Friday, July 25, 2008

A Conference Filled with "Magic" (and Deaf Magician Matt Morgan!!!)

I am still recuperating from my travels to Sioux Falls, SD for the Midwest Conference on Deaf Education at Augustana College. One of the highlights of the conference was not only seeing Deaf Magician Matt Morgan's Magic Show on Monday night but taking his workshop on developing problem solving skills. My poor partner in the workshop had to tolerate me clapping like a little kid with each trick...plus, I'm a slow learner when it comes to magic tricks. I'm still dealing with my math phobia after all these years so when anyone says "problem solving" I immediately think about one train traveling from New York while another one is traveling from Phoenix and at what point will they pass. Remember those math problems? That being said, thanks to Magic Morgan for being such a great magician and teacher, I now have several tricks that I can share with others. Former Miss Deaf America, Chelsea Tobin, took part in Magic Morgan's Monday night performance. I met so many wonderful people. What a great visit to Augustana College and what a beautiful campus filled with so many art sculptures. While the conference was choke-full of interesting workshops, I was able to tour Sioux Falls and catch the "points of interest" that are available to the "151,300 progressive citizens" (reads the guide book). I visited St. Joseph Cathedral, an early 1900's Romanesque & French Renaissance structure which is one of South Dakota's largest cathedrals; and hiked around Falls Park which features rock formations washed by the Big Sioux River. I've included some of my pictures including the Monarch of the Plains buffalo statue.

I have added my presentation to SlideShare below. For those of you new to this blog, I hope you take some time to look around at the archives and read the interviews with the authors. I am extremely excited about some of my upcoming interviews with CODA author Myron Uhlberg and Deaf Author Ann Clare LeZotte of the forthcoming publication T4. As always, if you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email yadeafcharacters@gmail.com.

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