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"Last week I listened to 14 educators from Ontario who were brave enough to stand in front of 100+ and give a five minute Ignite Talk. I am truly inspired by the passion that radiates from these fine folks. Members of the audience travelled from afar, some even came after work just to listen before returning home to teach the next day.
While each speaker deserves their own blog post recognition, I haven’t stopped thinking about Jen Giffen’s talk. It was evident Jen was prepared and confident. She commanded the room like I imagined she would there and in her classroom. Jen spoke of previous experiences with a particular student, and in many ways I could relate. Jen and this student had been working diligently on an assignment for days for a particular class but when the deadline approached, the student did not submit his work. Furious, Mrs. G tracked him down and in her words “went up one side and down the other” in front of his peers. I imagined him sitting in another class, head down, perhaps hiding behind a hood. I imagined this student wishing time away only to be able to escape the fear, anxiety and ridicule he was attempting to avoid. What could possibly have happened to make him avoid handing in what he had been passionately working on with the support of Mrs. Giffen?"
