One of our Momma Bear bloggers was flattered to be invited to speak at the State Education Editors convention in Denver, Colorado last week. You'll never guess who she sat next to on the flight home... a charter school teacher who just quit! Divine intervention? You decide. Here is her blog about the trip:
SPEAKING DEBUT...
Thursday, I was cleaning up macaroni and cheese noodles. 24 hours later I was in a 4-star hotel giving a speech to a convention room full of really important people. I kept thinking "somebody pinch me" so I would wake up. All these people seemed to want to hear what I had to say (or if they didn't, they were really good at hiding it).
My speech was called "Listen to your Mommas!". This was my first real public speaking engagement. To say I was nervous is an understatement! Even though my presentation was an hour and fifteen minutes long, I didn't see anyone's eyes glazing over or notice anyone playing candy crush on their phones. The audience members were all smiling and nodding along with the things I said. Since technology and I sometimes have issues, I was thankful that my PowerPoint presentation worked flawlessly. I don't think I stammered or said "like, um, like, uh, ummm..." (I was like really scared I would umm like end up like doing that like some people do when, uh, you know, they like get nervous). I made it through my presentation and was flabbergasted to receive a standing ovation.
My speech was called "Listen to your Mommas!". This was my first real public speaking engagement. To say I was nervous is an understatement! Even though my presentation was an hour and fifteen minutes long, I didn't see anyone's eyes glazing over or notice anyone playing candy crush on their phones. The audience members were all smiling and nodding along with the things I said. Since technology and I sometimes have issues, I was thankful that my PowerPoint presentation worked flawlessly. I don't think I stammered or said "like, um, like, uh, ummm..." (I was like really scared I would umm like end up like doing that like some people do when, uh, you know, they like get nervous). I made it through my presentation and was flabbergasted to receive a standing ovation.
So, what did I talk about?
I told them about the magical way that some ordinary moms in Tennessee came together and how we started Momma Bears. Less than one year ago, we launched our Momma Bears website & blog. The first month, we ecstatic to reach 50 readers on our blog... Now, 11 months later, we are amazed to have over 800,000 readers of our blog! Seriously, we're just moms who have no clue what we're doing. We've spent a whopping $17 total for the website domain name. That's it.
I also spoke about what we've accomplished through our blog and social media... how we've educated parents on many issues and forced inappropriate surveys to be stopped in school districts. We've encouraged parents to take action with Momma Bears spills the beans & makes new friends - Momma Bears:
I told them about the magical way that some ordinary moms in Tennessee came together and how we started Momma Bears. Less than one year ago, we launched our Momma Bears website & blog. The first month, we ecstatic to reach 50 readers on our blog... Now, 11 months later, we are amazed to have over 800,000 readers of our blog! Seriously, we're just moms who have no clue what we're doing. We've spent a whopping $17 total for the website domain name. That's it.
I also spoke about what we've accomplished through our blog and social media... how we've educated parents on many issues and forced inappropriate surveys to be stopped in school districts. We've encouraged parents to take action with Momma Bears spills the beans & makes new friends - Momma Bears:
