Bitearsweet

Kari's cold went to her chest so she stayed home sick today. But she explained everything to me in terms of set-up since today was in another room. The camera was facing the wall today (thank gosh!) so I didn't have to look at myself in the little window at the bottom of the screen! But at the same time this system put the self-window into a little sleep mode and shut off after a while. Wish the other room had that feature cos some of the powerpoints were cut off.

The first presenter today was Carolyn and she talked about phonology. I haven't done anything about phonology since university and it's something that I really find interesting! Carolyn's presentation really helped me to even understand why it's so hard for foreigners to speak fluently. I can even understand where my mom is coming from now and why she can't say Olive Garden properly! She went through a lot of activities for sessions that can work for teaching any child and had lots of examples. Really cool to see! Carolyn's such a dynamic and funny presenter! We even sang songs (one activity used in sessions)! I liked her theory about how if you're not prepared to make a fool of yourself when you enter a session, then you're not ready for the session. Haha! Her #1 rule: When you're in therapy mode, you're NOT very smart!

Had to have lunch by myself today. Decided to go to the cafe just outside. I mean, it was delish, but quite pricey! And the large was more of a small... I'm afraid to ask how big a small is...

After lunch Raelynn did a presentation on literacy-based intervention. I thought it would be like the theme-based intervention presentation, but Raelynn's also a dynamic person like Carolyn! She went fairly quickly through the slides, but she had things like games where she rewarded people with chocolate (wish I was actually at the conference haha!) and she did actual examples with volunteers. It was so much fun and so interesting to see her present! We got to watch a video of the book walking technique and then the presentation was pretty much over. She went so quickly that we finished about 45 minutes early, but it wasn't so fast that I had troubles following. It was actually a really good pace!

So now I'm set and I've definitely decided that I'm going to take on this task of SLP. I'm so excited and I just can't wait to start!!!