A Great Day at the Scholastic Reading Summit!

I was lucky enough to attend the Scholastic Reading Summit in Cincinnati last week. I really didn't know what to expect but I figured that if Donalyn Miller, John Schumacher and Cynthia Lord would be speaking, it would be a great day. And it was!

I pulled into the hotel parking lot the day before the Summit and saw the Scholastic Book Fair trucks! It is always a happy day when those trucks are in the area. Way better than any ice cream truck--that's for sure!

It was an extra treat to have time to go to lunch and to visit a bookstore with these 4. At one point I was looking at books alone and I thought to myself, "You are in a bookstore with John Schu and Colby Sharp. What are you doing by yourself? Go follow their every step and pay attention to every word they say in here!" So I did and I bought a good stack of books. Shopping with this crew is fun... expensive, but fun!

 READING SUMMIT KICK OFF!!

Starbucks and great friends! What could make for a better morning?

The incredible people of Scholastic!  
We heard the mission of getting books into every child's hands, we heard research about reading and we heard book talks from these amazing individuals working to get all kids reading.

KEYNOTE BY DONALYN MILLER

The morning keynote was given by Donalyn Miller. I've been lucky to hear Donalyn speak a few times this year and it is always a treat--she always reminds us of our most important work with children. Incredible opening keynote!

Some of my favorite takeaways from Donalyn's keynote are below:

A SESSION WITH MR. SCHU

For the morning session, Katherine, Colby and I heard John Schu. If you have never heard John Schu, I would make that your new goal.  Even though I follow his blog and I read every tweet, watch every video and listen to every online book recommendations, there is nothing like hearing John talk about books in real life!

John knows the best books and has great stories behind every one. He notices things I never pay attention to.  And his session is great fun!  He is definitely the Oprah of books! A great session!

BOOK FAIR!

The Scholastic Book Fair was open all day.  Yes, that's right..great speakers, great people and great books! I have been looking forward to reading this new book by Jennifer and Matthew Holm for a while  so I was THRILLED to get it at the book fair!

And who knew that this amazing nonfiction series is available in Spanish? My 3rd graders LOVED this series and to find them in Spanish was a real treat!

LEARNING ABOUT CONFERRING WITH DONALYN MILLER

A great session about conferring with Donalyn Miller. Some of the best learning form this session is below:

A MESSAGE FROM COLBY SHARP

Colby Sharp talked to us about his reading life. He shared an important message in a very powerful  few minutes.  He said:

"I hope that this fall your hearts are focused on finding the right book for every child. When we do that, everything is possible." Brilliant.

KEYNOTE BY CYNTHIA LORD

I have loved Cynthia Lord and her books for a very long time.  To hear her speak was another great thing about the day.  She was amazing! My favorite line from her talk was:

"I know that feeling when you open a book expecting to find a story, but instead you find yourself." WOW!

If you weren't able to attend a Scholastic Reading Summit this year, I'd highly recommend one in the future. It was a fabulous day!  In the meantime, visit the Open a World of Possible site. We watched a few videos from the site and I LOVED them. Excited to use a few with students in the fall.  Here's one of my favorites:

You can also revisit the Scholastic book Open a World of Possible that I blogged about this fall--I'm revisiting it to find pieces to share with students this fall.  You can also follow the #ReadingSummit or the #sharepossible hashtags on Twitter.

A great day  that left me inspired and ready to start a new school year!