Okay, all you parents and teachers who agreed with me and posted comments on my reflections about the shortcomings of big home school conferences: where do we go from here?
A clearing house for speakers who aren’t “big name” exhorters but who have valuable expertise in specific areas?
Volunteers to run such a thing?
A message board for making contact?
A podcast coordinator?
A way to pool requests for speakers?
A detailed how-to for parents who want to organize small, focused conferences?
There were so many good suggestions down below. How do we organize them and come up with a plan?
Jump on in here and TALK.
{ 29 comments… read them below or add one }
More academically related conferences would be a big help. I would love to see someone from the college admissions office who is familar with their colleges requirements for homeschoolers at a conference.
Most of the homeschool co-ops we have been involved in are not that academic in nature. Just knowing what/who is available in my region with an interest in strong academics would be a help.
I think that conferences should first step back and think about what the purpose of the conference is. If it is mainly to encourage folks in the righteousness of the decision to homeschool (on a faith OR philosophical level) and then to provide access to vendors, then little change is needed.
But if the goal of the conference is to allow parents to compare a wide variety of material for beginning math, reading, algebra, science etc, then the vendor workshop model falls a little short.
I’d like to see more panel discussions. For example, several algebra programs in a side by side comparison. Same with science and reading programs.
A workshop on creative organization ideas (from trackers to workboxes to storage to notebooks).
Using living books, music appreciation, nature study, hand crafts, tools for learning a foreign language, how to arrange an internship, opportunities for local field trips or museum offerings, how to mentor a group like First Lego League/debate/honor society, dual enrollment at community college, how to host a small group science lab or writers workshop, etc. There should be a couple presentations on high school topics like the application process, testing milestones, how to navigate a college website, service academy admissions and military enlistment.
A lot of this would best be done by folks outside of the standard lecture circuit. For example I’d love to hear reps from several local museums talk about their offerings from field trips to teacher workshops to docent opportunities. The groups who put on conferences should think about the subject areas that they wish to cover and then put out feelers for suggestions. There would probably be a learning curve where speakers knew their subject but weren’t really polished in how to present it. But then we’ve had years of listening to vendors tout their particular product without context or even of having vendor reps who really didn’t get homeschooling.
FWIW, I’m military stationed overseas. We had a lovely curriculum fair last spring where we just asked members of the group to come and do show and tell with some of their favorite stuff. Some brought books to sell. Others brought work examples and curriculum. My son had Rosetta Stone running in the corner for folks to try out. And we had piles of catalogs from homeschool publishers. Not only was it a great encouragement for the experienced moms to share what had brought them joy and a chance to leaf through a lot of history, math and science curriculum, but we even had about a dozen families come through who were just interested in learning about homeschooling. This is something small and focused that almost any support group could put on. This year we’re going to try to have a couple panel discussions as well as the show and tell.
Panel discussions – yes! There was one at the PHP conf. last May, and we got to ask anything and everything about classical education. Jim Weiss had some good things to say about “doing” high school in general, relationships with our kids, and the university application process and references. To me, the panel discussion was almost electrically charged with excitement, because of the three panelists really knowing their stuff and letting us fire questions at them. And telling us if they didn’t know something and then bouncing the question around each other – it was fun listening to them brainstorm and talk with us. I loved it.
Between these articles and the PHP conference, you’ve really got me thinking. The PHP conf. was the only one I’ve ever been to (besides two small curric. fairs here – no conf., though), and the reason I made the effort was – you got it – for the academic “how-to” teaching. I so wish we had things like that around here. You’ve got me wondering if maybe I could do something about that.
The thing I liked about the PHP conf. was that you and your mother talked about how to teach writing/lit. analysis/reading through ALL the grades. It helped me to see the entire thread through each topic, rather than just bits and pieces. I’d love to attend workshops that do that for grammar, math, science, and even for music and art skills.
