What a day! Started off badly at the bus barn (at 5:30 am) -they couldn't find the vehicle assigned to me. Luckily, it was found -the kid had parked it on the wrong side of the parking lot...
I had a blast at the actual conference. I saw a teacher that used to work in my building and caught up on what's been happening in his life. My graduate school advisor was the keynote speaker -he saw me in the audience and proceeded to pick on me throughout his presentation.
I presented the same topic twice -once for high school teachers and once for middle school teachers. The HS teachers were really inquisitive, so I only finished half the presentation. I simply ran out of time.
The cool thing was that four different groups want me to come to their district and do a presentation on selecting quality textbooks, and another gentleman (who I later found out was the state ELL director) asked me to present next summer at the state and regional ELL conferences! 
The middle school teachers weren't as inquisitive, so we got thru the entire presentation. At the end, they really opened up and wanted to know more about the types of things I read in class. I think they were shocked when I told them I read everything from A Christmas Carol, Thirty-two Third Graders (And One Class Bunny) by Phillip Done, to comic books. I basically read what I think the kids need to hear and what they want to hear. If you haven't read the book by Done, you really need to... It's so funny in places that you'll laugh til you cry!
Okay, I'm bushed now and still have papers to grade. Thankfully it's a short week with the munchkins! Speaking of which Oztoberfest is coming... wonder what type of trouble the real munchkins from the movie will get into this year...
mikey
I had a blast at the actual conference. I saw a teacher that used to work in my building and caught up on what's been happening in his life. My graduate school advisor was the keynote speaker -he saw me in the audience and proceeded to pick on me throughout his presentation.
I presented the same topic twice -once for high school teachers and once for middle school teachers. The HS teachers were really inquisitive, so I only finished half the presentation. I simply ran out of time.
The cool thing was that four different groups want me to come to their district and do a presentation on selecting quality textbooks, and another gentleman (who I later found out was the state ELL director) asked me to present next summer at the state and regional ELL conferences! The middle school teachers weren't as inquisitive, so we got thru the entire presentation. At the end, they really opened up and wanted to know more about the types of things I read in class. I think they were shocked when I told them I read everything from A Christmas Carol, Thirty-two Third Graders (And One Class Bunny) by Phillip Done, to comic books. I basically read what I think the kids need to hear and what they want to hear. If you haven't read the book by Done, you really need to... It's so funny in places that you'll laugh til you cry!
Okay, I'm bushed now and still have papers to grade. Thankfully it's a short week with the munchkins! Speaking of which Oztoberfest is coming... wonder what type of trouble the real munchkins from the movie will get into this year...
mikey