Friday morning, I wanted to make sure I made it to Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club in time for our 9:30 presentation, so I woke up early, hopped on a shuttle and arrived…90 minutes early.
My colleagues on the panel arrived not long after me, and we made sure the tech worked and I nervously paced and hoped the room would fill up–after all, it could hold 200 people…
I tried so hard to be in the moment and soak up the experience of presenting at a national conference, but the moments passed quickly, and before I knew it, I was on the shuttle back to the Coronado Springs Resort for afternoon sessions.
I attended a session by Rosanne Parry, Sarah Lewis Holmes, and Suzanne Morgan Williams about Young Adult Lit for military kids. Their perspectives were enlightening for two reasons: first, I teach at a high school near one of the largest Air Force Bases in the country, and second, I had never thought about writing fiction from an adolescent military dependent point of view. Bellevue Public Schools does quite a bit to emotionally support military students, but some of these books these authors discussed would be great additions and avenues with which to reach students who are concerned about their parents’ service.
Next up was a session titled “What Is College Writing?” That’s a post unto itself. But I’ll share here the best sound bite: “Parents need to learn that AP means Advanced Placement, not Advanced Exemption.” I know I get so caught up in worrying about my students passing the AP exam–with a 3–that I forget a 3 is actually a C.
I needed to process all that information from that session, so I wandered the exhibition hall, picked up a couple of books, signed up for some desk copies of books that would be helpful in writing curriculum, and then retreated to the gorgeous evening to grade papers.
I ended up instead talking for several hours with a professor from Western Washington University about a variety of topics–a perfectly lovely end to a perfectly lovely day.
I’m sifting through a ton of tweets to figure out what to share for Twitter Tuesday…til then…
