Faithfully Flirty 30's: Chicago Conference-Day 3

I did SO well posting the first two days of the conference and I was super excited that I kept all the details in each day, WELL, as you can tell I am about a week late on the last two days of the conference. I still want to blog them so I am going to do each day in a separate post. They probably won't be filled with as much excitement but I still want to document it.......

Sunday started out EARLY, we didn't want to have the same problem as Saturday getting into the classes we wanted. The following picture is hilarious, it doesn't really show how many people truly in the line, but this was the Starbucks at the convention center on Sunday morning (proof that teachers are addicts of caffeine!)

We showed up to the conference center (which was located on MLK Drive, which was cool since I teach at MLK Middle School. We said it was destiny that we were there!) I got into Doug Fisher and Nancy Frey's session and it was AMAZING! They had the best ideas and it was all about things that I want to incorporate into my classroom. I took copious notes and just soaked in their genius.

I am a nerd! This makes sense to me AND

makes me all excited. LOL

After the first session(there were two before lunch), we made our way to the General Session where we got a MAJOR treat. Maya Angelou was to be there and speak to us. I was very excited to be in the presence of someone who has touched so many lives with her talent and writing. She came out and started her speech with a slave hymn about the clouds and how when they thought nothing else could go good a rainbow peaked out of the clouds. She explained that the hymn came from Genesis and how God placed a rainbow in the sky when things for Noah looked very bleak. She then made the connection with her own life and told us about her life and how when things seems their worst God would give her a rainbow. She told us that because we are teachers we ARE somebody's rainbow. It was really beautiful. They way she speaks, it was like nothing I've ever experienced before. Her words saturate the soul.

After Maya, which was a highlight of the day and nothing really topped her! We went to two different afternoon sessions, which were also very good. Both were done by two different authors--very big in the teaching profession. Before leaving the convention center for the afternoon we stopped at a digital sign, they had them all over the center, and took our picture with the whole group. It was really cool, you could touch the sign and mess with it and it would tell you things about Chicago and stuff, but the thing we liked most was the picture feature. Following is the ONLY two pictures we took as a group. Just so ya know, my Principal, two Vice Principals, two Academic Coaches, and one Math teacher are in the picture. We had fun.

After leaving the convention center it was pizza time!! It was very delicious and our waiter was SO nice. It was the first time on the trip that we actually had some good service, don't know how Chicago rates on service, but we didn't experience much hospitality. Chicago pizza has the sauce on top, and I am a lover of sauce so naturally I LOVED the pizza.

After the pizza we walked back to the hotel and we all made our way into the random gift shop that the hotel supplies for travelers just like us. It was our last night and we needed something to prove that we had actually traveled to Illinois. Well when we were there I saw a picture of "The Bean" and I freaked out because I remembered that was on my list of must see's in Chicago. I couldn't stop talking about it and that caused my Vice Principal to look up where it was, lucky us, it was only .6 miles away. I decided that I was willing to walk it and a few others decided they wanted to come along. Let me tell you, it seems like it would be just a stupid big huge metal sculpture, but I am here to tell you it was art. I loved it and thought it was just beautiful. The way in which it reflected light made the evening feel magical. When we got there I just took it all in and thanked God that we got to see it. It was a night I won't soon forget.