#Triconf2015

Last week I went to Bogotá, Colombia to participate in the annual Tri-Association Conference for Educators , aptly named "Deepening Our Impact". During the first two days of the conference I took a workshop on design for thinking by Maggie Chumbley. Aside from the entire process I got some key takeaways with immediate application to the classroom, such as energizers, book recommendations, and interesting mashups that promote learning. Our project for the workshop was "How to Redesign the Assessment Process in my Classroom", and even though doing this would require admin support I really feel like a step was taken towards focusing more on the process and not so much on the end result (grades).
Wednesday came and with it a change of venues for the main conference, from the hotel to the Colegio Nueva Granada. Ms. Orling and I walked there and it was fantastic and,  although breathing is harder in such thin air, the temperature and sights made it such a wonderful experience that we ended up walking to and from for the rest of the week. I have to say though that facing those hundreds of stairs was daunting! The keynotes were flat on Wed and Thu, but boy, did Fri make up for those. Tom Guskey and Lee Ann Jung gave a great speech on grading reform! The theme of the conference was mostly on technology and its uses. I attended workshops on blended learning, with Lauren Hegarty (Twitter: @LRHegarty), use of Twitter in the classroom, (Twitter: @moniqueflick), a system for earning tech badges in school, (Twitter: @bradflickinger), and my favorite, Guskey's workshop on grading reform, right after his keynote speech on Fri, (Twitter: @tguskey). On a side note, CNG is fantastic. Wide spaces, lots of sport areas, including a track for running, two gyms, and a very modern tech studio they called the Global Learning Studio, featuring a curved screen, and six other screens around the room. Rooms are a little smaller than ours. The only drawback is that there are about 1000 stairs all over the place. The gym is so high I had to stop for air on my way up!
After the work days were over, we took advantage to explore the city. One thing that called my attention is the abundance of dogs in the city, both for work as for company purposes. You could see shelters made to protect them from the weather, and many people walking them, sometimes much more than one at a time, including a guy taking 10 different breeds for a stroll. Architecturally speaking, most of the buildings are made of brick, which gives a touch of the old into their modern designs. It felt a little like going through WA, DC.  Many pedestrians around, although cars and buses also abound. 9 million people live in Bogotá. The fashionista in me rejoiced in being able to wear clothes I could not wear in Santo Domingo, such as scarves, boots and sweaters, to deal with the low temperatures. We took advantage of this and walked everywhere, and I also visited Crossfit Bogotá and Crossfit Gallicus, as well as the hotel gym. A cool fact is that Ms. Gamache took her first CF class in Colombia of all places!
We went up to Monserrate, a beautiful sanctuary at 3170m above sea level, and enjoyed the sunset over the city. We also took a graffiti tour, where we learned that the city is in the top 10 in the world for street art. Visited the Botero Museum, the National Coin Museum, several restaurants and artisan shops, where we stocked up on Colombian coffee, renowned around the world, as well as souvenirs for our families and students (remember that delicious arequipe?). All in all it was a great experience, shared among the greatest of colleagues. We had a wonderful time and I can't wait to put some of what I learned in use as well as looking forward to my next one. Hope to see you soon Bogotá, you have become one of my favorite cities!