Master's Program Conference

Today began my education program's Master's Conference. Each member of the cohort presents their research to some of our peers and any guests attending the conference, including first-years and education professionals from the area. Our keynote speaker was Dr. Wayne Au, author of Unequal by Design: High Stakes Testing and the Standardization of Inequality and regular Rethinking Schools author.

This isn't nearly as big as the NCSS Conference (obviously) but there are usually choices to make in which speakers we get to see. We're all presenting in groups of 2, and there are often several sessions going on at once. Except, dear readers, in the case of yours truly.

Myself and a couple others were chosen to be featured speakers, meaning that we're the only speakers presenting during our time slots. I shared an hour session today with a presentation on Shared Decision Making in Schools, and I must say, I did rather well. I tried my hardest to bring an air of professionality to an environment that, since it's mostly our cohort in attendance during the smaller sessions, can tend towards informality. I think I'd like to present at larger national conferences, and so I considered this fairly low-stakes practice. My faculty however, thinks that the research review I did is worthy of presentation at a state conference, and are trying to find me a slot at one of them. Personally, I feel like I'd need to do a lot more reading in preparation for that kind of an environment, but the opportunity is fantastic if I can get in.

I'll make my finished research paper available for anyone interested. Just comment here or send an email. The title is Dropping Out: Who's Doing It, Why, and Effective Counter-strategies.