Five for Friday: ILA week

For the first time, I am linking up with Doodle Bugs Teaching for five for Friday.  Here are 5 random things about my last week.

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Both Little Girl and I took trips last week. I went to the International Literacy Association conference in St. Louis to learn more about literacy. She went to Grandma's to make peacock hand prints and feed cows.  We both had awesome times. While I missed her like crazy, I was also glad to have a couple of days to socialize like pre-kid days.

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This was my first experience being at a large, international conference.  One of the things that surprised me the most was all the free goodies.  Scholastic had a large breakfast where we got a red bag with 5 books.  The authors of these books spoke about their favorite teacher.

See Jewell Parker Rose?  I now want everything that she has written.  She is that gifted with words.  I also want to give her a hug and tell her everything is gonna be okay.  I was in TEARS listening to her story.  She is absolutely amazing.

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Some of the speakers at the conference were okay, some were ugg, and some were amazing.  I was most blown away by Shiza Shahid.  I had not even heard of her before this conference.  Again, she has lived through so many things but has turned tragedy into opportunity again and again.

Maybe you have heard of Malala Yousafzai?  The girl shot by the Taliban on the bus for speaking up about girl's education?  Shiza is the one that runs her Malala fund.  She also has a passion for education and women's lives that just pushes others into action.

One thing she said really stuck with me.  I don't know the exact words but it was basically to choose one passion and make a difference with that one area.  Don't spend $20 on this charity and 1 hour for this one.  Really pick one and be the superhero for that cause. 

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I also got to hear some educational gurus-- Stephanie Harvey in particular was FANTASTIC.  That makes me super happy as I've been her fan for years.  I'm planning a whole bunch of posts sharing some of the ideas that I learned.  So if you are a teacher, start following or come back this week!  If you aren't a teacher, don't worry.  I will add some non-educational posts too.

What would you like to hear about?  My trip?  What I learned?  The speakers?  Should I share it all in a week or spread it out to one post a week? 

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Totally unrelated to ILA is my random cell phone troubles.  At the beginning of June, I switched carriers to Cricket Wireless.  I heard they were bought by AT&T and so had AT&T coverage for super cheap.  My husband and I pay $70 a month with taxes and fees.  For that cost, we get unlimited talk, unlimited texts, 2.5MB of fast data, and unlimited slow data.  We have been pleased with the service.

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The catch is the phone.  You have to buy your phone outright or put it on a crazy payment plan.  (Although you can also bring any AT&T phone over to Cricket since they are on the same network.)  At first I went with the ZTE Overture II since it was free after rebate.  I didn't have any real problems with it, though I thought the camera could be a lot better.  Then, one day, no one could hear me on the phone.  I restarted the phone and it went back to working.

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This week though, the power button broke.  You don't really know how essential a power button is until it's not working.  I downloaded an app that switched the control of the screen to the volume button.  I was still afraid the battery would die though.  While there is a manufacturer warranty, I decided it was more trouble than it was worth.  So now I have a Galaxy Grand Prime. Hopefully it lasts more than 2 months!