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Today, I made it my goal to go to a variety of sessions.  I had been going to only one type of session so far, which were presentations of several papers people had written and then a discussion on the papers.  I started the morning with one of those sessions on Doctoral Student Socialization by Gender.  It was interesting and made me want to write a paper called, “Why I hide behind my thick glasses.”

Anyway, after that I went to a “roundtable discussion” where you sit at a table with the person that wrote a paper and have a conversation. This was very intimidating to me, especially since the paper I wanted to hear about was on Foucault, whose basic philosophy (as I understand it) is that knowledge (or what counts as knowledge) is determined by those in power.  Now, I don’t know much about Foucault, which is why I wanted to go hear about the paper, but I also was afraid to go hear the paper because I didn’t know much about Foucault.  It was a catch 22.  So, I literally walked into the room with all the roundtables, found the table I wanted to go to, freaked out and left the room, sat outside and looked at my program again, decided that I should get over it and go back in, and then actually went back in and sat down.  It was a really interesting discussion and I was able to just listen.  Nothing to worry about.  I don’t know why I always freak myself out.  I think it must be my fear of the academic power differential.  Yeah, that’s it.

Next, I went to a session on Queer Theory.  There were several sessions on this in the program and I decided that I wanted to hear what it was about.  In this particular one, they were talking about how gender isn’t as simple as male/female and that there is a whole spectrum and that it really isn’t even (only) an issue of homosexuality because all people are “harmed” by this male/female binary in different ways (the example of tomboys came up). I had never thought of that.

Next, I went to a poster session on the Computer Clubhouse, which wasn’t what I expected, so I went to get a snack and sit in the sun for a second.  That was nice.  Here was my view from the “boardwalk” which happens to be made of cement.

San Diego Bay

The last thing I officially went to was a “Presidential Session” which basically means that AERA considers these scholars to be especially special in their field.  It was a panel discussion about how Anthropology, History, Sociology and Cultural Studies have impacted Education and vice versa.  The cultural studies guy had a good point, I thought, when he said that education will never be “fixed” because it is always “becoming.”  We will never settle with where we are.  It’s like our own identities as individuals, they are constantly “becoming” or evolving to make us a more complex, complete person. Hmm.

I then stepped into the Presidential Address for a second (there were no other sessions at this time) only to find out that not many people go.  So, I left to write my blog.  Later on tonight is the OSU reception, which I learned last night means one thing… FREE FOOD.  Yay!  Nicole and I “stumbled” into Michigan State’s reception last night and got a nice plate of appetizers and then “happened upon” the Illinois Alumni Association’s reception and got a huge cookie.  We are reception chameleons. 

1. I can definitely “do” educational research.  It’s not as scary as I thought.

2. When I present in the future, I should try really hard not to be ultra-super boring.

3. As a participant/observer in sessions, I should try my best to give nice constructive criticism and avoid being a know-it-all jerkface.

4. I shouldn’t be surprised to hear the phrases like “sexy beast” in a serious academic discussion when teachers choose to study high school students and their discourse on blogs.

5. “Famous” academics are usually not scary or intimidating; instead they seem to be pretty funny and in favor of ignoring social norms of dress and behavior (which I like).  Oh, and they also don’t like that there is no wireless around here.

6. Bill Ayers ain’t so bad.

Bill Ayers' head is in there somewhere.

7. My qualitative research professor, Patti Lather, is one of those famous academics.  You should have seen how many people attended her session!

That's Dr. Lather! Second from the left!

8. The organizers of AERA do not care if you ever have to eat, pee, or rest ALL DAY LONG.  The sessions must go on!

9. I learned about public pedagogy, which means (among other things) that there is much learning that takes place outside of “school” (gasp), which also means that I can definitely do research on blogs as a means of people (like me and Vicki) “composing the self.”  I love it.

10. Academic-types either always remember to silence their cell phones, don’t have cell phones, or don’t have friends.  I’m not sure which yet.

This has been an exciting and very very busy day and I am looking forward to some dinner and sleeping.

This morning, I had to get up early to run a 20 miler for my Pig training and then I had to shower and hop on a plane to San Diego.  I am going to attend the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA) national conference.  It’s the big conference for anyone researching anything about education, so I’m excited to be able to see lots of different people present all kinds of research.

On my first flight of the day, a little boy was sitting in front of me and when we took off he was staring out of the window.  I think it might have been his first time flying because he was excited to see all the “little” houses.  I wanted to take a picture of his face because it was such genuine amazement, but then I realized that I probably shouldn’t take pictures of other people’s children and post them on the Internet.  When we flew over campus, we had a great view of the ‘Shoe, so I pointed it out to him and he looked back at me like I was a crazy stranger, which I then realized is exactly what I was.  It was a really great view though…

I had a layover in Dallas, and the first thing I saw when I got off of the plane, and I’m serious, was a guy with a huge cowboy hat on.  Come on.  Really?  And I love the Texas stores in the airport.  They are hilarious.  My favorite item, a neck roll pillow with the Texas flag on it, just in case you want to commemorate your trip to the Lone Star state with a neckroll pillow.

