Visit to Atlanta

Last month I had the opportunity to travel to Atlanta, Georgia and attend the 2018 National Science Teachers Association national conference.  I last attended this conference in 2007 when it was in St. Louis.  A great conference!  An amazing conference!  The best part of large conferences such as this one is you are surrounded by thousands of other science teachers teaching across the country and facing some of the same struggles I face.  The sessions were great and provided motivation to continue to improve my teaching and provided several activities I can take back to my classroom. 

National Science Teachers Association

The exhibit hall was great too, packed with a ton of vendors showing off their science wares.  There were several book publishers there as well, selling books.  One publisher had a deal that every book was $5, regardless of publishing date and hard/soft cover.  I stocked up on some books, which concerned me a bit when I got back to my apartment and had some struggles getting my suitcase to close!  LOL!  But how could I resist $5 science books?!?!?! 

If you are a science teacher and you've never attended a NSTA conference, I highly encourage you to do so!  I'm hoping to attend next year (back in St. Louis), but it will probably come down to funding.  Traveling to national conferences is not cheap and school funding has decreased relative to inflation over the years, making it tough to attend unless one pays entirely out of pocket.  Thus the reason there is an 11 year gap in me attending a NSTA conference.  For more information on NSTA, go to the link below.

National Science Teachers Association

Atlanta was also a great city to tour.  I did a bit of sight seeing on my trip and I'll describe these experiences in future posts.