It would be a blast to attend, say, a two day workshop on math teaching – first, getting the overall picture starting from learning to count, to having an overview of the various branches of mathematics, and then having magnified workshops that focus on each stage and how to build up skills – along with how to make up or where to find extra activities/games that will make math come alive and be fun like it’s supposed to be. Math activities and games abound on the internet and in books and stores, but I would want to know how to sift through these to use what really matters. And a lot of them seem to focus on elementary arithmetic – where are games and activities for middle and high school? If they are out there, I have no clue how to find them. But I bet a mathematician could help me, and quickly.
Science – The Science in the Classical Curriculum CD really helped expand what I’ve learned from WTM – it would be great to have the same thing in a conf. – an overview like on the CD, then magnified workshops by practicing scientists who know how to teach observation, methods, and thinking skills.
I would definitely need a detailed “how-to” manual (or at least hear from several others who have actually organized conferences – that might be a good topic for another related blog post) on how to go about organizing a conf.. (Do conf. coordinators pay themselves normally? I never thought about that until I read the article in TOS magazine you linked)
So anyway, as I was thinking about your other article, I tried brainstorming about who is in my area. Who is inside and outside the homeschooling box here. I need a little jumpstart on brainstorming – where would I look for possible workshop speakers? One time when my Spalding-trained (Writing Road to Reading) teacher-mother was visiting me, she did a little day-long workshop for some fellow homeschooling Moms, on teaching reading and spelling. I had forgotten about that, but she’d do it again, I’m sure. I also know a computer science professor at Dalhousie University – he graduated from Oxford, is very smart, is semi-retired, and loves kids – maybe I could ask him to teach us something – but what would I ask? How do you evaluate who would be a good speaker for what topics? It almost seems like you’d be interviewing possible speakers, but I’ve never conducted a job interview (only been the target of them
).
OK, here is my brainstorm list of where to find people – maybe others could add to it?
- local universities – we have Dal, which has medical, dental, and law schools and all the surrounding teaching hospitals; we have Acadia which I think is a theology/divinity school; St. Mary’s University which seems to have a lot of science focus – they have a great observatory; and St. Mary’s which I think is teacher and humanities focused.
- veteran homeschoolers – except I don’t know many, and the ones I know are, er, haven’t appeared to me to be academically focused, so I haven’t networked very much – maybe I should…I just always feel like I’m stepping on toes when talking to homeschoolers here about academics, so I don’t much, and therefore I don’t find academically oriented ones very often.
- church acquaintances – hmm….there is an electronics professor, a professionally trained artist, a French teacher, an Acadia grad (the pastor
), a physician, many RNs and LPNs, many elementary/middle school teachers….
- Ooooh! My husband is the local travelin’ guitar teacher, with many students’ parents – I should ask him what those parents do for a living.
- and I just remembered that we also have a college of art and design, and a professional music training school nearby.
Another idea that just popped into my head is that if we had speakers who knew their subject, something else that would be helpful would be if they could also tell us how to evaluate books/texts for their usefulness in fleshing out what the speaker is talking about. For example, how to evaluate a science “spine” for middle grade biology – what types of things to look for in one.
OK, I’m done brainstorming. I look forward to reading others’ brainstorms.
Librarians can be a good resource for good early childhood books and research resources (for example, does your library have journals or magazine databases). I think just a workshop on how to get the most our of the library would be good (like how to do good system searches and reserve books). One of the library systems I was around had parent/teacher workshops that were pretty interesting.
Most museums have at least an education coordinator, if not a whole education department. They might have lesson plans, special teacher resources or host field trips. DH was a docent for a new museum in our last home and the education department there was very interested in homeschoolers because they were available to come to the museum at times of the year when other field trips didn’t happen. I made sure that they thought of homeschoolers as helpful by getting a workcrew of homeschoolers together to put up an outdoor display for the museum dedication.
