2024 TERSSA Conference

Rating Level for Professional Development Sessions

(On a scale of one to five with one* being the lowest and five***** being the highest amount of activity)

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Break-out Sessions 1 & 2  – You must choose one PD activity per time slot.

HeartSong Salon B – (Be Brave) Activity Level *****

Pool Noodle Leaders – Participants will combine competitiveness, with a dose of teamwork and a dash of ingenuity to work together to achieve success. This is a highly active PD session with rigorous activity. Participants will walk away with laughter and the knowledge needed to increase and sharpen leadership skills.

HeartSong Salon C – (See, I Will Try It) Activity Level ***

Balloon Sculpture Teamwork – Participants will work together in small teams to create a balloon sculpture based on a theme given the day of the sessions. The team will then present their sculpture and develop a jingle to present along with the creation. This exercise encourages collaboration, teamwork, and creativity.

Heartsong Salon D – (Don’t Want to Move) Activity Level *

Communicating With Confidence –    Rebecca Alcorn, Training Coordinator with the University of Tennessee Knoxville, will present this workshop where participants can expect to learn about different types of communication, explore what confidence means, and learn how to communicate with confidence. In addition to those topics, participants can expect to have a laugh or two and see that they are, in fact, unstoppable and can communicate confidently in any situation.

Break-out Sessions 3 & 4  – You must choose one PD activity per time slot.

HeartSong Salon B – (Be Brave) Activity Level *****

Hungry, Hungry Hippos Collaboration – Participants will engage in a life- sized version of the Hungry, Hungry Hippos game. This rigorous exercise focuses on strategy, teamwork, and collaboration. Participants will be collecting team balloons while being transported into the center ring on carts with wheels holding a laundry basket. This is a workshop you will be talking about for years to come.

HeartSong Salon C – (See, I Will Try It) Activity Level ***

Potato Head Communication – Participants will engage in multi-facets of communication and teamwork, as well as creativity as you are tasked with putting together a potato head while blind folded, muted, and in a time crunch. The take-away to this workshop is learning the importance of listening, instructing, communicating key ideas, and working together collaboratively.

Heartsong Salon D – (Don’t Want to Move) Activity Level *

Enneagrams – Celina Menard, Communications Specialist with the University of Tennessee State 4-H Office, presents this workshop on personality tests that will light up your work life. Enneagram is a system of personality which describes people in terms of nine types, each with their own motivations, fears, and internal dynamics. The goal of this workshop is to help you find your enneagram type and learn how to identify your gifts and challenges, as well as understand your co-workers based on the different personality types.

Thursday, September 12, 2024

Break-out Sessions 5 & 7  – You must choose one PD activity per time slot.

HeartSong Salon C – (See I Will Try It) Activity Level**

Container Gardening – Dr. Arvazena (Zena) Clardy, Associate Professor of Horticulture, Outreach and Extension Specialist with TSU, will facilitate this professional development workshop on container gardening. Dr. Clardy will empower us with the knowledge to become master gardening apprentices. We will get our green thumbs busy planting our own small container garden as a takeaway. Bring your gardening questions and be ready to learn more about horticulture.

Heartsong Salon D – (Don’t Want to Move) Activity Level*

Eat That Frog – A Charcuterie of Tips and Tricks to Increase Efficiency & Effectiveness for the Admin – Millie Hanson, TEAAP President Elect and Administrative Support Assistant II & Cindy Winchester, TEAAP Professional Development Chair and Business Manager at the Clyde York 4-H Center, will present ten principles from Brian Tracy’s Eat That Frog book to help admins learn to identify “frogs” while learning how to eat them. One long term takeaway goal from the workshop is for admins to have decreased stress in the workplace by implementing the principles offered in the workshop. From “To Do” lists, to “Work Folders,” participants will gain knowledge on how to become more organized as well as how to find that happy medium between work and family life.

Group Session 6 – All participants will be together for this session

Activity Level *

HeartSong Salon A – Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Regina Neal, TSU Administrative Assistant and TEAAP BOD member, will present this workshop on DEI focusing on the admin assistant’s role in workplace DEI. Did you know there are tangible benefits for DEI in Extension? Regina will share with us the steps we all can take to help foster DEI in Extension in every county and state represented by TERSSA.