The best workshops I attended had to do with strategies for helping students learning to be more effective.  There were two sessions on Inclusion and Co-Teaching and their effectiveness in the classroom.  One session suggested starting Inclusion at the 7^th grade level, when students are all struggling with puberty, identity, and the “newness” of middle school.  Another suggested the planning of regular and special education teachers to maximize the effectiveness of Inclusion.

Other workshops I attended had to do with increasing student success through motivation, confidence, and better understanding of content (especially in the reading of textbooks). Two sessions dealt with creating confident learners and challenging typically low-achieving students to do better through higher level thinking activities and project based learning. Another session dealt with helping learners read and understand text in the classroom.  There were ideas for effective learning of vocabulary that revolved around connecting new vocabulary to previously learned concepts to increase retention.  The workshop provided several worksheets for organizing reading concepts, vocabulary, and purpose for reading. 

One of the best strategies I learned was the emphasis on pre-reading and vocabulary to increase meaning of textbooks.  Students with disabilities often have significant difficulty with reading textbooks and while I implement summarization and pre-reading skills, I often do not spend as much time on vocabulary as I should and I plan to incorporate meaningful vocabulary acquisition in my work with students.

I thought that our dinners together were very memorable because several of us came back with something we were excited about implementing and/or sharing with other staff members.  I also thought that our time that we did not talk about school was also memorable.  I got to know several staff members outside of the school atmosphere.  I would have gotten less out of the conference without people to share my excitement and information with. 

If teachers were not interested in attending the ASCD conference, I would tell them that it is a nice getaway both personally as well as professionally.  It is a wonderful opportunity to meet teachers from all over the world and share ideas about effective schools and strategies in the classroom.