Hooray for an emphasis on the academic content knowledge of the teacher! Mastery of subject content does improve teaching outcomes. This is why it is vital to continually self-educate. Books and audio resources are good tools, but beginners often need big picture “content maps,” while those who have been plodding along for a time need encouragement and intellectual refreshment. Here’s my wish list:
1. Have you heard how some churches conduct two-day “Bible Walk-Throughs” to acquaint people with the broad, chronological sweep of biblical events? I would enjoy a mini-course with a similar approach to history — a one- or two-day “Walk Through World History.” Yes, from start to finish, just touch on the major highlights. What could we gain from four, 90-minute sessions of speeding through history? Perhaps a framework for our further self-study, a few pieces falling into place, and possibly much more. Now, I wonder who could teach THAT course?
2. In my spare time, in addition to trying to grasp the story of history, I’ve been self-teaching Latin and Math. It’s painful. Even so, I’m amazed at how well I retain what I’ve studied. Contrary to the popular notion of forgetfulness increasing with age, I think I learn better (not faster) than I did when I was younger. Any work I do, in math especially, seems surprisingly fruitful. Recently, for the first time, I finally understood the WHY behind certain math processes. In school we learned HOW. But if I intend to teach math, even at the elementary level, I need to learn the WHY.
I would pay good money (if I had it) to attend a half- to two-day workshop based on the presenter’s thorough understanding and application of Liping Ma’s KNOWING AND TEACHING ELEMENTARY MATHEMATICS. The review of this book by Roger Howe is an excellent introduction to this work on how teachers can develop “a profound understanding of fundamental mathematics.” Singapore Math has a well-regarded course for teachers of elementary mathematics (ELEMENTARY MATH FOR TEACHERS), based on the Parker & Baldridge text of the same name. A workshop that would open up these texts and concepts for home educators would be welcome, and bear much fruit.
3. Lastly, and I mean no offense to WTM by this, but I would be interested in learning how to teach the various branches of science synchronously, rather than sequentially, as WTM advocates. The WTM method (biology one year, followed by earth/space science the next, etc.) is one way of doing science education in the home setting. However, I would be interested in a workshop or panel discussion involving experienced, science-loving home educators who would describe for us how to teach Biology, Earth/Space, Physics, and Chemistry across ALL the upper grammar and middle school years [3rd through 8th], in a spiraling pattern of increasing complexity and abstract content. Any information/instruction on how to synchronize/integrate the sciences would be appreciated here.
I love the ideas of panel discussions as long as the panel is truly composed of people who have expertise – that could be moms who have hsed for 10+ years, academic experts in a particular subject matter, etc. I say this only because I have been to two panel discussions that weren’t that helpful because the depth of the panel members was somewhat light…you’d think that would be obvious, but sometimes in hs circles there is much emphasis on being supportive of everyone’s hsing methods, that standards and criteria take a back seat (kinda like society….but I digress).
It sounds as if there are two threads percolating here…one being academic subjects, particularly with a big-picture, K-12/skills-by-the-year and/or subject curriculums side-by-side (I agree on both of those BTW), and the other being hsing-specific concerns/skill areas (Sebastian you had a wonderfully complete list…love it!).
There is nothing that substitutes for getting together on-site somewhere in a conference setting (and of the bonding and support that are found there), but I think we need to be very realistic of what such a conference means for the organizer/s to undertake…months of nitty-gritty elbow-grease, often (at best) low-paid. You also then have the issue that many of us academically-focused hsers find….we are spread out all over the place. So travel/housing cost, location and dates become very important.
I, for one, had really wanted to go to the PHP conference last year. Unfortunately, I would have had to take three flights with an hour drive remaining after landing to get there (we’re rural West Coast), and a nearly 14-hour travel time door-to-door each way. In the end, I decided it was too much to take on given our family schedule (hubby would have had to take off three work days, etc). So logistics can be a real hurdle for people, and can greatly reduce your conference attendance.
Which leads me to wonder if some type of online format might be easier, or perhaps have a live conference that is video-taped and posted with a fee to access. Maybe something like a youtube! channel (I’ve learned so much from the Artisan Bread people this way!).
I don’t want to discourage anyone from building a local conference; I know I get more out of something when I am able to get away and focus. However, I also know the difficulties of people’s schedules nowadays and with a recession on and penny-pinching…something to be aware of when planning!
