Nebraska Art Teacher Association

Well I did it...

I presented at my state convention...

and I survived!

It was a bit nerve wracking (it is a lot easier to feel confident in front of 30 5th/6th graders than 15 of your peers) but it was also a lot of fun.  I had to switch things up a bit with the computer.  My feedly account wouldn't open in internet explores but would in foxfire and even then I couldn't get my account to open but could start a new one... and ended up starting one for the person who presented before me.  I ended up running through my PowerPoint and then demonstrating which means I covered the information faster than planned to and jumped around more than I wanted to but the people I knew in the presentation said they could follow what I was doing.  (they were my friends though....hmmmm).

I have to send a huge thank you out to Timothy Bogatz (check him out at  http://eastartroom.wordpress.com/) who presented right before me.  He helped me get through the computer glitches, taught me about how to use twitter without it being a time suck (thank you tweetdeck) and he allowed me to start him a Feedly account in which he is following some girly home improvement blogs I love.

It was definitely different spending a few days wandering around my college stomping grounds with one of my best college buddies.  I felt like I could be right back in the swing of things ... until I over heard some "real" college kids say, "look there goes some adults. Bet they are here for that art conference."

Wayne State College did a great job of hosting us and two things really stand out to me...

#1 How much work the college art ed students did.  They were everywhere; presenting, guiding, running the show.  They even recreated their "Black Box Theater" for us.  They painted clear plastic with florescent paint and hung them in a black room with black lights.  It was really awesome!  You walked in and were blown away.  

#2 The Sistine Chapel at the planetarium.  The WSC science staff used their planetarium technology to allow us to sit and enjoy the Sistine Chapels's ceiling.  It was awesome!