Happy to be a teacher

Here's all the news from Sarah-land that's fit to print.
Just got a new laptop (MacBook to replace our iMac), and it's taking me a while to get used to this keyboard. Fortunately it's not like other laptop keyboards, which I despise. Now I'll be able to take notes with something other than my mass of legal pads when I go to educational conferences and events. Some departments in my school have laptops, but since English is pretty stationary with only a couple of us sharing classrooms, they decided to go with the crummy, gigantic Dell monstrosities we have in our classrooms. God, I hate PCs.

Anywho, I just had the most awesome day ever. A fellow English teacher and I had four of our students win a statewide essay contest. The 25 winning students and their teachers were invited to a private reception with Thomas Friedman since his book The World is Flat was the subject of the the contest. We also got to bring our principal and assistant principal, who were completely thrilled. In addition to the reception for the essay winners, we also attended the educational forum afterward, which was attended by about 900 business and education leaders from around the state, but primarily the TC area. It was a $300 a head event, so the food was pretty darn awesome.

So the students, my coworker, and I got to listen to Friedman speak for a while, and during this time he mostly answered the students' questions. Then we got our certificates and posed for our picture with him. At the big event, we were divided up among a few tables with various business and education people. There were people representing Century College, Winona State, MNSCU, and some businesses at my table. They were very cool people and obviously used to this kind of networking event.

Now to the Friedman speech. I have not always agreed with everything he has to say about globalization and such, but his speech was phenomenal. Although many think he just touts math and science and the idea that all American youth should become engineers, he had some amazing things to say about the need for liberal arts education. He stressed the importance of art and creativity, and the message was very positive. It was not doomsday prophesy like other highly-paid speakers I have heard...

I left the event inspired, and I will definitely view Friedman in a different light from now on. Just as awesome as the event was the ride home. These four teenagers didn't stop talking the whole way back about how much fun they had and how awesome everything was. There's nothing quite like excited teenagers. It reminds me that this is why I went into education in the first place.