01st Dec 2008
one more day
and I head to Orlando for the National Reading Conference. It’s funny, even though this conference comes at a tough time in the semester (always the week after Thanksgiving), I still look forward to it even though I always transport one or two writing projects and a bunch of student papers to work on. Maybe it’s because I will be able to work on them poolside — but I think the draw of a conference is that you get to spend time with people who are excited about the kinds of things that make you excited. Even if no one comes to our presentation (a common thing for us, given both our topic and the fact that we almost always get an 8:30 am time), the chance to talk with other people about literacy and language — and to hear about the other research being done and new grant work is undeniably sexy. Most of the year, professors balance their research against so many other things. The ability to really focus on your writing and research ends once you defend your dissertation — unless you get some huge grant, and there aren’t many of those out there anymore. So this is the one place it’s OK to be geeky about what you’ve been doing. And given that this conference isn’t that large, there’s plenty of gossip and going out for fancy dinners. And a pool. Did I mention that before? I might even bring my suit this time.
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