Our cohort was asked to apply for a grant to attend the National Association of Professional Development Schools (NAPDS) national conference to present  projects that were the result of our community outreach project from our multicultural ed course this summer.  I applied for the grant, but was declined funding.  However, Mrs. Peggy Lewis arranged for me to present my photographs at the student poster session of NAPDS in March in Washington, DC.  Mr. Smith agreed to teach our classes while I was away and I was off to the Nation’s Capitol to spend time with over 900 professional development professionals, including over 200 students like myself.  The full collection of photos that I presented may be viewed here: http://espace.bsu.edu/akhouck/tag/photography/

Although I had attended HASTI in February, NAPDS was my first national teacher conference.  I was surprised at the volume of participants at the conference, as well as how hospitable and welcoming everyone that I met was.  It could have been intimidating to present at such a large event, but people who stopped at my poster location were both inquisitive and supportive of my photographs.

I was proud to represent Ball State at a conference and I felt as if I was contributing to the growth of myself as well as my profession.  Because of this, InTASC 9  was heavily relied upon for this artifact.  I hope to work towards presenting my work at future conferences, and apply for grants, and this experience was a great introduction to doing both.