My visit is going well! The kids are great…really enthusiastic, not to mention well prepared for my visit! The teachers are great (well, except for the one teacher who slept through my presentation…the other teachers were listening and responding and nodding and smiling, though, so that helped. And like I said, the kids were enthusiastic. But gee, I really hate to put someone to sleep!)!
This is the first time I just brought my power point presentation on a flash drive. I used to bring my own laptop, cable and projector whenever I went somewhere. It’s SO much nicer to use the school’s setup (even when they have a Mac)!
I was happy with how my new K-1 presentation went). I heard a well known children’s book author speak at a writer’s conference a while back…his feeling was that school visits were “wasted” on kindergarteners and first graders. He felt kids that young didn’t get anything out of it. I’m not sure kindergarteners and first graders got much out of the presentation I USED to give, but I think it is absolutely possible for kids that young to get something out of your presentation — if you simplify!
In fact, while I was happy with the K-1 presentation today, I wondered if my how-a-book-gets-published segment went on a little too long for third graders (it seemed right for 4th-6th graders, but the 3rd graders got a little wiggly…a little silly, too)? So…ever the reviser, I did up a whole new presentation for second graders tonight. I was originally going to do the same presentation I did for 3-6, but I think I need one more level in here. Sort of a combination of the K-1 presentation and the 3-6 presentation. So that’s what I did. We’ll see how that goes tomorrow.
So I don’t just work while I’m here…I get to play tourist, too. Luverne sits on the edge of Blue Mounds State Park (I don’t know why they call it BLUE Mounds…the “mound” consists of RED quartzite), When I was finished speaking today, I went out there and did some hiking (and picture taking). What a cool place! (I grew up an hour and a half east of here, so I’ve been out there before, but not for many, many years!) I was careful climbing up to the quarry…it occured to me that I hadn’t seen a soul the whole time I’d been out there. Nobody in the world knew where I was (well, my husband did because I talked to him on the phone when I first started walking out there…until I lost cell phone service).
My husband called me a couple hours later. At first it sounded like he just wanted to make sure I made it back from the park okay (he doesn’t like it when I hike by myself)…but he had another issue. He and Preteen were on the way home from a concert that was supposed to start in half an hour. I thought I had put absolutely EVERYTHING on THE LIST. I certainly had the concert on THE LIST. I wrote down what time Preteen had to be at the high school…I wrote down what Preteen had to wear…the one thing I failed to include on the list was PUT THE CELLO IN THE CAR!!! (Who knew THE LIST had to be THAT detailed???) Ah well…I’ll be home tomorrow night. (And what I don’t know about the time I was gone won’t hurt me. Probably.)