ALTA Conference

ALTA (Academic Language Therapy Association) is the group I am licensed through for dyslexia therapy.  I still feel like I have a lot to learn to be a better therapist, so I decided to attend the national conference in Little Rock.  Being at the conference was an interesting dynamic.  All the displays and conference sessions were directly applicable to what I do every day, so that was great, but I didn't really know anyone and had no one to hang out with.  I've discovered that educators (well, maybe just all of us) tend to hang around in groups (hey, some of these groups even had their own T-shirts, which does seem like an educator thing to me!), and I'm not enough of an extravert to really overcome that.  So evenings and most meals were just quiet, alone times.  I did take some pretty walks down by the river.  And I did make two new friends - one who hosts my favorite dyslexia podcast!  

The first evening, I got to have dinner with Casey Harrison, who co-hosts the podcast Together in Literacy, which is one of my favorites.  I hear her voice a lot when I'm walking and driving in the car, so it was so fun to chat in person!  

My other friend - an educator from Memphis.  We enjoyed hanging out together and probably would have done more, but her husband was also in town for business.  

All the rest of these photos are from walks along the Arkansas River.  There were lots of bridges and cool sculptures.