"Get a Grip!!"

You've gotta love a conference where people stop by your presentation room to give you a hug BEFORE you begin!! The title for my Tuesday presentation was "Get a Grip!" I still smile thinking of the applicability of this title for me in Vegas. (If ever there was an event where I was in need of 'getting-a-grip' this was the one, with my brother Dan in ICU clear across the country, I was more than a tad bit dingier than usual.) This workshop was all about the music and movement to support fine motor development, print directionality and included the disco tune for the holding of a crayon. The first hour I shared the songs and dances that I recorded for the Zaner-Bloser curriculum for Kindergarten 'handwriting.' Of course I always incorporate my "Debbie's Directions" for those in attendance and we practise laughing on cue.....one of my favorite parts of waking up our brains!

Then we had just enough time for me to share one of my favorite quotes, "Why do writers write? Because it isn't there." This simple sentiment from Thomas Berger makes the perfect transition to the sharing of my picture books with the teachers. Oddly, it was at that exact moment that the LCD projector got disconnected from my laptop, right in time for the conclusion section, so everyone had to use their imagination more than I had hoped. Argggggg. 'The show must go on.' Technology is so awesome when it works. Argggggg. I hope that my participants will stop by here at my blog to see the photos that they missed in Vegas. I had wanted them to see the pictures of Carrie's kindergarten quilt for the extension of "Red, White and Blue" and my intention was to conclude with my 'big ending' of the slides of Hajar's invented spelling of "You're Wonderful." Instead I described these visuals and the teachers who supervised the miracles. But we all know a pictures worth a thousand words. Alas.

Just as soon as we concluded with my traditional 'thank you, for singing, today' in sign language we made a bee line up to the fifth floor and the exhibit hall for my earlier scheduled book signing with Crystal Springs Books. I really felt like a full-fledged diva when Melissa Sheldon (the organizer of the entire event for over 6000+++) was personally standing at the elevator with its doors held wide for the benefit of my making a speedy transition. I had 'people' in Vegas!! Whoooop! Whoooop!!