is trying to “slow things down a bit and bring teachers into the mix” Burns said.
He went on to say that quality education was a process of keeping it simple and focusing on one effective lesson at a time, with one group of students at a time.
“This year’s conference is unique in that it is three conferences in one, an established week long, team and task instructional improvement program, a three day mini conference that is focused on the latest instructional strategies and a student poverty / trauma initiative kickoff event,” according to the news release.
A highlight of this week’s conference will be a visit from local state Board of Regents member Beverly Ouderkirk, who will talk to participants about their instructional improvement projects as well as opening the poverty and education kick off at 8:30 on Thursday morning.