August 5, 2007

• I have quite a bit to blog about, but, honestly, I am too tired to do it now. Honestly. Pages and pages of notes from this last week sit in my professional laptop-holding bag…
  So, I guess the best way to prepare my readers (however many there are of ya’ll) is to say there will be a lot of research/poetry/application comin’ your way.
  
  Oddly enough, I’ve never felt uncomfortable reflecting on conferences I’ve been to until now. Perhaps it’s because, in my picky and egotistical way, I am worried about the consequences of my honesty. At any rate, I don’t feel that this week was as valuable to me as it could’ve been. I feel like there needed to be a more balanced approach to the application sessions versus the theory & history sessions. The speakers we had were fabulous; however, most of me thinks, “Okay, I’m glad you’ve told me the in’s and out’s of China/Siberia/Japan right now, but how does that pertain to my module or classroom or upcoming semester?”
  
  I’m picky; I’m anal-retentive. I like to get A LOT out of conferences/workshops. And, just like classrooms, they can only get better with revision. The people I met, as an important sidenote, made the conference more than it was to begin with. Perhaps there were circumstances beyond their control that caused us to not have the access to internet we’d hoped for, or the amount of time we wanted with speakers, but still… the people (after hearing them “out” for a week) made the conference spectacular. One needs to attend a little of each… conferences with okay content and wonderful people and conferences with amazing content & research and more “alone” time. This conference/workshop was one of the former, for me in particular.

  I have other much more critical things to state (and they are constructive too), but I shall keep them to myself. I feel already that I have said too much here and in person with the directors at the last dinner we all had together.

  • 1:11 am
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