GACTE, BCS, & Passion Tea Oh My

Today was Division Programs Day at the 64th Annual GACTE and it couldn't have begun any better. I know it sounds crazy but they actually had my FAVORITE TAZO Tea, Passion Tea, as my students would say OMG! It made up for the fact that I had to hustle myself over to the Waverly this morning at 8AM on a summer day.

My first session was entitled, "Quick, Easy ways to Become A Standards-Based Classroom (MS &HS). To be honest, in the past my favorite thing about these workshops were finding new ideas to incorporate into my classroom which has always meant lugging home tons of paper. Not this time. It seems like every session I attended offered to email you the material or provided you a link for the material. Won't Al Gore be so very happy?

I was looking forward to the second session, "Engaging Pupils in the Classroom by Embedding Projects into the Curriculum (HS)" because it promised a project resource CD for all attendees! Obviously others felt the same way because the session was packed and I had heard people discussing that this was why they chose to attend that particular session.

While the instructor did not have those CD's available, she did have a very good reason and her presentation made up for leaving empty handed.

I was going to eat lunch with the people in my area, I changed my mind last minute. The reason for this was that while other instructors were filing out of their sessions they began heading over to the tables which were almost completely set. A few teachers headed over to various tables when a couple of women at the Dias that were part of GACTE asked them to just wait. Then a few more people began heading for the tables and the women had to repeat themselves. I just didn't feel like hugging the walls, staring at tables, like a vulture waiting for its turn at the carcass.

I decided to head on over to Cumberland Mall instead and pick a restaurant. While I was trying to decide between a couple of restaurants I'd never been too, I decided to visit the Cheesecake Factory because they last time I'd eaten there it was SO good.

I ordered the Santa Fe Salad from the lunch menu but trust me, even though they say it's smaller, it's still HUGE. I had to divide it in half and bring the other half back to the hotel for another meal. Thank goodness I didn't eat the bread because then I wouldn't have been able to eat my half serving of salad.

Of course, I couldn't very well have gone to the Cheesecake Factory and NOT had any cheesecake now could I? I guess I could, technically I did, but I did ask them to pack that up to go also. It was so very hard to decide but I decided to try the vanilla bean cheesecake which I will share with my husband on Wednesday when I go home.

I arrived back at the Waverly just in time to watch the hotel staff serve a steak to the other attendees. I did wonder if perhaps I'd made the wrong choice, but I don't think I'll be regretting my choice when I'm eating that cheesecake later.

I finally took the opportunity to head on over to the hotel pool and swim a little bit as well as take advantage of the whirlpool.

There is a GACTE Networking Reception but I probably won't be attending. I still feel a bit uncomfortable when I'm around others in a room where I hardly know anyone. I say this even though I did briefly attend the small mixer here at the hotel and I did take a seat at one of the tables in the Business Education luncheon even though I didn't eat anything.

I didn't wind up babbling or analyzing every word I said, berating myself for every perceived mistake. I spoke with a teacher from Thomasville City Schools who owns a coffee shop and he explained to me about why Starbucks has such a bitter taste. It was really very interesting.

As I write this post the sky has finally opened wide and there heavy pouring rain is providing a respite from today's heat despite warnings of dangerous lightning, and gusty winds.

Unfortunately, the Weather Service has issued another heat advisory for metro Atlanta for Wednesday for heat indices topping 105. Can you say HOT?

What I Learned At GACTE

 

 

For the next several days I will be attending the 64th Annual GACTE Conference. 

As I explained yesterday I wound up arriving much later than I had originally hoped to arrive but after breakfast today I headed over to registration to retrieve my packet. 

I wound up bumping into two of my co-workers. Each of us all had the same question, "Did you see the boss?" We all had the same reason to ask this question because we all wanted to make sure that she knew that we had shown up and attended all of the meetings. 

 
The first General Interest Session I attended was entitled, "Engage, Excite, Educate! It was conducted by Dr. Marilyn Skinner who I thought had a plethora of online resources available for teachers to use in the classroom. Some I had already known about but others were new and I'm excited about investigating them further.

The second General Interest Session I attended was entitled job Search Readiness-The New job Market and How to Help Students Succeed. As the media reminds us constantly, we are living in the new normal and I for one have been worried about how I can help my students find a job after graduation. 

Several things impressed me about this session and one of them was the fact that Judi Adams of RightChanges.biz actually spelled out to those in attendance the TRUE Unemployment numbers. When I explained them to my students many of them had no idea that the real unemployment numbers are between 16%-20% but the government is quick not to calculate them in a more transparent manner and therefore release the unemployment figure as being 9.2%. 

After the morning workshops my co-worker and I headed out for lunch over to Schlotzsky's. I don't know if I'd ever eaten there before but i can tell you that I really loved their Greek salad. I probably would have liked it even more if I hadn't managed to get a large squirt of salad dressing on the front of my dress.

At 2PM I was able to view the Career Tech Expo and view the various exhibitors tables. I also got to enter to winner some of these exciting prizes:
IPad2-Night Weekend Stay at the Renaissance Waverly with Breakfast for 2
iPod Touch
and other prizes donated by exhibitors. Wish me luck. They will be drawing for prizes on Wednesday and you can only win if you attend the GACTE Awards Brunch and Business Meeting on July 13th

In order to receive learning credit for this conference I had to pick up all conference materials at the registration desk and attend all activities and breakout session. Approximately one month after the conference concludes, I will be sent an e-mail which includes a link allowing me to evaluate the conference. This survey will require the CTAERN password, which allows GACTE to confirm participants ho have completed the final required evaluation step. Once I have completed the on-line survey I will be issued a Professional Learning Contact Hour Certficate that reflects the 20 contact hours recommended for participation in this conference.