I went to this workshop part way into my second year of teaching. It was profound how much experience you gain in a year. Compared to teachers who were in the profession for just under three months, I was an expert (and the leaders of the conference were far more knowledgeable than I was).

My takeaways were that…

• The Bentley mentor program was subpar
• I had learned a ton in my first year
• I had to set my own limits
• Talk with your colleagues, they will help but will also be reticent to volunteer information without being asked
• School is rarely the most important thing going on in a teenager’s life
• When you are grading, you are working for one student. When you are planning or building assessments you are working for many students. Adjust your time accordingly
• You can build assessments that are fast to grade if you are intentional about it.

The full set of notes is below (these were notes to myself, they might be a bit cryptic because of that):