Teacher Workshops

There are two types of teacher workshops I’ve attended.  The first type I call the "Dog and Pony" Show, and the second type you actually learn something new.  There are also conferences which can be both — I’ll also explain why I don’t like conferences.

A "Dog and Pony" Show is usually divided up in small sections.  Both the CS&IT Symposium and the STEM Conference I went to a few weeks ago were dog and pony shows. Basically someone gets up for an hour or so and demonstrates something they’ve done.  Usually they give you a list of links for more detail.

These exhaust me.  They also frustrate me because I want the details. 

The workshops I like best is where you learn new skills.  AP Workshops are usually this type, though there are often short "dog and pony" shows thrown in them.  The Alice/Media Computation workshop in Las Vegas should be a working workshop. 

These are also exhausting, but I feel good afterwards because I’ve left with a new skill or two.

Now I really hate conferences, especially TCEA.  I went several years on DISD’s dimes, and let me tell you, I always lose money on those.  One reason is that I am really not comfortable sharing a room with someone and making them put up with my CPAP machine.  The old ones I had made me sound like Darth Vadar while I was sleeping.

The other problem is that they never have enough sessions or seats in those sessions.  What you usually have to do, is stake out a seat in a room where your session that you really want to hear and stay through the boring stuff. 

What really made me quit going to those was the last one I went to, can’t even remember what yet, but I ended up losing a small fortune and getting frustrated.  Someone stole the cord on my laptop during the presentation.  I know I very carefully packed everything, but didn’t realize that my laptop cord was not there!  I checked later with the people who were responsible for making things go smoothly and they didn’t find it either.  Back in those days, your laptop turned into a brick in about two hours without the cord.  So I had to order one, and that was before the ebay days when you could get one from an OEM and had to order them at the manufacturers price.  It certainly wasn’t worth the trip and haven’t been back since.  I think I ended up losing about $500.00 total between the fact that the district didn’t cover all the costs AND the cord.