Why Teachers Attend Conference, and a Symposium

Why Your Fellow Teachers Attend Conference

Compiled by Lisa Thorburn (Castro Valley, CA) and Athene Mantle (San Jose, CA)

Attending the annual T’ai Chi Chih conference has many benefits. Rather than hear more from the 2008 Conference Committee about why you should attend, we asked several regular attendees to answer the question: Why attend a conference?

It’s very important to stay in touch with the community of teachers. Every time I attend I make a commitment to my own practice, to the teaching, to the sharing of the energy. I also value the camaraderie and the conversation we share. Each and every time, I find what I are supposed to work on and cultivate until the next conference. – Caroline Guilott, Lake Charles, Louisiana.

I value being in the presence of all the other teachers. I have been inspired by conversations with each one of them, especially when meeting them at meals and in interactive workshops. – Carolyn Allenby, Paradise Valley, Arizona.

I attend the conference because it allows me to connect with a larger TCC community. It is an amazing experience to look across a room and see more than 100 teachers all doing TCC together. – “Sky” Young-Wick, Parkville, Missouri.

I attend because I receive greater awareness of how the movements are done better and how they can be done more efficiently. It’s great to meet up with old friends and make new friends. Experiencing such joy through the movement of Chi with hundreds of other teachers is beyond anything else. – Nancy Jo Bleier, Sitka, Alaska.

The most meaningful aspect of attending the conference is the time spent actually doing our TCC practices together. Yes, I love seeing old friends and meeting new ones and all the activities that are planned, but I come for the practices we all do together and for the opportunity to focus on principles and fine-tune my practice. – Roberta Taggart, Eugene, Oregon.

Attending the annual teacher’s conference is essential in so many ways and enhances my abilities as a teacher. I deepen my practice, expand my awareness, cultivate teh and re-connect not only with the soles of my feet but also with many wonderful like-minded people. Talk about Joy Thru Movement. Treat yourself (and indirectly, your students) to this year’s conference. It’ll well be worth it. – April Leffler, Prospect Park, Pennsylvania.

We invite you to register now. Join us in San Mateo, California, to be “In the Essence.”

A Teacher Symposium? Yes.

By Diana Welsh Durkin (Glen Ellyn, IL) and Donna McElhose (Wildwood, IL)

Imagine a beautiful autumnal weekend in the heartland where teachers gather for a T’ai Chi Chih teacher symposium. A TCC teacher what? A symposium you say? How is that different from a conference, retreat, workshop, or intensive? We expect the symposium to have the camaraderie of a conference; the reflective nature of a retreat; the educational benefits of a workshop; and the concentration of an intensive. Sandy McAlister will facilitate this gathering in an atmosphere of collegiality. As she says, “We all have a wealth of experience to share with each other.” This certainly agrees with Webster’s definition of a symposium: “a social gathering at which there is a free interchange of ideas.”

In the symposium’s conceptual infancy, words beginning with the prefix “re” were volleyed around a lunch table. These “re” words seemed to express the ideas that we envisioned for the symposium – revitalize, renew, refresh, review, rejuvenate, reflect, relax, return, and reward. We invite you to join us for the first TCC Teacher Symposium to revitalize or give new life and vigor to your TCC practice and teaching techniques; to renew your commitment to this incredible gift we are accredited to share; to refresh and strengthen our spirit to and fervor for TCC; to review (or see again, study, examine critically, and explore) how we move and how we teach; to rejuvenate our practice by remembering those original “aha” moments we have had over the years in our TCC practice; to reflect or think quietly and calmly (and meditate in this beautiful retreat atmosphere by sitting, walking, resting, doing TCC); to relax, or let go of the tensions in your life, in your practice (time is provided to soften and recreate); to return and embrace the practice which motivates us. The rewards, like Chi, are cumulative. We invite you to join us for this special opportunity.