I MET MY #1 CELEBRITY!!!

Picture this:  Over 1,000 women (and a few men) hooting and hollering.  Scores of wild pictures being taken and posted on social media sites.  Long lines of fans waiting in anticipation for autographs.  Was this the premier for Magic Mike XXL?!   No, my friends, this was the scene last week in Pineville, Louisiana at the National Whole Brain Teaching Convention! And the #1 celebrity of this show was none other than Chris Biffle, aka Coach B, aka the creator of Whole Brain Teaching, aka Teaching Legend, aka educational GURU!!!

Celebrities are a breed of people that captivate their audience, ooze charisma, and make you feel like all the troubles of the world have melted away and you are in Heaven.  (Especially when you get the opportunity to meet one.)  Yep.  You heard that right. I met my #1 celebrity last week!  Let me set the stage: Me, standing in a hotel lobby.  I look over into a meeting room and see him. HIM!!!  The hairs on my arms stood up and I knew that I had to make a great first impression.  (I had been dreaming about this moment for 3 years!)  I walked.  Slowly.  Towards him.  I could see that there were other people in the room.  For whatever reason, they were sitting in chairs, all in a circle, with notebooks and laptops.  I kept walking straight into the room, through the circle of people, and right up to my celebrity.  My heart was beating so fast, I thought I was going to faint.  My celebrity, wearing his signature ballcap, stood up to greet me and I introduced myself.  (Y’all, I remembered my name in this moment, and that was a great thing!)  We shook hands.  (I’m never washing my hand again!)  I vaguely noticed the other people in the room had stopped talking.  (Maybe they thought I was a celebrity too?!)  Our conversation only lasted a few minutes, but the analyzing of those few minutes lasted hours.  For real.  Probably 2 hours. More like 4.  (My amazing friend, Melissa, can feel free to comment on this, as she was a witness to all the highs and lows of what can only be described as “Robyn.”) There may or may not have been a slight panic attack involved as part of the analyzing.  The panic attack might have had a little something to do with the fact that immediately after I said goodbye to my celebrity, I realized that I had just CRASHED a meeting that he was conducting in private.  Oops.  (Hey – at least I made an impression, right?!)

Wow!  After 3 years of admiring via Youtube videos and webinars, I finally met Coach B, the man who has extraordinarily improved the way I teach!  Not only did I get to meet him, but I was able to see him in action, from my front row seat, over the course of 3 days at the National Whole Brain Teaching Conference in Louisiana!  This guy owns the triple threat of teaching.  As a highly-engaging educator, he has all the right moves.  (WBT hand gestures, that is!)  During his presentations, he has just the right mixture of seriousness and humor.  (I mean, who else can talk about the profound effects on the brain WBT has in children, while also referring to the ridiculousness of this season’s Bachelorette?!) And when it comes to singing…well, I was a witness to his performance of a “Yo-ho-ho” pirate song.  (It was YouTube worthy!)  Coach B is, by far, my favorite celebrity.  (Sorry to break it to you, Magic Mike!)

Can Coach B captivate an audience?  If having over a thousand women (and a few men) hoot and holler for you isn’t proof for being captivating, I don’t know what is!   Does he ooze charisma?  Only wildly charismatic people are asked for hundreds of photos and autographs!  What about that invitation to Heaven? Without a doubt, Coach B knows the secret to TEACHER HEAVEN, where all your teaching troubles really will melt away.  I have experienced Teacher Heaven, first-hand, over the past 3 years, and I can’t wait to share the secret with you in upcoming posts that will highlight the remarkable world of Whole Brain Teaching! 

P.S.  I’m pretty sure I made a lasting first impression on Coach B – he said, “Good for you!” when I apologized later for crashing his meeting. (Even if I’m only remembered as that infatuated teacher from Oklahoma!)