Thursday evening, December 27, 2012
7:00 pm (showing up earlier is fine)
Intro to Introductions: How do you meet people?
(There will be some New Mexico trivia, so you might look something up in advance—a question to ask others, maybe! And if you're driving, look at some New Mexico license plates to see what news you can glean.)
There will be cake after the introductions.
There will be table games and chit chat.
Friday, December 28
9:30 Sandra Dodd: Connections, partnerships, corn bags, helium and Frito Pies... one thing leads to another, and anything can lead to everything.
10:45 Rose Sorooshian moderating a panel on impressions of unschoolers in jobs and in college classes
12:00-2:00 lunch
2:00 Joyce Fetteroll, Unschooling Toolbox
What unschooling isn't and is. What makes it work and why3:15 or when Joyce is finished,
Jill Parmer and Luke Davidson on multi-player online games, Skype, multiple computers and other related elements of the kinds of gaming many unschooling families find themselves involved in
6:00 Frito Pie
(sample a simple New Mexico dish we can make on the spot,
or make a meal of it if you like it)
7:00 Helium balloons: games and challenges
Saturday, December 29
9:30 Moderators of the Always Learning discussion (Sandra, Joyce, Pam, Jill, and any others who might be there): "Why don't you just answer the question I asked!?"
10:45 Renee Cabatic, Stories and Moments
There are thousands of small moments of connection that make for good relationships, and I'll share stories of our life that helped us understand unschooling principles.
12:00-2:00 lunch
2:00 Carl Fetteroll (and maybe Joyce) What's wrong with school math?
Carl will share tales of college students who didn't learn math in school, his experiences teaching them math and the kind of thinking jobs need versus the kind schools are providing. I'll be adding in Kathryn's experience playing video games and how that prepared her better not only for college math but real world math than what the schools are doing.
3:15 Pam Sorooshian: "Learning is Learning: Unschooling Everything"
What was the basis for our decision to unschool? What made us think it was a good idea? What were we hoping to get out of it? How did we first apply our ideas about how children learn to conventional school subjects and then begin to go beyond that to apply them to all kinds of learning? And, along the way, what did we learn about unschooling?
Dinner break and then games play and hanging out
6:00 Hot dogs (nice ones, but still hot dogs) available for kids especially, but anyone else too
Perhaps by Saturday evening, some kids will be comfortable hanging out in the conference area,
and some parents could go out to eat without theirs; it's a possibility.
Sunday, December 30
If you're checking out on Sunday, request a late checkout when you first check in to the hotel, or check out early and bring your bags with you to the conference rooms.
9:30 Rose Sorooshian moderates a discussion on "Learning from games, TV, and movies"
10:45 Sandra Dodd Reading, Writing, Thanks and Farewell
which will blend in, probably, to the...
11:30 Dodd Family Panel Kirby (26), Marty (23) and Holly (21 since November 2) with Keith and Sandra [By Sunday you should have questions for us.]
Open afternoon for museums or mountains,
or those who wish to stay and discuss unschooling
are welcome to do so. The speakers are staying over until Monday morning (most, maybe all of us)
