Tech Problems at the Tutorial

I woke up at 6:15 this morning, which is how I love to start my Saturdays. After getting myself ready I picked up Evan and we headed to the tutorial at De Anza High School. I hadn't been to De Anza before so I was a bit worried about not being able to find where to go, but, just as Don had promised there was an ILC banner waiting for us when we got there. Well, the banner was being put up by Maddie and Don but nonetheless it enabled us to find our way. 

Once we actually got to the tutorial we helped to set up, two others and I struggled to put together two fold up tables but eventually we figured it out. We then waited for others to arrive and got situated with snacks, for me that was Red Vines and a cookie which I was very happy with. 

Once everyone else arrived we picked computers and started logging on, but unfortunately a decent amount of the computers either wouldn't load or couldn't connect to the internet. After some shuffling around everyone had working computers, only for us to find out that the USB ports in most of them were disabled. We decided to set aside this issue and instead continue with the tutorial as well as possible. 

Don passed out some massive packets with instructions and examples, I was amazed he was able to staple all 50 pages together. While we paged through our packets and familiarized ourselves with the material Don dealt with some more tech issues, he couldn't get the projector to work. Don continued to trouble shoot while we read though the packets, eventually, after resulting to another computer, he got the projector to work. 

We went over some tips about blogging and then got our first assignment, writing a blog with four paragraphs of for sentences or more each about anything we desired. I, naturally, wrote about my pets. I finished formatting my blog and published it to Don's Practice Blog, then I read through some of my fellow ILCers blogs. I enjoyed seeing what they wrote about, it ranged from describing Don's shirt to repeatedly saying "I am Cold." 

After these blog posts we moved on to picture taking, we learnt about how to take good photos and the value that real cameras have over cell phone cameras. Soon enough, we took a break to practice our new skills and take some pictures outside. I really enjoyed this part of the day, we got some fun pictures out of it and I got to know some other ILCers I hadn't met before better. 

The Vanderbilt cohort posing for a silly photo during our picture taking outing 

Once we were done taking pictures we went back inside and downloaded them, then picked our favorites to add to our earlier blog posts. I liked playing around with centering photos and their sizes and getting more familiar with blogger overall. 

We moved on to discussing this and that, details about out trips and how to behave along with what to expect. Unfortunately, I had to leave a bit early for an appointment, but I'll get to make up what I missed later. I had a really fun time overall at the tutorial, I liked learning more about blogger and gaining more insight about what my trip will be like. I can't wait for my time in Tennessee this summer!