California Acceleration Project Community of Practice, Day 1

(I didn’t post this last night because I fell asleep as soon as I got to my room. But this is all from yesterday, June 22.)

I’m at a conference this weekend, so you know what that means: random thoughts throughout any session that is lecture-based/bores me.

1. This conference started at 1, and they didn’t provide lunch. This information was provided at registration. Guess who still didn’t eat lunch today? To be fair, I ate breakfast and thought I was going to get a chance to eat lunch before I got here, but nope. On the plus side, I do have snacks.

2. I am exhausted, too. So that’s an A+ combination right there. Do you ever figure out how tired you are AFTER you actually get to sit down? That happened to me yesterday and today.  The thought of standing up again makes me want to put my head on the table.

3. I need a new phone and am in denial about it. I like to use my devices until they die dead, but I guess not functioning the way I need it to (esp because of the lack of storage) is close to the same thing.

4. Be right back, need to work on my Black Music Month/30 Day Music Challenge post for yesterday and today.

5. I’m still working on my post for #4, but I just want you to know that I poured myself a cup of lemon tea, but I think I left the tea bag in too long because the tea is bitter. Sigh.

6. I have heard the information in this part of the speaker’s presentation before, but just as a reminder: college placement tests are racist. Get rid of them and black students’ college completion/college success rates in math/English goes up exponentially.

7. “All boats rise when colleges broaden access to transfer-level courses.”

8. Word on the street is that we might be going to Fisherman’s Wharf tomorrow night for dinner. (Okay, I put the word on the street because I want to go hahahahahaha.)

9. The guy behind me just asked a question that included the term “drill down.” If you could have seen my face.

10. Oh, I’m going to take another break from updating this and work on my reflection post for the semester.

11. Ignore #10. I didn’t do that.

12. Okay, so whatever I ate for lunch was sufficient, but now I’m hitting my 3:30-4 p.m. wall. I typically eat around this time and I have NO SNACKS and the conference has provided NO SNACKS and now my stomach is trying to eat itself and I’m trying to continue to pay attention.

13. They keep giving percentages of success and transfers, but I would like to see actual numbers. Like, 52% = 700 students under the old model, but 52% = 920 students under the new model (because increased access = increased enrollment).

14. My school has the most diverse table of professors, btw. Almost everybody else in this room is white white white white white. Some of the tables do have one or two POC. For comparison, there are no white people at our table.

15. My stomach is growling.

16. I forgot I had some extra snacks in my bag. I saved myself from myself. Whew.