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The final sessions yesterday went well.  In the very last one for the day, I got to listen to a PhD candidate talk about his dissertation.  He studied the ways that his student used blogs in his classroom.  Needless to say, I loved it. I’m kind of sad the conference is over because I feel like I learned so much, but I’m also very tired and ready to be in my home that is full of wonderful wireless Internet.

This morning, I woke up early to run 12 miles in the San Diego sunshine.  I ran along the boardwalk again down to the USS Midway where there’s a HUGE statue of the Navy guy kissing the nurse from WWII.  I only came up to the nurse’s calf, it was so big.  Then, I ran the other way down to the swanky Hilton and back again.  It was a perfect day.  High 60s, sunny, no clouds and no wind. I hear it’s nice at home too and that makes me happy!

Our flight is currently delayed 40 minutes, so I’m sitting in the San Diego airport using their free wireless (which every place should have) and hoping that there won’t be any more delays.  If all goes as planned, I’ll be home by midnight.

The trolley outside of the hotel and convention center.

Yesterday was busy.  I went to sessions from 8:15am-6:05pm.  The first one I went to was a session on “digital spaces” and, man, this one guy really loved the iPhone and it’s possibilities for education.  He talked about it so enthusiastically and told us about so many new apps that I couldn’t contain myself and had to pull mine out to start downloading some right then and there!  Then, I went to a session on dilemmas in qualitative research.  I mostly went because my professor was presenting again.  It was a good session.  After that, I went to one on women in higher education and there was a really interesting paper on how women turn on each other in higher education and how we need to learn to be more supportive of each other.  For example, one study showed that, if not blinded, women will evaluate other women more harshly than men.  I thought that was very interesting and I believe it too.  Why are we so hard on each other?  Well, she said it is because we all grew up in a sexist society, so we all (not just men) sort of “learn” that women are weaker, dumber, etc.  I shared with them my drteacher.com site because it’s basically about women in higher education supporting each other and I hope to get some good responses! Then, I went to another session on how women balance grad school and life.  This was very interesting and I shared my website again.  It was nice to hear others’ experiences and it made me feel like maybe I can really do this.  Lastly, I attended a session on Gifted Education since I thought I might learn something useful for my work at ODE.  It was okay, but basically, what they were saying was that the field of gifted education is fractured and they need to define what gifted education is. Dude, get on it.

After all of those sessions, Jason and his fiancee, Brie, picked me up for a nice dinner in La Jolla, which is a fancy schmancy part of San Diego.  We ate at a nice restaurant on the water and had good conversation and an awesome view of the sunset.

Jason and Brie

After they dropped me off at my hotel, I was exhausted.  I went to bed early with the plans of getting up early to have a nice breakfast at a nearby diner.  I found a really cute one using Yelp on my iPhone!  I had a pumpkin waffle and a cup of fruit.

Cafe 222

It is now the last day of the conference and things are really winding down.  There is not much going on in the way of sessions, so I decided to go to one on grassroots activism on college campuses.  It was really interesting and I realized that my drteacher.com site is a form of grasroots activism meant to help more women complete a PhD in Education.  My mind was blown (as it has been many times this week).

I have a few more sessions to attend (one on science education, one teaching online and one on teacher power and social media) and by 4 everything should be wrapped up.  I hope to take in a few touristy sites tonight before I leave tomorrow!  I will try to update later on these last sessions, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to get to my special corner of free Internet, so we’ll see.  I know that’s just what you all want to hear about. 

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.

Happy Easter!  Here’s the basked Dan made for me, which has since been annihilated.

My Easter Basket

Today was my first full day in San Diego!  It warmed up and is turning out to be more of what I expected.  I woke up really early (because of the darn time change) and started my morning with this view from my hotel room.

Sunrise in San Diego

I found the fitness center and went for a short run, after which I realized that I just ran on a treadmill indoors in San Diego.  What was I thinking?  The next one will be outside.  To get to the fitness room, I had to go outside and here’s a shot from the terrace.

The Marina

After a shower, I wandered around outside the hotel for a bit. There was a cute little touristy shopping area called Seaport Village (Nicole and I went back to have dinner that night), a view of the hotel, a park with a nice trail and some smart homeless people (if I were homeless, I would pick San Diego too).

Seaport Village

My Hotel

The Park

After that, I got ready to go to Sea World.  My friend, Jason, from college lives out here and works at Sea World, so he offered me a free tour.  First, we went and had a delicious breakfast at this place called the Kantina.  I had chocolate peanut butter pancakes!  MMM mmm!  Jason had coconut french toast.  Here he is enjoying it (or just making a funny face):

Jason!

Before we went to Sea World, we stopped at the beach for a second, just so I could say I went there.  I suddenly remembered that the last time I had been to the Pacific Ocean is when I was 19.  It’s been too long!

The Pacific Ocean!

My toes in sand! (pay no attention to the black runner's toenail)

Then, it was finally off to Sea World and I must say, I had no idea what I was in for.  It was the best trip to any zoo-like place I have ever had.  Check this out:

Me with the ugly, tumorous, but very smart bird from Africa

Me with Zack, the cuter, but dumber bird.

Me hugging the shy flamingo. Aw. The other ones were mean and barked at me.

Me, behind the scenes, of the penguin experience. I love penguins! But, it was freeeeezing!

Obligatory Shamu shot.

Our big send off, parading the domesticated flamingos through the park. To the left you can see the back of Jason's fiance, Brie!

After all that excitement, I was a little sun-burned and very pooped.  So, we went to get some frozen yogurt and relax for a second before Jason took me back the hotel.  The yogurt place was the bomb!  It had a big row of flavored yogurts (like peanut butter and oreo!) and then all the toppings you could want (like cookie dough and reese’s!), then you just pay by the pound.  Here’s the yogurt machines:

YogurtLand yogurt machines

I went hog wild and felt a little sick afterward.  Hehe. Anyway, Jason took me back to the hotel, Nicole and I grabbed some dinner while I frantically searched for free wireless (to no avail).  I finally had to give up and go to beddy bye.

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.