Conference Season

Conference Season can seem like a never-ending life of living out of luggage. There are the PowerPoint’s, the introductions, and the keynote speakers. But the thing is: I learn a lot from conferences.

First, I am reminded why I managed to stay in the job so long. It isn’t just the job: I am able to do. I keep finding new ways to do the tasks at hand, to make sure that I am still coloring within the lines.

Secondly, I get to meet amazing people. Not just researchers, not just self-advocates, but people who share the multitudes of pathways that can be taken by anyone with a disability and anyone who works/lives/teaches along side them. Most of ParaEducate’s mission is wound up in being this social media presence, and while that is good, our primary motive is to reach people in real time, in person because that is the best way to impress the fact that our work is making a difference, sometimes in great waves and other times in the tiny lasting ripples.

Conferences can be long. There is more sitting than usual and more information to take in than usual. But I get to come back with a different sort of energy. Admittedly, sometimes when I explain something I found “cool” at a conference or a big idea, I get a lot of strange looks from co-workers.

Right now, we’re physically over the middle of the state of California. We hope to see you at Cal-TASH. If not, we’ll see you at another conference soon. Meantime: check our Twitter feed, google+, and Facebook for our little adventure. If pictures don’t go up right away, they’ll hold until after we’re back because we’re so excited to be learning so much.

We are on the road for 2015! Hope to meet a lot of our followers. Are you interested in participating as a Guest Blogger for ParaEducate? Do you have a question for us?  Find ParaEducate online here, here, here and here. ParaEducate is company interested in providing materials, information, and strategies for people working in special education inclusion settings for grades K-12. ParaEducate, the blog, is published weekly during the academic school year on Thursdays, unless a holiday. ParaEducate shares their findings at conferences, through their books, and their academic adaptations.