The conference runs from thursday night to saturday morning and has a mix of great presenters, meet and greets and seeing the students in their classrooms.
We had a great presentation by Benoit Petit on the need to go to Clair as well as professional development and how to combat change resistance.
The following day was spent in the classroom with students showing us their projects, classroom activities and the school live radio broadcast. The afternoon was an ignite session which is 5 presenters with 20 slides, 20 sec each timed, so each presentation was exactly 6:40min. We then had a presentation by Biz, from the group Loco Locass, about the importance of technology and french literature.
The following morning was a mix of very academic research analysis by Thérèse Laferrière
, professor at university of laval and Yves Doucet a math and science teacher who gave us his perspective of teaching in a truthful and funny manner.
The best part of the conference has to be the small community feeling as if you are invited in their home. Living a day with the students gives you a feeling of how this school has changed and evolved into a kind of beacon of hope for other educators who want to push the limits of education. I would like to thank Roberto Gauvin, Director, and the organizing committee, as well as the staff, students and residents who helped organized the event and I cannot wait to next year.
You can see the conferences and ignite sessions by following this link http://clair2016.wikispaces.com/Webdiffusion
