(National) Conference Report

Before I get into reporting on my time at the National Title I Conference I attended this week I would just like to point out that, on Wednesday evening, I was here...

...and by Thursday morning, I was here. 

Sigh. 

I know the valley-wide fast for snow helped a little, but I am fairly sure that it was the fact that I had travel plans this week/weekend that was the main cause for our very effectual snow storm.

Anyway...

Last Saturday morning, Rick, Cousin Cindy, and I left Cowtown dark and early to attend the National Title I Conference in  San Diego. 

Now, lest you think that student funds were used to send us on this little trip, I should tell you a little bit about how school funding works. Every dollar we get comes stapled to a list of approved things we can spend it on. For example, technology dollars can only be spent on approved technology, safety money can only be spent on approved safety features, etc. And every so often, some federal auditors show up (picture a cross between an IRS agent and a mob enforcer) to make sure that the money is all being spent on the right stuff.

Well, every year the feds give us a bunch of teacher training funds. That means we can't use the money for productive things, like textbooks, or copies, or paying me a living wage. We can only use it for teacher training. The upside to this situation is that the government likes to hold their training's in places like San Diego in February rather than in Fargo, North Dakota in February. 

The other upside is all the free teacher swag that the vendors in the exhibition hall heap upon us as we sprint from class to class. Teachers LOVE free stuff.

So for four days, Rick and Cousin Cindy, and I spent about eight hours a day in training sessions, then spent our evenings doing a little sight-seeing.  And although I am sure that you would have loved to see lots of photos of me sitting in meetings, I decided to illustrate the things we learned during the day using photos of the things we did in the evenings.

We listened to experts share with us their visions of the future of education.

We rubbed elbows with some of the best full-time teachers in the world.

We learned new classroom management strategies. 

And even had a workshop on finding new avenues for school funding.

And we found out what will happen if our kidlets don't pass the new standardized test. 

We also ate in the BBQ joint where they filmed scenes from Top Gun. 

I realize the above comment had nothing to do with our conference sessions, but I just had to tell someone who might care. The kidlets, bless their hearts, were not at all impressed by this particular adventure, seeings as how they are too young to know/care about Top Gun or Tom Cruise. They were far more impressed by the dolphin I saw during a lunch break on Wednesday.

They were also pretty pleased with the bag of new low-odor whiteboard makers one of the vendors gifted me with. Because it turns out, Kidlets like free stuff too.