Then, on the flight to San Diego, I was sitting by another little boy.  He was about 7 or 8.  He was pretty quiet, but when he noticed that my leg was in his space, he looked at his mom and gestured where the dividing line was between our seats, so I moved my leg.  I thought it was a little bossy, but I didn’t want to start any fights.  For most of the flight, I was reading for class and he was doing homework.  At first, he stayed far away from me, but as the flight went on, started to get more comfortable and bumped my elbow and let his paper spread out onto my tray.  Then, his little pencil kept tap tap tapping away and was getting dangerously close to my macbook.  At first, I was nervous and then I realized that my macbook is so dirty that no little pencil mark would make a difference.  It was funny though because I sort of felt like a little kid myself, doing homework and all.  When I’m reading and trying to stay awake, I twirl my hair.  This little kid started to get distracted, and his strategy was first to start drawing on his seat belt buckle and then he just hauled off and laid his head face down on his homework.  So there we were, two tired, distracted students, side by side, hair twirling, pencil tapping, just trying to get our work done.

San Diego arrival

I arrived in San Diego, sun glasses on, short sleeve shirt on, and it was cold!  I was under the impression that southern California was warm.  What the heck?  Anyway, I’m traveling with a friend from school, so we went to the hotel, checked in and then walked around the area a little bit. If you can believe it, they do not have free wireless Internet!  I was so ticked.  I asked the front desk clerk if he would charge people extra for water because that’s what not having free Internet is like in this day and age.  Pathetic.

Hotel Lobby

It’s really cute (but would be cuter if it was warm and had Internet) and we found a nice Indian place to have a late dinner.  It’s way too late for me now, especially since that 20 miler doesn’t feel that long ago, so I’m hitting the hay.

This morning, I was back at the eTech conference. It was a lot better today. I got to play with the science games that the engineering students at Ohio University has been working on. Although I do have some criticisms, they were pretty fun. They even had some games in Second Life, which were very cool. The keynote today was much better than the first one I saw although he didn’t talk much about technology. He talked about following your bliss, pretty much. One good quote he shared:

“Easy times are the enemy, they put us to sleep. Hard times wake us up.”

I forget where it came from, but it made me think and maybe gain a little perspective. Before the keynote, I came in at the tail end of the student video contest awards. There was the cutest video that I wanted to post here, but eTech didn’t put it on their website for some reason, so I’m going to tell you about it. It was this fifth or sixth grade Indian boy. He was interviewing his dad about when he first came to America and his dad talked about seeing the statue of liberty and how great that was. Then he said that he ended up settling in Cleveland. The video goes to a clip of the boy saying something like, “Now… I love everything about Cleveland. The lake, the Browns, the Cavs, the Indians. It’s great. But when my dad first got here, he didn’t know anything about Cleveland.” He’s wearing each jersey as he says this. Then, the video goes back to the interview with the Dad and his dad says, “When I first got to Cleveland, I kept seeing these signs everywhere that said ‘Go Indians!’ and I thought, do they want the Indians to go away?” Then the video goes back to the little boys and he says, “Oh, dad!” It was hilarious.

Oh, and then I was walking through the student exhibits and what do I see?
A poster from St. Paul’s! This is the school my dad and all his siblings went to, where Beth went AND where my Aunt Ann taught for 20 some years. Too bad there was no one at the booth to talk to!

After the conference, I went home for a snack, baked a cake for Ben, and then headed to class. Class was great. We got to practice doing interviews on each other.

Ben came over after class to have some cake and get his greedy little paws on a present. Here is Ben with his cake. It didn’t turn out quite as I had hoped. The batter was a little thick and the cake was uneven. Then, I learned a very important lesson: Do not put candles in a cake you just took out of the oven. They kept falling over and I was confused until I pulled one out and the whole part that was in the cake had melted off the string. So, we cut little pieces out and ate some just for birthday’s sake. The rest went in the trash can. Here’s Ben with his homely cake (it’s the thought that counts).
And, on a side note, last year on Ben’s birthday (well, the day after) he started his healthier lifestyle. He’s lost around 140 lbs. Just so you can compare, I added a picture from my wedding in June 2007. You can’t tell me that’s not amazing. Wow! I’m so proud of you Ben!

The eTech conference is Ohio’s educational technology conference. I was able to go to that today instead of work, which was a nice change. Plus, it was at the convention center, a 15 minute walk for me. Here is Eric Fingerhut introducing the keynote speaker, who I thought was kind of corny (the keynote… and Eric Fingerhut).

I haven’t been that impressed with the presentations I’ve seen so far, but I’m going back on Wednesday, so hopefully there will be some good ones. It’s been a busy day. I’m going to bed!