This week is going to be a super busy one!
We will be at the ROE in Charleston on Wednesday for an evening session. Mom and I are going head-to-head for a Web 2.0 Smackdown! Don’t worry, I will keep you posted on who wins. If I had to predict, it would be me. I might have a little competitive streak in me. Just a little.
Friday we will be getting EARLY to head to Springfield for the IETC conference. A SMARTBoard session is in order. We have put together 10 Ways to Get SMARTer. It was SO hard to decide what to include. I wish the session was longer than 50 minutes so we could include more. Including something for all levels of SMARTBoard users along with subject areas, and grade levels was a challenge, but I think we have managed to do it.
After the conference on Friday, we are heading up to Chicago to join @principalspage for the IASB convention. While we have been attending this conference for quite a few years now, it will be the first time to present there. We are teaming up with Dr. Richard Voltz for a Top 10 Technology session in which we will count down our favorite ways to incorporate the use of technology in our classrooms. Dr. Voltz will be presenting his Top 10 and will explain how they apply from an adminstrator’s point of view. We will present ours from the classroom perspective, obviously. Can’t wait!
Updates will be posted once we have time to catch our breath. It has been a super busy fall and I can’t believe that we have neglected the blog for as long as we have. It is time for that neglect to come to an end.
Shannon
It happens every year, a large group forms to reunite, socialize, be entertained, and exchange the latest and greatest in their field. No, I am not actually writing about American Idol, but instead the Regional Office of Education’s Fall Classic Teachers’ Institute Day. This year was hands-down one of the best for Mom and me. Actually I can’t speak for Mom, but I thought it was GREAT!.
My niece, Allison, came into our lives thirty years ago. She has provided us with a glimpse of another world that we can’t begin to understand, only because we are limited in both our intellect and ability to “see” things the way she does. As a child, Allison “danced with the fairies” and was lost in thoughts that we could only wish to share with her. She was first diagnosed with significant developmental delays with “islands of ability” or possible “childhood schizophrenia”. When Allison was five, her pediatrician called my sister, Diana, at work. He had just returned from attending a conference in California and was very excited to have found an “answer”. Allison eventually was “labeled” autistic, and was placed in special classes in schools in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Diana worked as a political consultant at the state and federal levels, and used any and all connections she had to educate herself on autism. She became an officer in the Autism Society of America, and became proactive in securing the best help to enable Allison to become all she could be. Eventually we learned that Allison’s symptoms were best described as Asperger’s Syndrome, and she was not only very high functioning, but had an IQ that was far above anyone else in our family. When she was twelve, Allison described to me a book that she was reading about “parallel universes” in terms I could understand. My “Allison Stories” include finding piles of miniature notebook pages under her bed with hieroglyphics of different thoughts and messages filling each page, all easily translated by her at the age of eight. On a visit I took her to buy a bathing suit, and she absolutely needed the black one-piece with a huge beautiful sequined pineapple filling the front. How could I refuse? She loved nothing more than to sit in front of the television under a huge open golf umbrella watching Comedy Central and laughing with the audience. Her humor is quick, dry, and catches you off-guard bringing you to your knees. She has been to “Burning Man”, belonged to a tango club, belly-dances, and has taken Diana and me on a trip to southern France for the “Gathering of the Gypsies”. On our trip to Paris, her first request was to go to the cemetery to see the grave of Jim Morrison. On our trip through the Louvre, she was our personal guide. Just this past Sunday her post on Facebook read, 
The participants during our sessions were delightful. It was fun to see so many of them taking notes and asking questions about our ideas and how to implement them. We really enjoyed the morning and especially enjoyed getting to meet one of the members of our PLN (Nadine) in person. In fact, she is the one who took this picture!
Mom and I usually like to go out to eat for lunch after our presentations as a way to reflect and enjoy one another’s company. Today we made a trek down the road to Whole Foods, the Mecca of healthy eating grocery stores. I think I may have heard the Hallelujah Chorus play as I pulled into my parking spot (thanks again to that GPS for getting us there with NO problems!). We did some shopping for things that I definitely can’t get in Central IL and then had lunch in the cafe area where they have the best selection of hot and cold bar foods from which to choose.
