I didn't want to risk not being able to find a parking spot (nor pay for parking for that matter), so I took the train to downtown. It was the first time, from what I can recall, being in the Telus Convention Center. The building has a nice look to it and the rooms are quite posh. I started off my morning with a "Coffee and Coaching" session, hoping to learn some skills that I could use if I'm able to coach the badminton team this year.
It turned out to be a life coaching workshop, which is nice and all, but not really helpful in the stage of my career. Right after the workshop, I ventured to the next workshop, which was for graduating student teachers. Now this workshop was more useful since it explained the steps I needed to do upon graduation. I've heard this lecture from this particular guest speaker before at PD, but it was useful to hear it again and in greater detail.
After that workshop, it was time for lunch. A&W was quite packed with teachers. After a brief lunch, it was onto the next workshop, which was on creating critical thinking questions to ask students. I wasn't able to gleam off much from the lecture, but I'll be getting a package from the guest speaker by post so I can ponder on the process more.
Since we ended that session early, I had an hour to roam around the exhibition hall. I was amazed at all the vendors that were present at convention! There were so many interesting booths that actually caught my attention. I wasn't there for the free stuff (well not really...), more I was looking forward to how these vendors could help me with my career. I saw an interesting math booth that could be very useful for the students I'm teaching now, but the issue would have to be with costs. It's an online program that helps students get the help they need, potentially, but I'm not quite sure what the costs are at the moment. =/
Besides math, I even saw a Canon booth! They had all sorts of cameras, from point-and-shoots to dslrs. They even had the 5D MIII on display!! Apparently, some schools purchase 5Ds for their schools to use. All I can say is that they must be ballers! (I would assume that most schools would go for the T3, since I believe it's the cheapest Canon dslr are the moment).
After walking around for about 50 minutes, I ventured to my last workshop, which was on quantum physics. Aside from the graduating workshop, this was one of the more useful ones for me. I learnt more about experiments I could use with my students. Also, I even learnt/reviewed some quantum physics myself! Double slit experiment!
I also met an old physics teacher at that particular workshop! It makes it hard to believe that time really flies by quickly. It still really feels like I've just graduated from high school... even though I wish I was done with university (practically, I am I guess... Just the practicum now!)
And to finish my post for today, here's a picture I took last night. It took me about 30 minutes to get the picture, since I was trying to write the letters with my iPhone's LED flash.
It was a really fun photo shoot, and I'm planning to do something similar to that again in the future!
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