Woohoo! I’m caught up! This epic evening of blog postings has been brought to you from my hotel room in Decatur. It was only a week of notes to write up, but it felt like a month. I’m in Decatur for the Illinois Association of Teachers of English conference, which begins bright and early in the morning (first sessions at 8, which are a challenge for a non-morning girl like me).

I’m at the conference as a treat to myself. I’m not going to do
anything—I don’t have to present, chair, record, nothing. I decided that the conference was really pretty cheap comparatively speaking to my other professional development options, and I could treat myself to a couple days off. I have no idea if I’ll know anyone here. Lisa will actually be here tomorrow to do some recruiting for ReadWriteThink, so I will have her during part of the day tomorrow. I joined in on the informal dinner this evening. It was primarily people who were headed to the IATE executive committee meeting after eating. I spoke to a few people about ReadWriteThink who were interested in using the site themselves, especially with preservice teachers. I have a pile of handouts to put in the Idea Exchange, so I’m hoping we’ll find some more people who are interested in the site.

I’m hoping the conference will be a fertile place for writing. The hotel has wireless, so I’m hopeful that I can carry a laptop around to the sessions and blog and write. If I’m going to make that first session though, I need to get to bed.