Sunday Salon...July 20, Home from Nashville

View inside the Opryland Hotel and Convention Center, Nashville

Weather: overcast and cool. The weather report is for rain. It was raining in Nashville yesterday when we left.

SREB High Schools that Work Conference: Nashville was host to this huge educational conference and I was so honored to be one of five people from my school to attend it this year. This three-day conference offers over 600 sessions from which to choose, so that teams of educators can attend workshops on topics that will benefit their school/situation. I got really excited about several of the workshops and hope to take back some of what I learned to my school in the fall.

Nashville: is such a fun town, just stuffed full of country music venues. Twice we went in to town for dinner and we walked in and out of bars and restaurants, all of them hosting live bands, some had three live bands on different levels of the establishment. In between the venues with live bands were stores selling boots, specifically cowboy boots. One store advertised 'Buy one, get two free' cowboy boots.

Street musician playing to raise money for animal spay/neuter programs

Opryland Hotel: was the host site for the conference and it is a destination site in itself. This hotel and conference center is amazing and huge. It was very easy to get lost in it, too. When one session ended we had fifteen minutes to find the next room. It was actually funny to see 5000+ educators running around looking for their next room. The center part of the hotel is like a huge, inside conservatory. It has many rare and exotic plants.  Really lovely.

Flight home: the district person that purchased our plane tickets must have been concerned with cost, not the route.  Going to Nashville we were routed through LAX, not a fun airport to get trapped in. On the way home we were routed through Houston. Houston! Nashville to Seattle is 2,389 miles; Houston to Seattle is 2,341 miles. So in our two hour flight we gained 48 miles toward our goal of getting home. The travel day was unbelievably long and tedious.

Books read this week:

• We Were Liars by E. Lockhart---all the pieces of this mystery come together in a breath-catching finale. I finished this book on the flight to LAX.
• My Stroke of Insight: a Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Bolte Taylor---a book club selection about what happens to the brain during and after a stroke. I finished this book on the flight from LAX to Nashville.

Currently reading:

• The Story of Owen (Dragon Slayer of Trondheim, #1) by EK Johnston---a modern story with one major difference: there are dragons in the world. Very clever.

"Kids raised in poverty are more likely to lack—and need—a caring, dependable adult in their lives, and often it's teachers to whom children look for that support."---Eric Jensen, Teaching with Poverty in Mind