August 20, 2004

• I have been away for most of the past week attending a professional conference held at Breezy Point Resort located near Piquot Lakes, MN. It’s a lovely resort that offers boating, golf, swimming, and multiple other activities. Of course, I was in meetings from breakfast at 7:30 a.m. to the after dinner socials ending at 11:00 p.m., so I did not really see much of the resort, but I knew it was there. Don’t you wonder why they do that? Hold professional conferences in gorgeous settings and keep you so busy that you see those settings mostly in the brochure pictures, I mean? I am one of those people who feels compelled to attend all the meetings. I am always afraid I will get caught if I don’t, or miss something that is essential to my future success in my job, so I don’t skip out. We had meals on the outdoor deck from time to time, though, so I did see the lake on those occasions. It’s a nice lake. It has water and everything.

  The sessions I attended (there were multiple sessions occurring concurrently) were all very good. I presented two sessions with a partner, and nobody booed or threw rotten vegetables at us, so I guess we did all right. I got a couple of nice free books at the vender fair and picked up some great handouts on various topics at the sessions, so, all in all, it was a beneficial experience.

  On Wednesday after lunch, there was an awards ceremony. One of my students, Maria, received an award as the outstanding student from our area of the state. She’s really an amazing student and it was exciting to see her honored. She is from Mexico. Her family was very poor and lived on a remote ranch, so they chose not to send her to school. She learned to read in Spanish by picking up match boxes along the roadside and studying the letters and words on them. She learned to write by copying those letters and words in the dirt with a stick. When she came to the United States, she learned English by listening to English speakers. She also had about six months of ESL instruction. She came to my classes two years ago stating that she wanted to work on her GED. That’s a pretty ambitious goal for someone with no education who grew up without even radio or television as a source of information. She is a brilliant woman, though, and was willing to do any amount of work I gave her. This spring, she took her GED in English and passed it on the first try. It was a remarkable achievement and she deserved the recognition she got. It was a thrill to see her standing up on the podium while her story was read to the conference attendees.

  My boss, Becki, also received an award for leadership in adult education. She, too, is very deserving of the honor. She is a very supportive administrator who trusts her teachers to do what they are supposed to do and to manage their classes. She is always there to help when needed, but never micro manages. She makes it much easier to be a good teacher.

  It was a productive week with long hours and I returned home tired but enthusiastic about trying to implement some of the things I learned. That’s how it should be after a conference, I think.

  • 10:52 pm
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