While you’re thinking through the validity of all this and how to make it happen, could I toss out the example of my own fair state? When the other now very large homeSCHOOLING convention came in, they drove business from the largest HOMEschooling convention in the state, to the point where it is now a dying beast. Have you thought about the unintended consequences of this new movement you hope to spur? Have you thought about infiltrating and improving the CURRENT structures, rather than usurping them and making them fail? Have you really THOUGHT about what will happen???
I’m all for putting the SCHOOL back in homeschooling conventions. I totally agree they need to bring in more people to help us actually implement the academics, rather than just cheering us and patting us on the backs. But I also think homeschooling is hard work, and the knowledge base a mom works from isn’t something gained in a day. Many people learn better from books than lectures anyway. Others need time for the material to congeal in their brains and won’t retain it or really get it, even with a well-done series of sessions from an awesome speaker. (Think of all the people who go to SWR sessions and walk away still uncertain of how to do things.) In other words, there is no replacement for time by the mom spent in hard work mastering the material. VP’s week-long teacher sessions and crash courses in various subjects (latin, omnibus, etc.) are the closest thing we have to what you are talking about, and all their sessions are available quite inexpensively (and go on sale, often $70 for the whole set!) through wordmp3.com . The Circe Institute also has such informative sessions.
Mainly, I think you need to think about the unintended consequences of this potential movement. If you drive away business from the main conventions, we ALL lose in the end. Better for us to go in and tell them what we want (and get on the boards if necessary to make it change) than to undermine them and shut them down. The vendors follow the people, and we all know it’s the vendor’s hall we go for. We can hear SWB on cd/mp3/streaming live, etc., but we can’t get that huge collection of all the things we’ve been wanting to fondle. The vendor’s hall is where it’s at, and when you draw the people (to or from), you determine the entire convention’s success.
And btw, many local homeschool groups bring in those types of speakers to do sessions. Our local group does this, bringing in some of the same topical/how-to speakers that will be at the state conventions. As you say, if they’re in-state or close enough, the speakers are usually willing to come just for expenses. So structures already exist to make this happen, if people have the vision.
Hi Elizabeth,
About you first paragraph – we have exactly ONE small curriculum fair here in our province – it lasts for about 8 hours a year. I did think about that – I thought, why don’t I get involved in that and asking if they would start bringing in academic speakers – they actually did last year and the year before – one was by a dear friend of mine on getting started, the other was about different ways to put together a high school plan. I suppose I should start asking around about that fair.
But what I understood these posts to be about was to get lots of small workshop day or two day long events going year round – not moving in on and usurping the main yearly events in each province/state/region. Yes, our area still needs the curric. fair – people do like to go and look at the materials (not me, though, I can’t see the point in paying $20 just to go look at materials that I can do satisfactory research for online), and to buy and sell at the secondhand sales that go along with our curric. fair.
I do learn a lot by myself, through reading and through using the WTM boards and finding other resources to look at. But there was something HUGELY encouraging to me about going to a focused academic conference and being around other very like-minded people – I’ve never had that experience before and it was big confidence booster to me as a teacher. I had a couple of fantastic academic conversations with two of the conferees.
I guess I’m just saying it’s not the vendor hall that I’ve gone for – I did that twice and had enough. I finally went to one that had actual academic teaching, and I’d love to see more of that in my area. I don’t see, here at least, how having academic workshops throughout the year could undermine our small local curric. fair – I think they are just two different events.
Susan, a question for you. I have several of your teaching CDs – is there any problem with me having small get togethers in my living room, for people to listen to these with me and discussing together over chocolate cake (no charge for the event)? I’ve done it a couple of times with two friends, but I wonder if there are any reasons I shouldn’t with larger groups of people that I might advertise to.
While business is important, if a business fails to meet the needs, those who are running the “business” (i.e. big homeschool convention) need to reorganize and reprioritize. Those with new and creative ideas can add to the mix with their ideas, whether it fits in the box of big “business” or not. In other words, if big convention fails, it is not the fault of innovative, creative thinkers who dare to think outside the box.
