Day two
of the conference is just about over. Sitting in my last session today I
thought of many things:
· How grateful I am to my district
for letting me come.
· How blessed I am to have a husband
who willingly pays what they don’t.
· How much I learn and soak in
during these brief days.
· What an amazing group of teachers
I know.
And
here’s the thing. I faced a lot of fears to get here. I abhor flying. Anxiety
that is almost paralyzing occurs when I’m on a plane. I do think it has
something to do with my control issues. Placing all of my trust in others is
scary. That being said, I did it.
Today was
my first presentation. I’ve presented in my own district before but this was
different. Shortly before our session we realized our room would be outside of
the main building and quite a trek. As I walked over I began to wonder if
anyone would walk that far to hear us. And then the doors opened. People began trickling
in. I quickly busied myself with helping Kellee set up the technology, then I
didn’t have to look up. J When I finally did, I saw this:
Oh my
goodness. My heart was pounding. But you know what? I think it went well. I was
super nervous when it was my time to talk but quickly saw familiar faces,
friends I’ve met through Twitter. They nodded, smiled at me, encouraged me on.
Thank you all – you have no idea how much that meant.
And, as
always with these types of conferences, there are not enough minutes in the day.
I ran from meetings, to sessions, to presentations, to the exhibit hall and
more meetings, to more sessions. And no matter how much I hurried, I couldn’t
see it all, and that’s ok.
What I’ve come away with on day two is how amazing teaching is. Sir Ken Robinson started us off this morning with inspiring words. And teacher and authors kept me thinking all day long. Finishing up this day with writing advice from Jeff Anderson and Mark Overmeyer was fuel to the fire. I started this blog almost a year ago after NCTE 2011 made me want to write. This conference has continued to add to that passion. Can’t wait to see what tomorrow has in store.
