TCTELA Reflections 2013

I came to this conference anticipating that I would learn so much.  The last time I attended was 2 years ago in Galveston and I learned from the best.  Jim Cummins, Gretchen Bernabei, Kelly Gallagher, Jeff Anderson and others shared with us many wonderful strategies, a passion for learning and lost and lots of humor.  This time around, I was expecting the same, possibly more.  This conference did not disappoint, not in the least.  Not only did I get to hear from Mark Overmeyer, Charles Fuhrken, Matt de la Pena, Jeff Anderson, Georgia Heard but I also discovered the Vocab Girl! (I will post a link to her blog soon.) To tell you the truth, I learned so much that I don't know how long it will take to process it all!

I think part of the reason why this year's conference has made a great impact on me is because I got to share it with many of my friends and colleagues from SBISD.  It was great being in the Vocab Girl's workshop and trying out some the vocabulary games with Valerie, Michelle, Ana, Amy and a few new friends I met playing the gesture game, Apples to Apples, and Taboo.  I seemed to run into Val and Amy everywhere I went.  Michelle accompanied me to many of the sessions too.  Sometimes I would even see Alana in many of the sessions.  I guess that great minds think of going to the same sessions, right? I enjoyed our time of processing and idea-bouncing.  There's nothing better than being there to hear the wisdom first hand.  Hearing it second hand doesn't always stick. For me, you just have to be there to experience it all.

 I loved having lunch with the TFE crew along with Rocio and Maria.  I thoroughly enjoyed hanging out today, in the sports and literacy panel, with the HBE ladies Rebecca, Ana and Headiyah!  Michelle joined us with her great insight, as always!  Yea SBISD peeps!  I am truly glad the journey hasn't been alone.

Lastly, inspired and motivated is how I left the sports and literacy panel and luncheon with Matt.   De la Pena and Crutcher words resonated with many of my experiences growing up.  I played basketball in high school and college too.  I too wanted to get an athletic scholarship, so that I could attend college.  It appeared to be the only avenue to a higher education.  My mom, who worked so very hard, didn't have the change to pay my way. So I get it.  I felt it touched a chord in me, a chord that has been dying  to emerge many decades in the making.   I have, forever and a day, wanted to be a writer, a published writer, some kind of writer...whatever form that would take.  Who knows really?  (That's why I like this blog.)  I wanted and still want to capture my childhood, struggles growing up, and other musing and ideas that are dying to make their way out of my thoughts and onto the page.  They whine and nag at me, begging, no, more like clamouring to come out.  I have heard the negative voices, the same ones that Matt attested to, the negative, pompous, interminable, nasty voices, that won't permit someone like me, to dream big and realize hidden goals.  So slowly, but surely, I am emerging from this cocoon of self doubt and the cruel and limiting  voices that have plagued me for so many years. These snooty people say,"You can't possibly think that someone from your background could do this, do you? Really? Seriously, someone like you!  Please!" No, I'm not having that anymore.  I refuse to give in now.  Just like la Pena said, "It's the confidence."  So I choose to move forward, to allow my voice to be heard, in what ever fashion or form it may take.

Matt de la Pena at luncheon-being real and really humorous.

 I learned this from the SHSU National Writing Project in this past summer.  One of the biggest epiphanies for me is that my writing can and does have an affect on  people.  Thanks, now to Matt de la Pena and Nancy Votteler from SHSU National Writing Project, I move forward and refuse to dwell in the stagnant waters full of mosquito larvae, left in a blue kiddy pool, laced with green slimy gook, slithering down the sides.  A pool of stagnancy, left for fools, who do not dare to tread outside of the ordinary. No, I am steppin' out.  And as Matt de la Pena stated from his experience, you just have to be honest, blatantly honest, with your self and the reader.  I get that, as my mom would say, "in spades". Amen brother!  Speak the truth nah! 
Wow!  All of this from a weekend at TCTELA!  I wonder what revelations next year will bring!