Dyslexia Conference

     I went to a conference on Dyslexia yesterday with my wonderful colleagues from Bay Path College! It was definitely worth giving up a whole Saturday! Rick Lavoie was the key note speaker--he is one of the most engaging and inspirational speakers I have ever had the pleasure to watch. Rick is also the creator of a very famous 20 year old video called F.A.T. City that is a PBS special and has been viewed thousands of times by more than thousands of people.
    The reason why Rick is so inspiring and can stand up and talk to a captivated audience for 3 and 1/2 hours is that he shares knowledge that you can actually use in everyday situations. We sat there entertained by his anecdotes and jokes and learn the myths of motivation and what you can do to motivate your students. I thought to myself, finally, someone who actually has something to say! More often than not speakers get up and talk and talk and talk and really say nothing at all. At my graduation for my Masters our keynote speaker was the man who founded Yankee Candle. His story had a lot of potential to be inspiring but in the end all he did was promote himself. Rick Lavoie is the exact opposite, he tells relevant, interesting stories that have everything to do with inspiration and have nothing to do with promotion.
     Our afternoon sessions were wonderful as well. I learned a lot about executive function skills (the 'organizer' of our brains) and I got many great strategies to bring back to my classroom, especially from Sarah Ward who is for all intents and purposes an expert in the field.
They day went by very quickly and I really enjoyed myself and I definitely bought Rick's book! I'll let you know how it is when I am finished reading it! (the book is called The Motivation Breakthrough). I am including links to the two speakers' websites if any of you teacher folk want to jump on over there!
http://www.ricklavoie.com/
http://www.executivefunctiontherapy.com/