Saturday Report

I slept well last night. The mattresses here are dreamy; floating on a spongey white cloud dreamy. Fluffy down pillows, down comforters, and a mattress that eats you up when you sleep...I'm thinking about it as I type. Yes, I am THAT tired and it's not quite 9pm.

I met my new teacher friend Pat for breakfast. We walked across the street to Coco's instead of paying $15.00 for eggs, potatoes and toast at the hotel. Afterwards I relaxed for a bit and then attended my first session of the day. Unfortunately, I wasn't impressed with the first one I attended; therefore I hopped to the next room and that was equally boring. The presenters seemed so dull, I can't imagine how they keep their high school student's attention; especially considering teens have the attention span of a 4 year old.

The second session was great. Entitled: "Papers, Papers, Papers: Helping Teachers Handle the Paper Load" by Carol Jago, I actually got valuable information I can see using in the future. Besides useful information, she is a fun and energetic presenter which is much appreciated by this tired teacher. Some interesting and startling statistics she shared:
Teacher attrition rates:
•after 5 years, 40%-50% leave
•60% say too heavy work load
•Total teacher turnover costs nation over 4billion each year

The next presentation was by Jane Schaffer "Teaching the Counter-argument in Persuasive Writing". Again, this was useful for me since my school has adopted her writing program. She does full trainings but since I'm new I haven't had any. This brief and rapid session will most defintely be useful.

Something I haven't shared about are the meals. Since the school bought the full packages for those of us who attended, all the banquets have been included. Thankfully, my pants still fit, even though I've been eating WELL. The only thing with the banquets that is an issue is the awards and speeches. There have been some great keynote speakers but the intros to them have lasted longer than some of the speeches. UGH!

One of the nicest parts of the night was the President's Reception. This was a by invite only reception. Open bar, foo-foo foods like some raw meat with caviar (no I didn't partake), lots of grilled veggies (mmmm asparagus), veggie egg rolls, bread, and other stuff this Jewish vegetarian won't eat. It was lovely to have been invited. The chair for the entire convention is a teacher at my school; I guess sometimes it's of value to know the right people.

Right now I'm sitting in what is considered the hotel lobby but it's a quite large and open lounge area. This hotel is sort of neat because although I am indoors, the entire hotel lobby, restaurant, registration etc is enclosed in glass; almost like a green house. The glass windows extend to the roof so it's quite spacious and filled with various trees, even outdoor style lighting and umbrellas. it's quite a nice ambience. So...I'm going to continue sipping this beer while I relax. I'm ready to sleep and will be in bed by 10:00am. As a matter of fact, I'm strongly considering waking up and leaving in the morning. I have to drive home. I need to rest. I have stuff to do to prepare for the work week. I can tell this will be an exhausting one.
Sigh...I'm so read for my Europe trip!