Oh man. There is a lot of truth in this:

Think back to a multi-day conference or long PD day you had and remember that feeling by the end of the day – that need to just disconnect, break free, go for a run, chat with a friend, or surf the web and catch up on emails. That is how students often feel in our classes, not because we are boring per se but because they have been sitting and listening most of the day already. They have had enough.

Two years ago I went on a conference that was heavy on information overload and so instead on the last day I “had enough”, and instead spent the day in a coffee shop where I met other teachers who were using some online tools that I knew something about and we shared. I remember the comments, and even took some of those and developed stuff based on what I saw. They were English teachers using Moodle, and it was the best thing that happened to me during the whole conference, and it happened when I literally walked away from it.

Sitting around all day taking in information is hard. I often complain to my wife about it when it happens, so I always think that I’m probably a bit more sensitive than others are, but I think we can all relate to having a PD day where it didn’t actually felt like you did anything, and when it’s over you are so completely wiped out from it all anyway.

Hopefully my use of humor in the classroom breaks up things quite a bit. But still, this post has opened my eyes a  bit. That’s it. I’m going to do a lot more drama in my lessons from now on. <grrr></grrr>