NASP Convention 2014

This past week I had the opportunity to attend the National Association of School Psychologists conference right here in Washington DC! It was a wonderful experience. This was my fourth time attending the conference, but my first time attending not as a student.

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The theme for the conference was Collaborate, Advocate, and Lead. These are all big parts of the school psychologists role. Even though the conference was only a few blocks away from the zoo, my days were so jam packed with sessions, workshops, and commuting, that I didn't get a chance to go see baby Bao Bao or the new tiger cubs I have been dying to visit. Another trip to the zoo will be in our near future! 

Having fun with the cardboard cutouts in the exhibit hall

It was great visiting with friends and professors from graduate school! The area around the conference was not well equipped to handle 5,000 psychologists running around. Which is surprising since the hotels have frequent conferences. The restaurants were over-crowded, overwhelmed, and couldn't keep up with the lunch rush. Lines were extremely long! We went out to eat one day during the conference and couldn't get into the restaurant we hoped for. We tried a place just down the block that was able to seat us! That should have been an indication that something was wrong. The service was terrible and while we were waiting on our food, a roach crawled across our table! Yep, I lost my appetite immediately. Needless to say we left! 

The sessions I attended were wonderful, especially an all day workshop on memory interventions. I learned so much! I am fascinated by the human brain, which is probably why I am a psychologist. 

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I also want to share the amazing MapQuest app for your phone. I usually use the iPhone maps app or Google Maps, but MapQuest out shined them all this week by navigating me through rush hour traffic in DC in record time. I hardly hit any traffic!! It updates immediately when traffic is detected ahead and automatically reroutes you around the traffic. 

This week I return to real life! Between the snow days, weekends, holidays, and the conference it's been 11 days since I was at work for a full day. I've been working diligently at home and in the evenings at the conference to not fall behind, but I get thrown back into the swing of things with a very busy week. In the meantime, I am off to enjoy my weekend! 

xoxo,

Erin