Saturday December 5th in Denver

Hi Everyone! Saturday was a very busy day for us, as it was the last day of the conference and a big travel day. Everyone was leaving Denver and it was crowded and busy trying to get out of there!

We had a terrific workshop with the students who came with us. They ran a workshop for all the adults at the conference, because they came to Denver to learn how to be leaders in Diversity. They did a fantastic job and I will post pictures of this soon.

We are all very tired, because we got home at about midnight, and then still had to travel to our houses. I got in my bed at 1:30 am in the morning! It was a great conference, but I was glad to be home and in my own bed.

The teachers had a lot of fun, but we missed the Pingry Holiday party back in New Jersey. So, instead, we went out to a wonderful place and had a chocolate fondue dessert celebration. It was really, really fun and delicious! I had a lot of fun with my friends from all over the country and learned lots of new things. I look forward to sharing it with the Pingry community in the months ahead!

See you on Monday! I brought everyone a pencil from Denver! Now you have pencils from 2 states! Love, Ms. SW

Day TWO in Denver!

Hello from Denver, again! We are having a great time, but it is sooooo busy! Today when we got up it was a little warmer! It was 11 degrees instead of 8 degrees like the day before! There is still snow on the ground, but just a little and they have done a good job of shoveling the sidewalks. The sun is shining, so hopefully it will warm up just a little!

This morning, I went to hear an AWESOME speaker names Charlene Teters. She is a Native American woman from the Spokane tribe in Washington State. She is an artist and does a lot of work around making people aware about why it is not appropriate to have mascots for college and professional sports teams that are Indian names. When she was getting her masters degree in fine arts at the University of Illinois, she was one of only two Native American students at the entire school. Their mascot is an Indian chief. She talked about how she felt watching the whole school make fun of Native Americans. She has worked very hard since then to make sure that people understand that this is not a good thing to do. It was very interesting and at times the people in the audience were very sad for her.

This afternoon I am in something called an affinity group. I am in a room full of only African American teachers. I am enjoying being in a room with a bunch of men and women who look just like me and teach in schools. I met a very nice teacher from a school in Morris Plains and I have seen some friends from Morristown Beard, Far Hills Country Day and Dwight Englewood Schools. I have also seen lots of my friends who teach at the private schools in NYC where I used to teach.

Did you figure out who my roommate is? It's Ms. Mehta!! We have been having lots and lots of deep conversations about all the things we are learning here. While I was with all the African American teachers, she was in a room with all the Southeast Asian Teachers. She too felt a nice comfort level being in a room with lots of people who look like her. Put on your thinking caps and think about why that might make a big difference to us.

The next thing I am going to do is go to a State meeting. All the schools from NJ will be in one room and we will make some plans and arrangements for speakers and workshops when we get back.

Today it is sunny and we can finally see the mountains. I will post a picture from my hotel window, but it's kind of hard to see because there are lots of tall buildings around us. We are right in downtown Denver. It's also very cold and dry here. There is hardly any moisture in the air. What do you think the Queen of Lotion is doing???? I'm using lots and lots of lip balm and handcream from my favorite store!!! I came prepared! Lots of people didn't so in the bag of goodies they gave us, they put in some of the things we would need. I'll post a picture of my goodie bag.

I hope you had a good week in school. I'll be back on Monday. Remember... this is "go with the flow" time because we are going up to Martinsville on Wednesday for the all school music program.

Everyone is having lots of fun and learning lots of things! I can't wait to see what the Pingry Upper School students have learned! They are going to present what they have learned to the teachers on Saturday morning before we head to the last speaker of the conference.

Keep checking in! I'm still here and will blog as much as I have time for! Love, Ms. SW

FREEZING IN DENVER!!!

Well, we made it to Denver!!! A stretch Hummer came to the Pingry parking lot to pick us up! Can you believe that? The students and teachers were very excited! But it was very early in the morning, so we had to keep our excitement quiet!

We arrived in Denver and gained 2 hours because this part of the country is 2 hours behind us... so it was about 12 noon when we got here, but really about 2pm our time. We were starving and looking for food right away! But, guess what? It was 18 degrees here and there is snow on the ground! I just turned on the news in my hotel room and it's going to be 1 or 2 degrees above zero tonight!!! Brrrrrrr!!!!! We need our warm woolies!!!!

We are here with 22 people from Pingry. I am posting some pictures on the side bar... It's almost time for us to go check in at the convention center. I will check in again later this evening, after I go to the gym, of course!

Ms. SW