Third Quarter Training

This past weekend, we had our Third Quarter training, which was organized and executed by us, the members. Now that the boring, introductory stuff is taken care of, I simply wanted to say that it was a blast. I was groaning to myself about having to do another training, and that it was probably going to be sooooooo boring, except of course for the sessions that I was leading.

I couldn't have been more wrong. If anything, my sessions were the boring ones.

The training went awesomely! I had such a blast getting to teach again. I felt like I had my teaching spirit sucked out of my like Shang T'sung collecting a soul (you like the Mortal Kombat reference?). My experience in the professional classroom was not a good one, and there were times that I thought I would never get back into teaching; I honestly thought that the negative experience meant that I was simply not cut out for it. After this past weekend's training, my resolve is renewed! I had so much fun simply teaching, it didn't matter if it was Tai Chi, pointing out faults in tutoring programs, or encouraging the practice of public speaking techniques.

It also reminded me how hard teaching is, which renewed my respect for my former colleagues who are still teaching in the trenches of a school that did very little to support them. I am very glad to have had this experience, and though I'm sure many of my LiteracyCorps peers may have wanted me to simply stop talking at one point (or two), I am very grateful to have been given this opportunity.

Great job guys; you make this fun, not work.

-Ian

ps: Deb, where are those pictures you took? I think one that looks like we're all a bunch of zombies needs to make it's way onto the blog.