This was a great week, but incredibly busy. I really shouldn’t have agree to do so much in one week, but it just sort of snowballed. I started out at the Country School Association of America, the national one-room school conference.
http://www.countryschoolassociation.org
This time’s national meeting was at Ankeny, Iowa. It started out on Sunday with the Board Meeting. Unfortunately our president was struck ill en route and had to turn back, so our secretary had to step up to run the meeting and I got chosen to be acting secretary at both the Board Meeting and the Annual Membership Meeting. It’s a great group and I learned a lot. I was especially interested in Sue Daniels making a primary report on her 10 year long research project to document the manufacturers of school desks and two math professors from Illinois who have the world’s largest collection of cyphering books who gave a presentation about them and how they were used. The conference always keeps us busy morning to night.
I drove home from Des Moines area on Tuesday night getting home about 10:30 PM and then had a great class from Wednesday through Friday noon through Grant Wood AEA and the State Archeologist office. They were walking us through the Project Archeology Curriculum. Not only was the curriculum itself very good (look for a post on it later), but we got walked through the archeological dig on the Hoover blacksmith shop in 1971 which was incredible. I actually learned some things I didn’t know about the Hoover Historic Site which doesn’t happen often. The Hoover Presidential Library 50th Anniversary of Museum – Dining with the Presidents were both really interesting too.
http://www.projectarchaeology.org
Then Friday afternoon I was at the Oxford Public Library dealing with brand new patron computers, trying to help with a community groups Heritage Microfilm project (they aren’t answering any inquiries), and this week’s summer reading project, and some cataloging. In between I worked on an online class I’m taking through the AEA called Introduction to Online Learners. It’s using a different online platform than I have before and it’s been very interesting.
Saturday I finished up some projects and attended a party for LeighAnn Randak who has done some amazing things with the Johnson County Historical Society and is now leaving for an exciting new project. Then I worked on catching up over the weekend.
There was even more than that going on this weekend though because sadly I missed Laura Ingalls Wilder Days in Burr Oak, Iowa.
http://www.lauraingallswilder.us/laura-days
I also was very sorry to miss the L.M. Montgomery Institute at Prince Edward Island.
http://www.lmmontgomery.ca
But you can’t do anything, which is why I didn’t have many posts last week. I hope to do better. The good news is that I have lots more stuff to talk about.
Sarah's Notebook 