You can take the girl out of the country...

It's hard to summarize my trip to Chicago for the National Association of School Psychologist's Annual National Convention in just one short post. So I will do my best with a list of things I learned while in Chicago...

• The Hyatt Regency downtown Chicago is the most massive and strangely organized hotel I've ever been to. I now know that purple is the bottom floor (but not the first floor, more like 5 floors below ground). Bronze is the floor I want to be on to get over to the West tower (where you can traipse over to the underground mall for some delish food). Gold is below bronze. And Blue is above Bronze. I think.
• Do not. I repeat do not. Take the elevator to the 14th floor in the West tower when your room is on the 14th floor in the East tower.
• Between 5 and 6 pm it's best just to ride the elevator up from the 14th floor in order to get down to the 1st floor, because that baby ain't stoppin'. Despite the fact that you can hear it whizzing up and down.
• And all the parking is valet parking. Do not attempt to park your own vehicle. It will not cut down on the $50/night parking costs at any rate.
• Three young women can get sufficiently stuffed at AVEC with 4 small plates, one large plate, one dessert, and one bottle of wine. Your wallet will no longer be sufficiently stuffed.
• At a Greek restaurant you must order Sakanaga. Or something like that. It's cheese lit on fire. It's very good. I'd get two.
• You really can just stand on the sidewalk and lift 2 fingers and the cabbie will pull right up. Just like on TV.
• Most teachers/school staff get in free to many Chicago museums (okay, I learned this before I left, but still think it's a helpful tip).
• There are restaurants that will let you bring your own booze. And when you show up with your booze, they'll even bring a bucket of ice and a corkscrew. I love this idea.
• The "L" is also exactly like on TV. And the guy who does the voice on the "L" is from Wisconsin.
• If you tell the housekeeper you don't need housekeeping she will be very disappointed.
• Weighted refrigerators, as seen in The Hangover, exist. And they are not set up for you to add your own food to the refrigerator, so don't try it.
• Toilet paper is apparently an old-people aphrodisiac.

And for all of my teacher friends *cough* and bosses *cough* I also learned...Get to your sessions early unless you want to sit on the floor in the aisleway

The RtI for SLD rubric that Misty Lay and her Kentuckian colleagues presented makes me excited about RtI again.

There is an awesome principal in Philadelphia named Salome Thomas El. He can also teach you chess.

If I can get you to set a date and time to carry out a task, the likelihood of you performing that task is much improved.

It is best to compare your progress monitoring data to schools that make ample gains. Rather than a national sample.

That kid may not just be lazy or unmotivated. But what's my excuse?

Apparently CAPD dropped the C a long time ago. It was redundant.