I don’t think anyone is talking about – or remotely interested in – taking over state conferences, or trying to drive them out of business. No one here has that kind of time.
And I refuse to buy into the “we were here first, so no one else should set up competition” argument. That’s the argument that has been used in support of public school (and against homeschoolers) for years (“well, why don’t you take the time/energy/focus you spend hsing and just spend it improving the local public school for all children..the structure already exists”). And it was my understanding we’re brainstorming here…perhaps an existing structure such as a state convention would work.
But I don’t really think this about competition. This is about a segment of the hsing population (or hsers with a specific hsing need) being able to meet that existing need met through an alternative format that does not have to be tied to a once-a-year state convention on a state-by-state basis.
That’s what I’d like to discuss, anyway.
There is so much wisdom in the regulars who post on the high school board about literature and senior projects and science and the college application process. I keep thinking it would be terrific to have a website with pages either organized by subject, topic or by each individual. The pages would show lesson plans and assignments, book lists and web links and, most importantly, articles on the planning process. How did this lesson plan evolve? Exactly HOW did you create it? What criteria were used to make decisions and evaluate materials? There could also be a live chat — if not with video feed, then one of those events where everyone is typing furiously, trying to keep up with the conversation.
Even better — rent a tour bus and invite some of us (I’m selfishly including myself here) to tour the country over the summer and do speaking engagements. We could have tour t-shirts! Homeschool groupies!! Our kids could be our roadies!!!
But I digress…
I am personally leery of inviting professionals from outside the homeschooling world to speak at a workshop. My personal experience in working with education departments at local museums and schools is that they are staffed and run by education professionals, not scientists, and their programs are designed to serve the scope and sequence of the local public schools. The science professionals I know, even my brother the classics-trained lawyer, have no concept of how to teach their field to children and teens — unless they homeschool their own kids. I can’t imagine most of them presenting anything useful. Even our local children’s librarian wouldn’t be helpful to homeschoolers as she designed her collection to serve the local public schools. Heaven forbid there be anything on the shelves published before 1970!!
I loved a workshop given by Jim Weiss about his process of taking a book or a fairly tale and turning it into a story. It was practical — I’ve used what I learned many times over the years — and it was given by someone who understands and loves homeschoolers. Those are the kinds of speakers and workshops we need: people who “get” homeschooling and can give practical, experienced advice on how a homeschool family should approach and handle academics.
In our area local museums do offer educator workshops, but they are *very* classroom and standards oriented. They do have good food and often give out free stuff, but their offerings are geared to groups of 30 kids of the same age, etc. They often say they are willing to work with homeschoolers but are unsure how to adapt. For example, a local museum offered FREE admission to classrooms for an excellent exhibit on Napoleon…but had no idea how to let groups or families of homeschoolers in free. Is that a separate budget item or something? My friend who wrote to inquire about it (she teaches history at a co-op) was given a free admission *for herself* but nothing for her class of 15 or so. I went with her and got in 1/2 price because it’s the end of the exhibit and I got a ticket by email. I am on a LOT of email lists for that very reason.
It might well be better to invite *them* (museum or aquarium or parks staff) to come and speak to a group of homeschool moms…and offer them some free food and free catalogs. They could see what a diverse and growing group they were serving and at the same time brainstorm some possible solutions. I’ve found the same thing when I’ve gone to educator nights at bookstores–they want to know what WE want, but have no idea where to start.
Personally, I’d love to hear college admissions folks from several different types of schools talk about what they want/look for on an application. With kids going in very different directions, what you “learn” for one’s application/transcript really doesn’t apply for the other one’s needs. I also think having someone to talk about adapting curriculum for older ADHD kids would be very useful to me.
The topic of museums and homeschoolers could almost be a totally separate thread.
My husband was a docent at a small new aviation museum in our last duty station. They were very open to the idea of homeschoolers and by the time we left had in fact had a couple of homeschool groups come over as school groups.
But you’re right that a homeschool group that includes students from elementary to high school (and often even younger kids) who may or may not know each other well, who have totally different levels of attention span and reading ability, presents a very different outreach challenge than a group of similarly aged kids, who are more or less accustomed to following the directions of a teacher, who may come with specific learning objectives for the visit.
