Lessons in Atlanta

Hurriedly I came, and hurriedly I left. To check out NAGC. It was interesting, attended by a large number of teachers, I think. It has been a long time since I’ve been in a gifted ed environment.

I attended a session (amongst others) by Dr. Mark Runco, creativity research scholar, which was more a Q&A session. I must say I was surprised by his youthfulness. I seem to have this misconception that he is a distinguished elderly gentleman because of his extensive body of research. How wrong I was. ;-P

I learned a few things at his session that might help me to refine my RAP paper further, something I would like to get done and published, someday! Dr. Runco mentioned some studies done in the 1960s about open and closed classrooms and their effects on learning. I meant to walk up and ask him about these studies but figured I could do some review of my own first. Voila, I found one study by Fantini (1962)! There will be more, I’m sure.

On my own, by myself, in Atlanta was not much fun. I walked around, ate and did things alone. This is a photo of me at the CNN Center. I went for the tour thinking it might be informative. Yes and no. Overall, $13 is quite a ripoff, but I learned a few things about the news center that were interesting. Robotic cameras. News gatherers in a cramped newsroom whose new items may not actually see the light of day if they weren’t “interesting” (or sensational) enough. The anchor desk which weighed an enormous ton – with cables. Oh, and the green screen. :) Not too bad, I did learn quite a bit.

I don’t quite understand why NAGC held its conference at this mammoth World Congress Center a distance away from downtown. I really would much prefer conferences where the conference site and the hotel are the same site. This way, there is a resting-place in between sessions. Maybe just slothful me, ;-P!