Sorry a couple of days have gone by since you’ve heard from us. I was banned from blogging.
Jackie Medley and I are great partners on these trips and apparently, she believes that my sleep at this point in our trip was much more important than posting a blog and pictures. I guess she’s right. Managing 18 students wandering around a hotel is not an easy task. I feel like a border collie….herding cats…in a thunderstorm…at night. You get the picture. At least they all have been focused on the task at hand. I make it sound much worse than it was. Overall, our kids have been very good.
At least, as I sit on this plane flying back to Atlanta, I am convinced that coming back home with the same kids you left with is certainly right up there on my list of field trip successes.
The kids have been excited to show us their finished videos and, barring the technical problems that the conference coordinators had, I’ve been able to see about half of the projects. We can’t wait to show them to you.
One student, Elon Sanders, made friends with another school and at that point, we had a hard time keeping him with us. I found him yesterday morning eating breakfast in the restaurant with them. We had a talk. Making friends, good – wandering off, bad.
We’re exhausted. Friday’s contest day was a whirlwind of activity, just like Thursday. Kids all over the hotel and surrounding areas, cameras and mics in hand with looks of determination on their faces dotted the landscape. Some kids were really excited about how they did with their competition, some not so sure. The best news to come out of the contest days is that we got third place in the Music Soundtrack competition! Congratulations goes to Laura Garcia and Hannah Davis!
Saturday’s closing ceremonies was fast-paced and began with a video compilation of all the schools who sent in video set to high energy music. We saw ourselves. We also were supposed to hear from keynote speaker Bob Woodruff from CBS news, but he got sent oversees on assignment and his wife spoke on his behalf. A journalist herself, she was an amazing speaker. Student emcees presented the awards and we saw snippets of the winning pieces, the format much like the Academy awards, minus the acceptance speeches.
With the awards ceremony over, we decided to check out Universal Studios for the second half of the day. We got a half-day pass to both Universal and its sister park and rode rollercoasters, saw shows, ate sweets and bought souvenirs. Frankly, I’m not sure how t
hey had the energy to do any of this, but we ended up staying past 9pm to watch the parade and the Mardi Gras celebration. We all got beads thrown from the floats as they rode by.
We were the best dressed, most mature group of students at this conference I believe. Jasmine Walton agreed with me when I said it to them out loud. “We ARE a good looking group!” she said with enthusiasm. They have been fun to travel with.
Jackie Medley and I are great partners on these trips and apparently, she believes that my sleep at this point in our trip was much more important than posting a blog and pictures. I guess she’s right. Managing 18 students wandering around a hotel is not an easy task. I feel like a border collie….herding cats…in a thunderstorm…at night. You get the picture. At least they all have been focused on the task at hand. I make it sound much worse than it was. Overall, our kids have been very good.
At least, as I sit on this plane flying back to Atlanta, I am convinced that coming back home with the same kids you left with is certainly right up there on my list of field trip successes.
The kids have been excited to show us their finished videos and, barring the technical problems that the conference coordinators had, I’ve been able to see about half of the projects. We can’t wait to show them to you.
One student, Elon Sanders, made friends with another school and at that point, we had a hard time keeping him with us. I found him yesterday morning eating breakfast in the restaurant with them. We had a talk. Making friends, good – wandering off, bad.
We’re exhausted. Friday’s contest day was a whirlwind of activity, just like Thursday. Kids all over the hotel and surrounding areas, cameras and mics in hand with looks of determination on their faces dotted the landscape. Some kids were really excited about how they did with their competition, some not so sure. The best news to come out of the contest days is that we got third place in the Music Soundtrack competition! Congratulations goes to Laura Garcia and Hannah Davis!
Saturday’s closing ceremonies was fast-paced and began with a video compilation of all the schools who sent in video set to high energy music. We saw ourselves. We also were supposed to hear from keynote speaker Bob Woodruff from CBS news, but he got sent oversees on assignment and his wife spoke on his behalf. A journalist herself, she was an amazing speaker. Student emcees presented the awards and we saw snippets of the winning pieces, the format much like the Academy awards, minus the acceptance speeches.
With the awards ceremony over, we decided to check out Universal Studios for the second half of the day. We got a half-day pass to both Universal and its sister park and rode rollercoasters, saw shows, ate sweets and bought souvenirs. Frankly, I’m not sure how t
hey had the energy to do any of this, but we ended up staying past 9pm to watch the parade and the Mardi Gras celebration. We all got beads thrown from the floats as they rode by.We were the best dressed, most mature group of students at this conference I believe. Jasmine Walton agreed with me when I said it to them out loud. “We ARE a good looking group!” she said with enthusiasm. They have been fun to travel with.
We look forward to seeing you guys Monday morning.
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