I think that it really helps to have a point person to work with the museum on just what you are hoping to get out of the visit. Just to use the aviation museum as an example: They could do a visit that focused on principles of flight (possibly to include simulator time), on the Pearl Harbor attack, the Doolittle Raid, on various aircraft (some of the docents had even flown the types of aircraft displayed during the war and were incredible to talk to), or on aircraft restoration efforts with a behind the scenes visit to the restoration hanger. But any one of these focuses could take up an hour guided tour or more.
My experience with the education department was that they were more than willing to host homeschoolers on a similar group level to school groups, but while they had many presentations tailored to state education goals, they did need specifics for what a homeschool group wanted. One way to make this a two way street would be for a homeschool family to help develop an educational sheet like a scavenger hunt or a children’s museum guide in return for some museum time. This is especially a potentially cool opportunity for a homeschooled high schooler who was willing to work on something like this as a high school project or internship. (Our involvement with the aviation museum meant that we even ended up in print and TV advertising, which was a real laugh.)
I agree. I stopped going to my local hs conference specifically because it was mostly rah-rah and Christian parenting, with nothing to give me a leg-up on teaching Algebra. I now drive a few states away once a year to a conference that offers more academic how-to.
I have also been terribly frustrated at workshops claiming to teach fractions, for example, but finding it’s just vendor rah-rah (even when it’s not supposed to be a vendor workshop).
One impediment is the tendency in American society to rely on experts. I think a local support group has wonderful potential–a good group leader can offer opportunities for regular group members to offer instruction in their area of strength. However, all too often, the local group is either just emotional support or draws primarily experienced speakers. There is nothing wrong (and indeed, much right) with getting professional experts to share their knowledge–the problem is that the riches of normal, everyday people are overlooked. Also the problem is then that what is available from professional experts often falls into predictable categories.
The other problem with our tendency to rely on experts is that people are very, very distrustful of spending time in a seminar with a no-name. This is just too bad!!! Case in point: I have a degree in English and Rhetoric (writing). I offered for years to teach a seminar at my local homeschooling group on poetry analysis. It was only after years of offering and many, many conversations “proving” myself, as well as my achieving a certain status in the group, that I was asked to do the seminar at a regular meeting. There was some trepidation about whether folks really wanted such a seminar. When I did actually teach the workshop, though, it was wonderfully well-received! Folks were so grateful to have this one small piece of the subject of Language Arts explained.
I would love to see local homeschool groups make better use of the riches ordinary people have to offer. I would also love to see more seminars that address small subsets of larger subjects. Instead of (or perhaps in addition to?) a seminar on Teaching Math to Middle Schoolers, how about one on Teaching the Relationship Between Fractions, Decimals, and Percents?? Or an overview of a specific historical time period? A seminar that specifically describes the differences between newspaper writing versus more formal writing and how to teach those conventions? Etc. We need BOTH the global perspective AND the how-to for skills within the subjects.
Could you add a message board to the current WTM board to help facilitate some of these conversations? Kind of like the buy/sell board where you provide the forum for info exchange but stay out of the ‘transaction.’ It’s not a whole solution…but a start to take advantage of synergies that may be out there and get like-minded folks in similar geographic areas in touch. Of course, it would be most valuable if there were some ‘rules’ for posting so it’s not just a mind dump and nothing purposeful or useful comes from it.
First off, I wish I’d been at the PHP conference. It sounds as if its what I’ve been looking for. I don’t attend the big state conference here because its mostly Christian speakers speaking about the “heart of education”. I’ve got that down. The big Catholic conference just seems to push Catholic curricula/ heart of education. We also have a big “unschooler leaning” conference locally that is fun for my kids- but I don’t get anything out of it. It may be hard in the current economy to hold regional PHP type events. I’d love it- if we had enough people to pull it off!
