Teacher Learning Time

The Archdiocese of Seattle provides a 3 day institute for teachers at the end of every school year.  For a few years now, a team of teachers from our building attend.  This year's theme was the national Common Core Standards and alignment with best practice teaching strategies.  I could eat this stuff for breakfast.  I love to learn about effective teaching methods and reflect about how I can make mine better.  My colleagues are also excellent students, so we were all ready for the conference.

3 of us decided to stay in the dorm housing at Seattle University, the conference host.  Such a great decision.  We were in a suite which meant an open, but 2 bedroom dorm room with a nice shower and bathroom.  Nothing like the dorms I lived in at college!

The conference was great.  The presenters were knowledgeable and fun.  The activities and reading materials were inspiring.  And the food was excellent, healthy and free (for the most part).  My friend, Tifanie, and I "stole" left over lunch salads on the first day of the conference to eat for dinner.  When they said goodbye for the afternoon, the salads were still sitting on the lunch table.  They looked forlorn, as though they knew they were going to be tossed in the compost bin, so I adopted them for my stomach's sake.  Okay, and my pocketbook's sake!

Lunches at this conference are always the catered box-style fancy "brown bag".  Salads and sandwiches make up the choices.  The first day I snagged a smoked salmon ciabatta roll with fruit and a cookie.  It also had Tim's chips in it, but as they were jalapeno, I only ate a few.  The second day I hooked a Serrano pepper and chicken tortilla wrap.  Also tasty.  Regular Tim's chips with it, so I ate those.  The last day I grabbed a chipotle chicken ciabatta roll.  Mmmm.

We did have healthy fruit in the afternoons.  The granola had juicy dried blueberries in it.

At one point, they put unhealthy candy on the table.  We ate it.

We sat right up front.  Look at how busy our table is.  Cluttered with learning.

A lunch salad that I didn't take.  Looked yummy, though.

Healthy and bpa-free juice.

Fresh fruit from the cafeteria before the day gets started.

Pretty great.  One night we went to a campus BBQ and then walked Broadway.  And stared at people.  And stared at the clothing.  And stared and the interesting things in store windows.  And felt like country bumpkins.  Then, we saw the sign for the most decadent chocolate desserts in the world, "Dilettantes Chocolates".  My friend, Kristin, and I each bought a rich chocolate cake.  I tried the classic Hungarian Rigo Janczi which was a light chocolate cake with a delicious raspberry filling topped with thick buttery chocolate frosting.  Kristin had a mousse cake with a thick chocolate frosting.  Mmmmm.

My Hungarian cake.

Such a great time, hanging out with colleagues, sharing ideas, and eating too much.