NTPRS 2011 - Tuesday

Well, it has been quite the conference already.  I've just gotten into my pajamas after day two of NTPRS 2011, and I am exhausted, but in a good way.  I am exhausted after being truly inspired, awestruck, humbled, energized, eager, and studious among other things.  These are all great things from my perspective, so let me explain a little more about how I've arrived here today.
Sunday was a day for travel and meeting and mingling.  I got up at a decent time to make the flight from CO to MO.  It went relatively well -- no unexpected problems.  When I arrived in STL, my bag was quickly available and the shuttle was conveniently waiting for me outside the baggage doors, so it was on to the hotel.  At the hotel is where I was met with the first inconvenience -- my room wasn't ready yet.  I had to wait an hour or so, but it was no big deal.  I got checked in once it was ready and then met my roommate after a couple minutes of being in the room.  I don't think I could have arranged a better roommate situation.  After talking for entirely too long, we headed down to the mixer BBQ where we met some really great people and sweated a lot.  We finally headed back up to our room after three hours outside and then chatted for a long time about our experiences. 
On Monday we began in the beginners group, which was to last 1.5 consecutive days.  After meeting Donna Tatum-Johns and Katya, learning a bit of Russian, and listening to an engaging talk by THE Dr. Stephen Krashen, we decided that the beginner track wasn't for us despite that we have only TPRSed for a year.  We went to our first "advanced" workshop with Carol Gaab (AMAZING) then finished the day with Michelle Whaley (INSPIRING!) before going to Dave and Buster's with some wonderful teachers.  We came home and crashed (not without talking passionately for far too long for sleep's sake...). 
Today was another fantastic day.  Another great day to be a TPRSer.  We started with the infamous Susie Gross and Betsy for some Contrastive Grammar, which was amazingly helpful.  Then we moved to Michael Miller and Barb Watson's Personalization workshop, and saw some pretty powerful stuff which made me excited to see my kids again.  We ate lunch at the Classroom Management table and met some great people and even snagged a ticket for tonight's excursion to  downtown STL.  Then we went to Ben Slavic's Beginning of the Year Personalization workshops, which was also very powerful. Then we went to the arch and out to dinner with another group of wonderful TPRSers.  Now we're wrapping things up before going to bed.  I hope to write more about each session, but at least share my notes on Google Docs, so keep checking back... if you're out there. :)

My last thoughts...It's been really refreshing to have a wonderfully inspirational, supportive and positive group to talk with, debate with, and learn from.  The stories that others share inspire me to continue to be the change I wish to see in the World Language classroom.  I am so grateful that I've been able to attend NTPRS 2011.