Saturday saw the culmination of months of planning with the launch of the Teaching, Learning & Assessment Conference, Berkhamsted.
One of my colleagues likened the event to throwing a party and taking pleasure from seeing others have a good time. From the feedback received so far, it seems that many got something practical to take away from the event. I can only thank the workshop leaders, main speakers, students and delegates for making it work.
The question is, where do we go from here? Alistair Smith in his presentation mentioned the problematic nature of events such as this and TeachMeets because they appear to be disconnected from everything else (a topic to be addressed in a further blog post). This was never in the plan for TLAB. I felt very strongly from the beginning that what was said and done at the conference should be spread as far and wide as possible. The first thing we intend to do is release the video from the main sessions via YouTube (with Alistair Smith’s talk available here and Bill Lucas’ talk here). The second thing in our plan is to include the video, summaries of the workshops and their resources into an iBook that will be available via the iTunes store. There will be no cost for this.
We are already looking ahead to next year and your feedback (via a form coming your way) is needed. A couple of things we already have in mind are a stronger Prep/Primary focus and also a distinctive leadership strand where colleagues who have ‘walked the talk’ will share their experiences. One other thing I feel very strongly about is the ability to bring young people/students to the event and we are considering the possibility of providing childcare facilities for parents.
We hope to see you next year for what promises to be a more focussed event.
