Up at 6:00 AM, the staff was ready to roll out before 9:00, I raced to the CSPA conference early to get badges, lanyards, all their registration materials, and boom, we walked to Columbia – and we were in the thick of things!

As we walked to Oren’s – a HUGE shout out to Oren’s – THE best coffee, tea, pastries, everything, every year this has NEVER failed to impress, and Randy, Jason and Mike –   They rocked the coffee house and were amazing – as is Oren’s Every single time we go – Thank you guys!

Our First workshop on Trello was AMAZING – Alia was GREAT –

she presented a ton  of information, and the audience was interested and asking, we involved them as members of  the Trello board, and they kept interacting over and over – A great start to a rushed morning.

Also – the students all went out and retrieved amazing information – and are continuing to network like crazy.  We are at lunch now, preparing our 3:30 presentation, and the first day, everyone at Columbia knows we are here in full force.  You should be proud of your sons and daughters, they are confident, professional, and confident.  Everyone here knows this.

We are finding out the Literary magazine Repentino., and after working on it today, has over 30 Standards and Justifications and we are aligned with Common Core right NOW thanks to our mission statement, editorial policy, and a clear focus and research based on our publications! YEAH Repentino.! We are having a panel of Common Core admin helping us work through this now.

Important applications to Repentino:
Applying knowledge of layout into the magazine/ Aligning Common Core with what we do already and what we can continue to do to meet standards of Common Core as it spills into other academic areas /curriculum.

Evaluation/Analysis/Compare and Contrast skills used constantly. Secondary and Primary sources evaluated and discussed.

Doing our second presentation, Ms. Dixie and I presented to STUDENTS in majority (one teacher present, and maybe 20+ students) the Common Core and teacher’s aspect of involving “teacher talk” and expanding your views to an omniscient point of viewing extracurricular and academic planning.  This ROCKED!  Ms. Dixie was AMAZING and provided an educational base that connected with Common Core, how we get students involved, and making student activities a learning experience using Repentino. as an example – this was a great second success in presentation format.

We enjoyed two Funny stories –

1)  Daniela, Ernesto and a few others went into s closely Chinese restaurant, to meet a lady that was well, not all there.  One of the girls was refused to change her order, another seemed to not have paid enough for their tip (due to some mediocre service) and they were kind of stopped until they added more tip  – all this during a brief hour lunch – I was amazed and yet laughing with them at their story and realized, it seems this could really only happen in New York, right?  Well then there was the bathroom story which Alia and Stephanie had, so I think that is best left to you asking them – and these two MIGHT take the cake of unusual events….:)

After working through an amazing day (and we all agreed the day was better in quality of the workshops) – we moved to a surprise destination – Dum sum…..DUMMMMM – Chelsea Piers! We had an hour to kill before boarding, so what did we do?  – BOWLING!

We decided to go bowling and ohmygosh – BEST choice!  Around 8 of us, went and I found I STINK after three years of not bowling , but I love the shoes, and love the experience of bowling!

Alice worked through getting spares, Karin continually did better, Mariana hacked at killing pins with her arm strength, and everyone laughed and celebrated a relaxing evening of loving how well we did today, it was just plain old FUN!

We had reservations at 6:30 boarding time for the Dinner Dance Cruise, through The New York Skyline Dining Cruises,

specifically on a huge vessel called The Spirit.  A word about James Indiviglio, Cruise Manager.

GREAT.

He checked on us all night, announced birthdays for us – celebrated we were from Mexico City – he showed us that he appreciated us being there and he took care that the waitresses, waiters, EVERYONE treated us like royalty.  Also, he hoped us with directions getting back FASTER than we had before, and overall, from the students continually hugging us and thanking us, we knew he did an AMAZING job in making sure that was a HUGE and celebrated experience.  He was AMAZING and made sure we felt that way.  For sure, this was one of the best moments of celebrating our success in the first day of the conference.  This experience is marked in many of our memories for a VERY long time – and rightly so.  Between dancing the Congo line, to , dancing, see the amazing New York skyline a GREAT dinner, YES.  Check a HUGE success. 

Getting back was amazing, as we waited a bit but taking the #23 to the metro station, and then not waiting forever to get back was a relief, getting back in around 11:15 was MUCH preferable and needed.  The rain coming down was not fun, BUT, made the night not so cold and being back early was a HUGE relief to get some rest. As I wrestle with the hundreds of pictures we took, please check back, they will be worth it!