Positively Learning: Catching Up & A Freebie!

Happy Sunday!

Still trying to catch up from a whirlwind week in Houston!

There's SO much to share, so I'm going to try to do it with pictures.

I spent a week in Texas attending a mini-course on Close Reading (fantastic!) and attending the KIPP School Summit 2014.
I also presented on Wednesday, so please excuse all those related proud photos :)

As a thank you for sticking with this l-o-n-g post, there's also a freebie tucked in!

A small team of teachers and adminstrators flew out to Houston last Friday evening after a full day of PD. Here's evidence of this...I was too exhausted to notice much else & went to bed ASAP upon checking into our hotel:

I attended a mini-course kick-off on Text Complexity: Close Reading. It was on Saturday/Sunday and will continue online through December. The kick-off was FABULOUS...a total game-changer on how we will approach balanced literacy. We worked HARD...here's proof:

I spent every break and spare moment practicing for my upcoming presentation. The hotel lobby was my audience every morning :)

On Monday morning, we moved hotels and the rest of our staff joined us! I attended a few sessions and focused on getting all my facilitating duties together:

KSS was at the Convention Center - HUGE!

Had to snap a photo of the program for my mom :)

Photo of the room I presented in - 44 tables & 180 chairs, yikes!

I got nervous, so I bought candy for the participants!

We didn't have extra time to explore Houston, but it looked nice!

Tuesday was Opening Ceremonies and I attended several great sessions.

Then Wednesday arrived - the BIG day I've been preparing MONTHS for!

KEEP CALM!

Good Karma from the hotel!

Another proud picture for my mom!

Showtime!

The presentation was on Grit Tracking: Student Data Notebooks.

Here's the handout (freebie!) from the session and here's the link to the complete set:

The audience was AWESOME - I had so much fun and really appreciated all the participation and conversations I had. Here's a bit of the feedback so far:

The rest of Wednesday was awesome...I attended a terrific session on Accelerated Reading and then Tape Diagrams for Grades K-4. Our team had a fun Happy Hour and then I pretty much collapsed from exhaustion and relief!

Thursday was full of intense school and team meetings. I walked away with dozens of next steps and feeling frustrated that I didn't pack my new Erin Condren planner (what was I thinking?)!

Thursday evening was our dinner and gala.
Check out the centerpieces!