Here are a few ideas I thought I’d throw out there- I think maybe adding on to the wtm board or web pages may be the most useful and or doable idea. I’d love to see essays on actually implementing a wtm education. The comment section could include questions and answers. Podcasts may work better for this. As much as I’d love a conference- the web pages could be maintained and added to all year.
One thing that is clear from reading posts on the high school board: many of our students work in isolation unless they are involved in dual enrollment. It would be wonderful if a homeschool conference allowed teens the opportunity to discuss how they are taking charge of their educations. Parents often ask on the high school board how teens find volunteer tasks or cultivate their passions. Wouldn’t it be great for teens to speak to other teens directly on this issue? Perhaps teens could have a panel discussion with parents in the far back of the room–listening only.
Jane
P.S. Sign me up for Jenn’s bus tour!
I speak with some trepidation, as my oldest student is only 6, however my support group/homeschool convention experience has been very disheartening. I have attended several local day-long convention/curriculum fairs and have been so disappointed. The topics were mainly as listed above–family issues, faith-based instruction/theology, and feel good rah rahs. There was only one session I felt I gained anything from, dealing with state law and portfolios. Now, many attendees seems thrilled with the offerings and I have nothing to say against them, but they were not helpful to me.
My biggest problem is that I am in a relatively rural area and the largest proportion of area homeschoolers are simply vastly philosophically different from me. While I would like to pursue a different kind of seminar type of gathering, I have concerns about whether any time or money spent would bear fruit–I wonder if anyone would come. Some way to connect with others of like mind and determine whether something like that would work would be helpful. As LV above mentioned, a forum board where people could pool geographic resources would be very helpful.
Also, as a way to overcome geographic and philosophical isolation, the internet/You Tube/Podcast concept might be ideal. How about The Well-Trained Mind Podcast Site?
I wonder what sort of feedback convention/workshop organizers get? Do they get much feedback about wanting broad access to vendor halls and wider and deeper workshops? Or is the feedback mostly along the lines of Holly Homeschooler was so inspiring on how I can incorporate faith based breadmaking, goat milking and math (trying to make an absurd example, not insult bread or goats)?
I’ve been trying to be more vocal in several aspects of my life, like commenting to stores on helpful employees and products I appreciated. Maybe if folks took the time to communicate with convention organizers now about topics of importance, then it would reflect the input on the 2011 schedules. Not a nasty letter writing like, “How could you put Mr. Encourager on as keynote again?” but helpful suggestions like, “I would love to attend but am looking for more workshops on x, y and z, even if they are panels by experienced but unknown homeschoolers, not published authors and members of a speakers’ bank.”
I do think that a podcast concept would ultimately be the best solution for most parts of the country, as well as one that could be more easily and more rapidly implemented. As a fan of podcasts, I’ve noticed a dearth of homeschooling-oriented podcasts, much less academically-focused ones. A podcasting or video podcasting approach would also allow international participation more easily.
In my experience, I’m not sure most communities would/could support an academically-oriented conference. I live in a large metropolitan area, and I occasionally feel that I am part of a very small minority that is striving for any sort of rigor. I’m not saying we achieve it
, but I’m also not turning my nine year old loose on various websites for hours to play games that I then label “critical thinking development.” In short: are there enough interested parties in most areas around the country to support this endeavor? I fervently hope there are, but I also admit to some pessimism.
I think the podcast idea is a wonderful one and I see that HSLDA is starting some podcast type events that they even charge for, BUT (caps on purpose!) it takes a huge amount of time and money to start something like that….which takes us back to where we started b/c only an organization or company that has enough capital (and would see a return on said capital) would likely be willing to start one. If I had five more hours in my day, I’d use my years of marketing and comms experience to start it…but then I’d have to put my kids in school
Any ambitious tech-oriented high schoolers out there who want to start a business?
I think someone (who?) could:
Start a Web site that serves as a jumping-off point for ‘mini-conferences’, online seminars, whatever you want to call it that serves as some sort of database and clearinghouse for good info on: potential speakers, those who want to speak (the poetry woman above – e-mail some handouts and get a Web cam!), interested parties who want to put together an in-person seminar on X topic in Y city, etc. Making it clear that these are to be academic in nature.
