After a day at a younger educators conference

I am feeling so energized!
Myself and 3 other teachers from my school went to a conference yesterday and I have to say that I walked away from each of the 4 seminars that I attended feeling energized and that I learned something valuable not only for my classroom life but my own life as well. Not to mention it was enjoyable being out with colleagues in a different setting.

The one seminar I took the most away from was "Children with Challenging Behaviors". First off the presenter was fabulous. She was not only knowledgeable but also very engaging. Her delivery of a great deal of her material reminded me of a stand up comedian and I certainly mean that in a good way.
She gave me a great deal to think about in terms on the kids in my classroom but also my own Little Man and Girlie Girlie. And finally some ways to deal with the behaviors I am seeing. I am hoping to be able to put alot of that to good use so that I can strengthen my relationship with both my children -- especially as they grow older by the minute.

Alot of the others that I attended centered around kids and the disconnect they have with nature and the outdoors. Which I do agree with. It's certainly not like when I was growing up and played outside nearly every day in the summer until the street lights came on, or spent weeks at my grandparents playing with the neighbor kids in the creek in my gram and pap's back yard. What I took away from all of them was that we as parents need to slow down, relax and revel in the newness of the world through our children's eyes. For many of them they are seeing things for the first time and we need to be engaging and encouraging.
Hopefully I can do many of the things that I learned from my seminars with my own children and those in my class.

I just know that it was a worthwhile day spent in exploration and learning for myself. I am very happy that I attended.