Summer book clubs are progressing. Fast and furious. Another FB Live session today. Thinking about symbolism. Thinking about how to choose a Read Aloud. Thinking about the books in the pool for the Global Read Aloud in September. Two of those are in the Elementary section of the #BookLove. I was so appreciative of Clare and Pernille’s focus on Dreamers today as I thought about my #BookLove response.
But I spent two hours reading and rereading my Tweetdeck feed for #NerdCampMI. Reports from Twitter shared pictures of 2,000 teachers lined up for today’s sessions. Often a theme quickly emerges and today’s was clearly about activism and putting students first. Major FOMO!
What did that theme look like?
Here’s a summary in sketchnotes from Paula Bourque.
What struck me was the tag: “Being inspired and challenged by @donalynbooks at #nErDcampMI”
Quality professional learning inspires, challenges and motivates teachers and, of course, the folks at #NerdCampMI were in for a treat. Here were my three takeaways.
- A Statement
2. A Question
3. A FERPA Consideration
Are you educating all children?
Are you making a difference?
Are you allowing labels to define students?
When do you take action?
PS I am still blown away by the 10 minute speed painting by @struckevan of Jason Reynolds
Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for this weekly forum. Check out the writers and readers here.
Resource - Full 
I’ve heard that summer shaming of teachers for their decadent time-off summers is a thing. Clearly, you have nothing to be ashamed of 😉 Nor do most teachers, really! Thanks for relaying some of your learning here and reminding me to go stalk #NerdCampMI.
Thanks, Brian. In over 4 decades in education I have only had one summer where I was not teaching classes. So much for time off. Attending #NerdCampMI is still on my bucket list!
Seems you and I are in full-summer mode! So glad we can spend loads of time learning! Thanks for giving me a glimpse of your take-aways this week! #lifelonglearner
Sally,
Oh how I love twitter for allowing me to travel in my mind and fingers at least. And then the renewed enthusiasm to “buckle down” and work even harder on my own learning! #lifelonglearner
Such powerful statements. Yes, we did sign on to teach all children who entered our classrooms. It is a shame that a few teachers forget this. I am thinking that maybe it is time I joined Twitter. Seems like I am missing out on so much. A friend of mine, Cindy Minnich, flew out to the camp and I am sure she has many posts about it.
Fran, I love how you seek out summer learning in so many ways! Thanks for sharing and thanks for being such an inspiring educator!
Paula,
You are so welcome!
Totally FOMO. Had to follow along in the Twitterverse. Your sketchnotes and those few tweets really connected!