Just do it – get one seminar up and running. Or use something that PHP has videotaped in the past, just to make it easy. Charge something reasonable ($5?) to view it and test the market and get a good marketing list going, then host a live online discussion afterward.
Oh…but if we all had the time to implement all of our wonderful ideas! But I am now more inspired to look for more academic-focused speakers and keep my ears open for opportunities. As a first-year homeschooler, I thought the perception that a lot of these things are fluffy and not useful was mine alone and am happy to see it’s not just me!
I have to agree that it would be great to have an academic conference. Somewhat along the lines that Colleen in NS talked about. People to give you a global view of where a subject begins and where it ends in the school years. What the logical progression is for the acquisition of skills and training for the end goal.
I really appreciate listening to the mp3’s that PHP offers. They helped me to see a somewhat fleshed out plan of what is in the WTM. I would love to be able to do it in person but geography kind of gets in the way sometimes. (who decided to immigrate to freezing cold Alberta anyway??? Oh yeah, my parents…..)
I think the idea of podcasts and such are good but it leaves most of us off the hook for actually doing anything. I don’t have the first clue in how to organize a podcast and my kids aren’t old enough to do it for me:-) However, getting together some knowledgeable people might be within my skill set if I put my mind to it. The problem I have is similar to others. Do I have a big enough audience to merit the time and effort? At present I don’t have a large network of hs friends because it takes time to build those relationships. And there’s the rub. It takes time. It takes time to network, time to plan, time to attend.
Hmmmm, it seems that we are all excited about the prospect of more support & networking for academically-minded hsers (I wish I could find a better term than that), but geography, time and money are formidable obstacles. Podcasts/online videos are great ideas, but again, time and know-how are in short supply. We could press for state conventions to offer more academic instructional tracks, but to go that route means all of us would have to work through each of our different state conventions to upgrade the offerings. This seems really inefficient, given that we’re talking about a smaller segment of the hsing market to begin with. Trying to connect with each other in meaningful, informative ways is not easy is it? Even in this high-tech day and age.
I wrote up some info about the mini curriculum fair that our homeschool group held last year. Maybe it can be a jumping off point for others to use for academically focused days of sharing. http://blakeney-academy.blogspot.com/2010/01/homeschool-mini-conference.html
A few quick thoughts. Now that our own dc are getting older (youngest is about to turn 17yo), I find I’ve forgotten a lot of the things I did when they were younger which worked/didn’t work. That’s one reason I often just turn to the kids themselves and just ask THEM how they (or I) did this or that thing; or what worked or didn’t work; etc. Something to think about when considering the potential panelists (or whatever) …. a mother who’s in the throes of teaching a preschooler how to read may actually be more useful to younger hs’ers than an older hs’ing mom. Possibly ….
Another thing to consider is qualifications. Many hs’ers seem to want ‘proof” (our own customized hs substitution for the ‘expert’) in the form of test scores, college entrance scores, etc., before putting too much stock in what a longtime hs’ing parent (myself, for example, whose dc have almost zilch of such things) has to say about teaching.
And dc are standing here glaring at me with their ‘It’s past time to go’ look, so gotta run.
Kathy
I’d personally love a panel discussion with classical homeshool writing curriculums ranging all the way from Pudewa to Jaqua/Gustilo. Then they each could give a seminar on their study of classical writing pedagogy. Or how about a whole convention on just teaching writing classically!! Yeah! I’m really diggin’ that!
What I would love to see most is a SECULAR HIGH SCHOOL level curriculum work shop. I can find elementary and some middle school. I can find religious. I have a horrible time finding higher level homeschool friendly curriculum. Any subject would be great.
Sebastian, I liked reading your blog entry about the mini-conference, and your ideas for the future.
I wonder if anyone else has any idea how/where you would find speakers/presenters for academic workshops. I’m sure there will be some bigger companies/groups who will do podcasts, but what about these smaller, local events? Even if it’s just a few families? I do like the idea and would love to hear how others have found and evaluated speakers. And how panel discussions are conducted.