They might have been in the land of chocolate, but these two teachers weren’t there for the candy.

December 9-12 Mrs. Michelle Dietz and Mr. Jeff Beltz, Beaver Area High School English and Science teachers, along with several other teachers from different schools in the county travelled to Hershey, Pennsylvania for a conference sponsored by the state’s department of education.

The theme of the conference was ‘preparing for the future.’ Numerous teachers and administrators shared presentations about 21st century skills and how they can develop and use those skills in each of their classes.

Both Mrs. Dietz and Mr. Beltz mentioned that Tony Wagner, former teacher and principal and current professor/author, gave an especially remarkable presentation.

“It was amazing; I don’t know any other words I would use to describe it,” Mrs. Dietz said.

However, her favorite part of the conference was when attendees got in large learning groups organized by geographic area. She was in a group with teachers and administrators from Hopewell, Rochester, and Beaver. Their group was one of the only groups to stay in touch after leaving the conference and continue to work together to improve their classroom environments. They thought it was an excellent process for them so that’s why they decided to stick together.

Mrs. Dietz’s biggest takeaway from the experience was chance to connect to people and build relationships with different colleagues that she could relate to on so many different levels.

Mr. Beltz explained that he mostly enjoyed being able to spend time with his “yellow team” people.

“My biggest takeaway was that even on the state level, administrators realize teachers are more than their test scores,” said Mr. Beltz.

Which is great to hear . . . But we still were hoping that they would bring us chocolate.