In the Clouds

For about an hour this evening I continued to check the sky. I was hoping that some entertainment might dazzle me if I kept looking.

Yesterday we warmed this place with some candles, a pot of hot tea, and the fireplace flaming. This evening I was hoping to see some warmth in the sky, but it never quite caught fire.

I was in the clouds all day today. I attended a New York conference that was held completely online -- a virtual conference -- some call that in the clouds. We were told that about 150 of us were in attendance. It was quite interesting and I think when I have a moment to gather what I learned and re-view the recorded sessions, I'll realize that I learned a lot.

The keynote speaker was in Seattle, Eric Liu, whose presentation was "Imagination First: Unlocking the Power of Possibility." A main speaker should be motivational, and he certainly was. One of the thoughts that I came from his session with is that "it's okay to fail. It's not okay to give up!" That thought is "free-ing" to say the least. For the most part we're a bunch of educators learning to teach online. Sometimes it's pretty scary. Most of us have to develop our own classes and upload into the technology.

The conference started at 8:00 this morning and "virtual happy hour" began at 2:00 p.m. I was ready to go somewhere, anywhere, and be happy. I was just darn tired of looking at my computer screen and trying to give it my undivided attention. I've always heard it said that teachers are the worst students. I don't know that I agree, but I was glad when it wrapped-up.

It all starts again tomorrow, but I won't get to see it because I will be in the Writing Center and the classroom, so I'll watch the recorded sessions later.

It's almost 10:00 p.m. now; I still have a couple student papers to grade that need to be given back to students tomorrow. Ugh!

I have collected four poems I plan to read tomorrow afternoon at the poetry event at the campus. I'm even going to read one of my own.

I'm also in a 4-week online class and I have some homework that is due, so I better get at it.

I hope you have a good tomorrow.
Good night from Southern California.
Rosie (& Mr. Fun), aka Carol