I'm attending the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration's 65th annual summer conference in Portland Oregon. I have to say that I really like Portland.
Today I visited the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals' Pioneer Courthouse. The courthouse was built in 1875. It was very cool to be able to see it. Here are a few facts about the 9th Circuit. No cases were being heard this week, though. The 9th Circuit has four courthouses, one in each of the following locations: Portland, OR, Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA, and Pasedena, CA. The 9th Circuit includes Washington, Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Montana, California, Arizona, Hawaii, North Mariana Islands and Guam.
There were a few legal topics at the conference. My colleague Betty Kirby and I presented about the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. David Alexander and Jennifer Sughrue presented on School Resource Officers in the Public Schools. Richard Geisel presented on Garcetti's effect on the free speech rights of public school administers. Here's the link to the website with more information about it: http://www.emich.edu/ncpeaprofessors/
These sessions, in addition to hearing Yong Zhao (again) about global education, and the networking were the highlights of the conference for me. There were also a lot of good sessions on technology use. I was only able to attend one, but the others looked great.
I was initially skeptical about attending this conference, but since it turned out well, maybe I'll attend next summer in Kansas City.