It’s been a week since I attended the ASCD national conference in Los Angeles. I haven’t had a spare moment to write any deep reflections on what I heard, so I thought I would recap some of my favorite moments through the tweets I sent or favorited. If you scroll through the #ASCD14 hashtag you can see the great thoughts and ideas shared by the 9,000 participants throughout the four-day weekend. Here are some that stood out to me:

• Key principle in RTSI: equality is not equity
• DOK is not about the action, it’s about what you do with the knowledge
• If you ask a question and can find the answer on Google, it is probably not an essential question.
• The thought of attending the #ascd14 tweet up makes the introvert side of my ambivert self quake with terror.
• Talking about racism is not about indicting anyone, but acknowledging it so we can close the gap.
• Wealth accounts for 15% of the achievement gap
• No one will change behavior unless they are uncomfortable
• @danmcdowell Think of each student’s Google folder as their “backpack”, it’s where all their work goes.

From Daniel Pink’s key-note:

• Ambiverts – people who are somewhat introverted and somewhat extroverted @DanielPink
• Cheapest performance enhancer: explain WHY!

From Eric Jensen’s session:

• Chronic stress significantly affects people in poverty
• Increasing control decreases stress… How much control do we give our students?

From Sir Ken Robinson’s key-note:

• We have a 30% non-graduation rate. I hesitate to say they failed the system but more the system failed them.
• Great teachers are also learners! Need to pass on confidence in learning.

From Dr. Russell Quaglia’s key-note:

• We are all students’ heroes… Only choice is whether you are a good or bad hero.
• The longer kids are in school the less they understand why they are there. That is on us.
• Get rid of the expectation gap

From Dr. Tony Wagner’s session:

• The world cares about not what you know, but what you can do with what you know
• Preparing kids for college is not the same as preparing them for the world after college.
• Traditional culture of school does not develop a culture of learning and collaboration… Sadly.
• Isolation is the enemy of improvement and innovation
• Iteration… Reflecting on what you learned and trying something new… Be intentional
• Play, passion, and purpose lead to intrinsic motivation for innovative learners!
• The most important thing a change leader does is educate the community on WHY the change is necessary!

It was great to look back through my tweets from the sessions I attended. Not every session was tweet-worthy, but I appreciate a lot of discussion about equity in education, improving learning across our system, and thinking outside of the box. I also appreciate the opportunity to present with two of my colleagues. The ASCD14 conference was an interesting experience for me as a learner and a leader.

• Did you attend ASCD this year?  Or any other national educational conference?
• What were your big takeaways?
• How do you take your a-has and learnings from conferences and apply them to your work?