July Blogging Challenge - Failure

I failed the July Challenge.
But I have a good excuse :)

This week was *CRAZY*

On Monday and Tuesday, I ran around like a crazy person putting out fires in preparation for #TMC14.  On Wednesday, people starting arriving, which means I got to see people I hadn't seen since #TMC12.  Thursday through today was the actual conference, where 150+ people descended on my school to learn and do math together.  Everything was so smooth.. I still can't believe it!

I'm an Introvert...
This week was such a blast, but part of it was very difficult.  I had a great time, but I will be the first to admit that I was not prepared for the actual amount of physical work that goes into putting on a conference.  More difficult for me was that from the time I arrived at school each day until the time I left, I had to be "on".  For someone that is introverted, that's really hard.  For lunch most days, I hung out with the teachers from my own school simply because I knew I could be ME and not have to have my "hostess face" on.  Don't get me wrong, I had a great time and I am so happy that people enjoyed their time at TMC, but being "on" all the time is exhausting.  There are so many people that I wanted to hang out with, but wasn't able to because I needed quiet time.  Every day, my roomie and I would go back to our room just to unplug for an hour or so and recharge our batteries.  I can only speak for myself, but I easily found myself on overload this week from the sheer brilliance of the ideas being presented.  I know I missed out on so many conversations and presentations simply because of the overload.  I can't wait to read all of the blog posts that have been generated so that I can maybe recapture some of those moments.  My biggest regret of this week is not having the time to spend in personal conversation with all of you!

Intro to the MTBoS...
One of the conditions from my district for hosting TMC14 was that our teachers would be guaranteed a spot at the conference.  I started sending out information to the 7-12 math teachers pretty much as soon as I knew that TMC14 would be at my school.  I was even able to contact most of our new teachers to invite them to join in the fun.  I now know that I was woefully inadequate in my explanation of TMC and it's almost impossible to convey the power of Social Media to transform your teaching through a few emails.  We had about 12-15 current and former teachers from our district attend and one of the comments that several of them had was about how to get started in the MTBoS.  After a quick discussion, it was decided that I would do a PD session once school started on how to use Social Media in a professional capacity.  I'm really excited to share with my colleagues about how TMC started and how they can become an active part of the MTBoS.

Recommitted...
So, I failed my personal challenge, but I will finish the month strong.  I challenge each of you to do the same!  (and I will assign myself a 2 day penalty as well for the days I missed) :)



July Challenge
I am on a personal challenge to blog every day in July, just to see if I can do it. I would love to have you join me! If you are worried that you've missed a few days, please don't stress.. just jump on in! Maybe a month is too much, that's okay, try it for a week, or every other day, or once a week.. whatever works for you!

Don't forget to visit the other July bloggers and show them some love!
The bloggers (so far)
Robin at Flip! Learn! Share
Bridget at Reflections in the Plane
Teresa at GeometryWiz
Sherrie at Middle School Math Rules!
Brooke at Sined, Sealed, Calculated
John at Functions are Fun
Jedidiah at Math Butler
Pam at the radical rational
Roxy at Rockstar Math Teacher
Paul at TeacherPaulP
Tina at Palmer's Ponderings
Cindy at School Stuff
Robyn at Making Math Visible
Shelley at Making Math Visual

Add your blog in the comments if you would like to join in! :)
#July2014Challenge