#nerdcampbc-An Amazing Day!!

There are a few professional days each year that I live for.  Conferences that I look forward to as anchors to my year--where I go to learn, reconnect with friends, and re-energize. I can't imagine being a teacher without these few events each year. NCTE, the Dublin Literacy Conference, the Literacy Connection, All Write. They have become part of who I am.  This week, I added a new anchor to my list--#nerdcampbc.  For those of you that missed out on #nerdcampbc, this is the brainchild of Colby Sharp and you can learn more about it on the nerdcamp site.

Thank goodness Sherry told me about #nerdcamp!

Most of you know that I have pretty much been tethered to my house for the last few months due to a concussion and that #nerdcampbc was my first big professional outing.  I had a few hesitations this week as I realized how much I have to do to get ready for school in the fall and I feel pretty behind having had to take so much time off.  And then there were the bigger issues of wearing something other than yoga pants and putting on make-up and earrings :-).  But I could not pass up the chance to be part of this event.  Seeing all of my tweeps and learning together was something I had been looking forward to since Sherry had mentioned it to me. And I am so glad I attended! What a great day!

Colby and Donalyn at dinner Wednesday night.

From the moment I got in the car with my Car PD girls--Cathy Mere, Karen Terlecky, Stephanie Shouldis, and Katie Strawser, I knew it was going to be a fabulous two days. Although we were not so talented at directions, I learned so much just talking and learning from them on the trip. So much great informal talk.  Even through a few possible tornado warnings, we arrived in Battle Creek in time for dinner with a great group of people. It was great to connect with old friends and to meet new ones. Laughing together and talking books started right away.

Alaina explains the board!

Colby, Alaina and the #nerdcamp team started the camp bright and early Thursday morning. Most of us had never been to an Edcamp which I thought was a huge tribute to the planning team.  We attended because we trusted them.  We had no idea what we were attending but we loved the team and jumped on board because we knew they would plan something amazing.

We built the sessions that morning and it was such a hard decision as to which sessions to attend. Travis at 100 Scope Notes has a great post on how the day worked if you've never attended an Edcamp. I must say, the energy in the room was amazing. It was just a huge party of excitement about how it would turn out. It felt like a big game show, with Colby as our host. I loved watching the process as new sessions were added to the board and the program came together. And I love that Colby had this Literacy Edcamp idea at all--the idea of Edcamp with a Literacy focus made it all the more fun to watch unfold.

I attended four great sessions. I learned more about Evernote for record keeping and lesson planning from Cathy Mere, Karen Terlecky Alaina Sharp in Session A2.  I learned about Motivating Reading and Writing Through Technology from Donalyn Miller and Suzanne Gibbs in Session B2. In Session 3 I learned about Sister Classrooms from Brian Wyzlic and Jillian Heise. (We also continued the #hatback conversation here..). And in Session 4, I learned about Battle of the Books and One Book, One School from Sherry Gick  and Kathy Burnette.

A great thing about #nerdcamp is that all the sessions had a notetaker so you can access the notes of sessions you attended or sessions you could not attend right from the Google Doc/Idea Board. I'm pretty sure I'll be exploring the thinking for weeks.  It was a truly great set up for continuing the conversation and it is a great resource for those who could not attend #nerdcamp.

The Twitter hashtag is another great way to join in on the conversation that is still going on (#nerdcampbc).


And then there were prizes!! Such a great way to end a great day!

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The Real Boy!!

Finally,  it was time to say goodbye to Old Friends and New Friends! No one seemed tired as everyone was so happy and energized and already looking forward to next year's #nerdcamp!

#Nerdcampbc is definitely an event I will try to plan my future summers around because I never want to miss it.  It was a day that made me happy.  So many great new friends. So much great learning. A perfect summer day in my opinion.

THANK YOU, #nerdcampbc Team!

Thank You, #nerdcampbc Team!