My first AASL conference experience was amazing! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on my way home after four days of learning and connecting. My mind is full of ideas that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m ready to take back to my teachers and students; my heart is full of love for the amazing tribe that I am blessed to be part of and the relationships that have grown within our amazing Geek Tribe!<\/p>\n
I was able to spend lots of time with teacher-librarians that I follow (okay, stalk?) and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so fulfilling to be able to spend face-to-face time with the people who support me directly and indirectly as a school library professional. I mean, lunch with my the FABULOUS ladies that are Gwyneth Jones<\/a>, Joyce Valenza<\/a>, Shannon Miller<\/a>, Cathy Jo Nelson<\/a>, Brenda Anderson<\/a>, Andrea Christman<\/a>, Kyra Kreinbrook<\/a>, Carolyn Starkey<\/a>, Jennifer Nortrup<\/a>, and others — YES, that actually happened!!<\/p>\n I think the conference really had a laid back, comfortable feel for me. A time for great conversations, sessions with wonderful new ideas, and just hangin\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 with my peeps, yo. From beginning to end it was BEYOND amazing!<\/p>\n I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so thankful that I was able to receive the Bound to Stay Bound travel grant that allowed me to travel to Minneapolis for AASL. Plus I got to meet a super cool new friend — thanks Autumn for being a great roomie!\u00c2\u00a0I also have oodles and oodles of love for my mentor (what what!) Gwyneth Jones<\/a> who really looked out for me and introduced me around throughout the whole event. Between Gwyneth and Joyce, I definitely felt the love and appreciate their generous, giving spirits! Honestly, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m one lucky girl!<\/p>\n Some of the ideas that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m excited to try at CMS that I learned about in great sessions:<\/p>\n Those are some of the ideas that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m most excited about. I also can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to get home and start sifting through the resources, recorded sessions, and all that good stuff on the AASL Virtual Conference page.<\/p>\n Here’s a little Animoto video with a few of the photos from this weekend! I can’t wait for everyone to put up all of their photos on Flickr to relive the fun! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n