Today I met for a lunchtime meeting at Panera with some of my fellow members of our school's
Literacy Leadership Team. The Gay Su Pinnell Educational Foundation is offering grants for up
to $20,000 to support implementation of Literacy Collaborative in the 10 research schools in
our school district. We met to discuss our school's needs and how we could write a grant proposal
that would ensure success for our students.
After a quick chat about our summer vacations, we got down to business. At this moment, I really felt
the effects of a summer spent learning so much about children's literacy and awesome books from great friends on Twitter! Participation in wonderful Twitter Chats such as #SharpSchu and #5thChat (just a few, but there are so many more) allowed me to connect with the nicest and most helpful teachers and librarians to expand my knowledge of great children's books. Attending such exciting conferences such as NerdCampMI and the Scholastic Reading Summit through the magic of my TweetDeck taught me so much about how to be a Reading Warrior and really be an advocate for giving kids more choice in what and how they read. (By the way, before I met my Twitter friends, I didn't even know what a TweetDeck was!) Fun Twitter activities like #Chompsticks (where we shared snacks with chopsticks and great books) and #pb10for10 gave me such great ideas and ultimately led me to start this blog!
As a result of this exciting experience in professional development through social media, I have read more children's literature this summer than ever before. I've also learned so much and become a much more confident member of my school's literacy team. I actually sat up a little straighter, discussed at length the literacy needs of the children in the intermediate grades, and mentioned professional book titles that I've read and some of the awesome kids' books that I've read.
So this post is a Thank You to all of the people on Twitter that have helped me, encouraged me, shared books with me, followed me, favorited me, reTweeted me and laughed with me. I'm so excited about this upcoming school year. I wish everyone the best school year ever!
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