It's been a few days since I got back from the 2nd annual New Mexico Teacher Summit. I have been meaning to post about it once I got back home but it was very exhausting. However, that was good. The whole conference was go, go, go! I am going to give you a detailed description of the two day event.
Monday, June 26th
7:00 a.m. - Carpool to Albuquegue.
Three of my teacher friends showed up at my house so one of us could drive to the conference. We spent the trip chatting and catching up. We stopped in Cline's Corners to use the restroom and take a selfie
10:00 a.m. - Arrive in Albuquerque
We drove around and found our hotels. Most of us were staying at the Hyatt Regency but one of us stayed at the Hotel Albuquerque. After checking in we went to register at the conference. After registration we went and took funny selfies.
12:00 - Lunch and Opening Session
We were four of 1,000 teachers that were at this conference. The place was packed. As we ate our lunch of a salad, enchiladas, and chocolate cake, we listened to many presenters. Some were good and some were not good.
2:30 - The Power of Close Reading and The New Mexico Dream Team
It was time for our first breakout session. I was really excited for the one. I love close reading and was looking for new ways to freshen it up in my classroom. That's not what I got. However, you can see our excitement by this photo.
The session was more about accessing their website to find close reading lessons. Again, sounds great, right!? Well, for first grade there were about 6 lessons to choose from and most of them had to do with the Gingerbread stories. These will come in handy during Christmas time.
4:00 - Istation Make n' Take: A Foldable
It is a state requirement to assess all K-3 students on Istation. This past year was our first year using it and it seems promising. However, we received very little training on it. So, this was another session that I was looking forward to. It was great. It was fast paced and engaging. I now have a resource that I can keep by my desk to reference when I have questions.
5:30 - Dinner and End of Day One General Session
We ate a dinner of salad, chicken, asparagus, and mashed potatoes. We also had carrot cake for desert. All very yummy! The presenters were the New Mexico Teacher of the Year, Stephanie Gurule-Leyba. All very inspiring!
8:00 - Hotel and drinks
We ended our day by stopping by our rooms to drop off our stuff then we headed down stairs for drinks. We went to a really nice lounge that was on the first floor of our hotel. It was so nice that the margaritas I had were $10 a piece. Didn't know at the time of ordering so you can imagine our surprise when we got our bill. LOL! It was a great time catching up and visiting. Here's a photo of the drinks.
That wraps up day 1!
