NCEA « Oddwalk Ministries

Category: NCEA

April 16, 2009

This post will be much longer than our usual posts, so it’s worth clicking through for a look, Bob.

by oddwalk — Categories: amazing, catholicism, friends, ministry, NCEA, odd, travel, website — 3 Comments

Oddwalk returned today from a quick trip to Anaheim, CA, to give a workshop at this years National Catholic Educators Association (NCEA) convention.

While we were there, we had breakfast with a friend of ours, Bob Rice and his son, John.

We twitpic-ed each other with our iPhones and Tweetie. It was fun and awesome. Bob noted lately that some of our recent Oddblog postings have been short – so short in fact, that the tweet that goes up from Oddwalk announcing the post is sometimes longer than the post itself, which is hard to do as Twitter limits you to 140 characters. So, Bob, this post is for you. (The rest of you, you do follow us on Twitter, right?)

Following breakfast, we headed back to the convention center to set up for and to give our workshop. That’s the room we were in, there on the left. We had about 25 show up – which was better than last year, and people seemed to be appreciative of what we had to say and sing.

One thing about this year’s NCEA was it was full of crazy turns. First of all there were several typos, including on the sign announcing our workshop:

There was too the letter that Shannon got addressed to “Steve Cerneka” telling us our workshop was about 20 hours earlier than we knew it to be. We were excited to see that “The Kidnapper” was back – no, we’re not kidding, check out the pic from last year’s post.

Then there was the room we got. The last one they had, so they told us. Watch the video below to take a tour – this is the way Oddwalk always prefers to stay – in style. Orin’s favorite moment – realizing the room had double doors on the way in the first time. Check it out:

April 18, 2008

We Did Good

by oddwalk — Categories: NCEA — 5 Comments

The results of the evaluations of our workshop presented at the National Catholic Educators Association Convention a month ago in Indianapolis:

March 31, 2008

Welcome to Indy!

by oddwalk — Categories: NCEA — 2 Comments

When Oddwalk checked in at NCEA last week, we (and everyone else) got a cool welcome letter in our bag. Ours was from Adam, a second-grader at St. Patrick School in Terre Haute, IN:

Unfortunately, we never made it to the Children’s Museum – sounds like a lot of fun, though! Thanks, Adam!

March 31, 2008

Blogging Catch-up

by oddwalk — Categories: family, NCEA, odd, oddwalkia, travel — Leave a comment

Hi all,

Been a busy couple weeks. Here are a few pics and stories to catch us all up.

Orin’s wife Erin, Easter Morning at St. Dionysius, Tyler, MN. It was snowing that morning, as it was in St. Louis too. This is the Church Orin went to for 18+ years growing up.

The nice basket of plants and flowers sent up by the Shrine musicians. It was difficult for Orin to be away from the Shrine for Holy Week and Easter. Knowing all was in good hands helped a lot.

Orin’s mom’s gravestone the morning after the funeral. In an unintentional homage to his dad, Orin slipped a bit of his finger into the picture frame.

After taking that picture, Orin went to Sioux Falls, SD to hop on a plane to help out at the National Catholic Educators National Convention, this year in Indianapolis, IN. Oddwalk helped at an opening prayer, gave a workshop on catechizing and evangelizing in an entertaining way titled “Scars and Ugly Shoes” and also helped out at the GIA booth in the exhibit hall for a few days.

We had many good conversations with Sue and David, met David Haas and Lori True officially for the first time, and learned a lot about GIA and their artists and products.

Across from us (this is where the usual “Oddwalk Experience” returns) was an interesting exhibitor, marketing mats that young folks could use to take their mid-day naps at school. They were soft and colorful, and had a built-in pillow — not much more a 5 or 6 year old could ask for, really.

They were given, though, what we all thought was a rather unfortunate name. I guess the thought process was something like, “Well, what could we name these products that KIDS would use to take NAPS on… Wait! I’ve got something clever!”

That’s right, the Kid-Napper. Sheesh. Unfortunately, the picture of the guy at the booth most of the time didn’t turn out too well. He looks though, let us assure you, just like someone you’d expect to see at the Kid-Napper booth at the National Catholic Education Association National Convention.

The end.