Skip to main content

Making Connections to Make Magic Happen

Last week the North Carolina School Library Media Association Conference (NCSLMA) was held in Winston Salem, NC.  Several of my colleagues attended from lots of schools in our area, but I was not one of the lucky attendees. I happened upon the many great things happening there by following the #ncslma18 hashtag on Twitter.

The first tweet I saw was from the one and only, Stacy Lovdahl: 


Stacy is traveling the state serving districts from far and wide as an Educator on Loan with DPI while she also serves her home district, I knew good things would be coming from her all day.  My excitement for the conference was elevated by the incredible authors and speakers they had lined up, one being Pernille Ripp! 

Pernille is the creator of the incredible Global Read Aloud project.  Her passion to ignite the love of reading in kids around the globe is infectious, and she has inspired me in many ways! I've shared her project with many teachers, and have had participants in the project at my schools for several years.  Her project drove me to create a Local Read Aloud project to connect the schools and students within our own district to connect and collaborate on a common book.

 The Local Read Aloud in Burke County Public schools started two years ago with three books for different grade levels; Kindergarten-second grade reading Clementine, third-fifth graders reading Wish, and sixth-eighth graders reading The Last Boy at St. Edith's.


I don't know how Pernille can choose such wonderful books year after year, after year. It is so difficult!! I settled on these choices, having only read Clementine, but based on the summaries and reviews, I was confident in both of the other selections.  I reached out to the authors on Twitter, and wouldn't you know, Barbara O'Connor replied enthusiastically!

Ms. O'Connor not only engaged with our teachers and students via Twitter, she also joined our shared Google Classroom and interacted with our students! What an amazing experience for everyone! I could never have imagined the impact this made on our students and teachers! Wish was loved by everyone, and many inspired teachers purchased multiple copies to use with small reading groups.


So.... you can imagine my excitement when two women, who have impacted my practice in great ways, were heading up sessions at the very same conference not far from home!! AWESOME! Unfortunately, it wasn't on my radar before hand so I didn't attend, but the power of Twitter is incredible. I reached out Stacy, and she so graciously purchased a copy of Wish, and got it signed for me. She magically was sitting at a table with Lori Eggers, a media coordinator that I work closely with at East Burke Middle School, to whom she handed the book off to.
I got the book a few says ago, and wow... What an incredible journey of learning and connections all thanks to Pernille Ripp, and her Global Read Aloud, Barbara O'Connor, Twitter, and personal/professional connections.

 So, my friends, reach out to others, try new things, connect with strangers! You won't be disappointed!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

BreakoutEDU, YES!

Plan. Schedule. Print. Prep. Hide clues. Set locks. Test locks. Double-check clues.  Breathe. Engage. Breakout! I won't sugarcoat this, the process of preparing for my first BreakoutEDU session took me a long time!  (I used a pre-made game, Grammar Guru, it was great by-the-way!) However, every bit of time I spent printing, cutting, re-printing, scanning, and building was WORTH IT! Cyndi Childers, a 6th grade teacher at East Burke Middle School, was looking for something to get her students engaged, and I knew Breakout was just the trick. We ran two simultaneous games in two rooms, with Cyndi facilitating one room and myself in the other.  We had groups about about 12-15 students in each room.  The group size worked, it could have been smaller, but it really wasn't bad at all.   This game has a progression of clue finding, one leading to another, so they were all somewhat forced to be working together on 1-2 clues at once, which I liked.  This help...
5 comments
Read more
This week was the first of the BCPS summer schedule, Monday through Thursday, with 11 and 12 month employees working 10 hour days.  On paper that sounds awesome, a three day weekend, and getting your 40 hour work-week in.  Well, I completed this four day work week.   And... I. AM. TIRED.   It didn't help that I forgot to turn my 4:50am alarm off, and was wide awake this morning well before sunrise.  However, its after 10am now, and I've had my coffee and shower, and I'm feeling alive.  This week has been productive, successful, and exhausting!  The team of Instructional Tech Facilitators had been assigned the task of setting up all the school/grade level sets of iPads with Apple Configurator in an effort to get them managed by Filewave.   We met Monday morning at Salem Elementary to get started with a cart of 30 iPads.  This was a teaching/learning session in which a team of all the ITFs serving the elementary schools wor...
2 comments
Read more

Upgrade your phone and upgrade a classroom.

The students in Mrs. Moody's third grade class are working in a 1:1 environment, but it's not like other classrooms you may have seen.  The students in her class are using iPhones that have been deactivated from a cellular service provider.  These phones range from iPhone 4 to iPhone 5c, and have been collected over the past three to four years. Mrs. Moody, fellow teachers, and even the BCPS Technology Department have contributed their older model iPhones after upgrades. The students had been using iPhones in the classroom for several years, but now  each student now has their own device to work with in the classroom.  While the iPhone may have its limitations, it also has its benefits. The students can essentially have the world in their pockets, and they are using them to the fullest extent.  Check out just a few things the students have been doing: Taking pictures Accessing Google Drive, Docs, and Classroom Using QR Code Readers for scavenger hunts ...
2 comments
Read more