Dallas Day One!

Here I am at the National Teacher of the Year Conference! It's 1 AM (which is 2 AM to my body), but I can't sleep. The ice is pelting against the window in this Southwestern city that is supposed to be warmer than home. So much for that...

I flew to Dallas through clouds that allowed zero visibility. At times I couldn't even see the wing to see if we were going to hit any birds. And once we got over the airport, we had to circle for 45 minutes because there was an airplane traffic jam, and we couldn't land. Finally, I was off the plane and pretty much starving. (I had fallen asleep during the six-pretzel-give-away, this being the first time in months that I was sitting in one place and not running from one thing to the next.) So I grabbed a pretzel before I went out to the baggage check, aka the point of no return, at least as far as food goes.

I wasn't in a hurry because it was noon, and our first meeting wasn't scheduled until 6 PM. So I decided to go get my luggage and then sit somewhere nearby to eat my tasty pretzel. And it was a first - when I got there, my luggage was there all by itself, riding around on the baggage carousel. At first I thought I was in the wrong place until I saw my husband's duffel bag I had borrowed - the one with the bright orange letters with my last name on it - riding around looking neglected.

Anyway, the pretzel ended my starvation jitters, and then I set out to find transportation. The nice people with the Teacher of the Year program had sent us a voucher for a shuttle. I had planned to catch a ride with my cutie patootie grandchildren (and their mother, my stepdaughter) who live nearby, but, alas, the ice storm was not conducive to dragging three kids out in the elements. So shuttle it was! When I stepped into it, I immediately recognized Sharon, the Teacher of the Year from Utah. (I had previously stalked the webpage with all of our pictures on it!) Soon we picked up teachers from Missouri, Mississippi, Delaware, Indiana, and Arizona and off we went to the Hilton Lincoln Centre!

After checking in and cleaning up everything I owned (my lotion and toothpaste had exploded mid-flight) I went downstairs and enjoyed fellowship with my new found friends. I also enjoyed Fritos, because again I was starving and dinner wouldn't come until three hours later. At dinner we introduced ourselves and talked and talked and talked. My life seems rather uninteresting next to Dorothy's - she's the Teacher of the Year for the Department of Defense schools. She lives in Germany now, but has taught in Poland and Guam, after a brief stint in her home state of Louisiana. Just the fact that she was sitting there talking to me when her body was pretty sure it was the middle of the night was amazing to me!

Jon Quam, the Director of the National Teacher of the Year program, welcomes us.


Here we are having an elegant dinner.

Tommorrow we'll learn all about the SMART Board package our schools received, and later in the week we'll go to the Women's Museum. But the highlight of today? When Sarah, Arizona's Teacher of the Year, told us that her kindergarten students are excited that she's going to meet our new President "Rock-Your-Mama." How will we ever top that?

It was interesting that so many of us chose to wear red on the first day. We also had on black pants, which we felt compelled to show the camera. However, I'm the only one still "mid-kick." Everyone else was a little faster on the return. Here you see the "Ladies in Red" - the Teachers of the Year from Mississippi (Chantelle Herchenhahn), Missouri (Margaret Williams), Colorado (Susan Elliott, another finalist), Utah (Sharon Gallagher-Fishbaugh), North Carolina (WooHoo - that's me!), and Kansas (Cindy Couchman).

Stay tuned for Day Two...