Anchorage Continued

Well all that good energy and excitement has relaxed a little. I'm totally pooped from all the classes and taxis and all that. I couldn't find a cool hotel downtown tonight so I think I'll stay one more night at Kay's. I'm going to be heading back to Mekoryuk early because the post conference classes for credit don't exactly meet my needs. Also, I need to get back to my kids, a week away from class is a lot.

I thought I lost my Nalgene bottle so I bought a new one. Then I found my old one, and last night my new Nalgene bottle fell out of my bag somewhere in a taxi or a restaurant. I had bought a clip for it and a sippy thingy and it was all tricked out and I totally put 2 stickers on it already. This totally ticks me off. I'm actually very upset about it.

So tomorrow I'm going to fly out, try to catch a connecting flight in Bethel and make it back to the island by tomorrow night. Now many of you might be thinking I'm crazy. But I realized I don't really like Anchorage a super lot. I also realized everything here costs money, and I don't really want to spend 2 more nights paying for food and lodging and taxis. Also, everywhere I go I see cool stuff I want to buy and its driving me crazy and one of the few things I have bought I lost and it made me furious. Its like I've only been in the crazy commercial world a couple of days and I'm already getting upset about money and shopping and crap.

On a more positive note, I have been learning so much at this conference that I feel like I'm going to teach from a totally different perspective from now on. I have always had values and wishes for my class but never really knew what or how I could efficiently do it. This conference has given me so many foundational understandings of how to really help students, faculty and myself achieve our dreams for ourselves and our communities.

I want to share everything I've learned on Self Determination in Students, Positive Behavioral Supports, Person Centered Planning, Student Run IEP's and all kinds of amazing things but I can't. I'll write about all of it when I return as well as get to the Reader's Choice Topic.

Hope everything is going well and I'll be home on Nunivak shortly I HOPE!