So, Thursday and Friday we were in Redmond for the OVATA fall in-service conference. I think I'll have to say that I was so stressed out about the whole thing to really hone in on why we were there. I didn't understand much, and I didn't see the context of a whole lot and I was struggling to stay awake and I was, again, stressing about my upcoming presentation and making a good impression for Dr Velez, rather than actually participating in the event. I will also say that I hadn't really understood or known at all what to expect. All I was told in the context of the lesson planning assignment was to "know my audience" well, that sure doesn't help much at all. No wonder we all did poorly. Plus, we also were super short in our presentations because we never had the opportunity to present them in full, so we didn't really know how to go about presenting anything or how to budget our time in the presentation better.

Not only that, but the food wasn't the best, and sleep was kinda relative. I was stressing the entire way there and really didn't enjoy myself in the slightest. I think we should have done some group activity as a cohort, and that they should have had a presentation just for us "young pups" so that the whole event would not be so foreign and new ground for us. Plus, a more formal introduction for everyone would have been nice. I mean, we're all teachers, right? can't we have a group ice-breaker of sorts instead of just getting drunk together (aka: the BBQ the night before, when all us AgEd students were stressing about our presentations and super cold and super tired), and then going to super boring meetings.

I do understand that it was important in that they only do get together like, once or twice a year, but at the same time, it wasn't super encouraging to hear that the fees for being a part of the OVATA were about to go up in preparation for the upcoming conferences. Plus, since it's going to be in Hood River at the next one (summer), that means, considering I'm student teaching at that venue, perhaps I should get involved in the organization of it? Maybe not because I have endless amounts of spare time, but that it would look good if I were to put in some time organizing it.