A Visit from Mr. Schu!!!

If you read my tweets last Thursday, you know how magical it was to have Mr. Schu visit our school. We were so lucky to have him and what a day it was!  I have been a huge Mr. Schu fan for years and have heard him talk any chance I get over the years. I always love his sessions--love hearing him talk books and smell books and give away books. Somehow his talks are energizing and packed with information and great books. They are always such fun.

For all the times I've heard Mr. Schu, I've never heard him with kids and I've never experienced him talking to our kids as part of our reading community.  It was the best day ever. You can see in the photo below how engaged the kids were and how much energy was in the room. He kept 350 kids engaged for 45 minutes. Engaged talking about books and reading.  Seriously I have been teaching 30 years and have experienced many school visitors, speakers and assemblies. Mr. Schu's visit stands out to me as one of the best in my career. It was like he joined our reading community and made it stronger.  Connecting with him on his blog and Twitter felt very different after his visit because now we know him!  My kids can't get enough of Mr. Schu talking about books:-)

We have our Scholastic Book Fair coming up soon and I can hardly wait after hearing him share some of the books we will see at the fair.  It is going to be an expensive week...

If you have never had the chance to hear Mr. Schu, I would travel a long way to make it happen. His energy and passion for books is contagious and even more so when he is in the company of children.  What a gift to have Mr. Schu join our community of readers for the day. Thank you Scholastic for such an amazing day!

Mr. Schu asking kids to share any of their heart print books--so many had books to share! An added bonus--so  many kids and teachers left with books that Mr. Schu gave away. 

Three students getting ready to introduce Mr. Schu while he talks to them about which book to give them! They were thrilled with their new books!

We could not let Mr. Schu leave without a photo!  Teacher Fans!!

The minute we got back to our classroom, these two students asked to go to the library. I think they checked out every Kate DiCamillo book they hadn't read!

A group of us got to have dinner with Mr. Schu the night before his visit (I know--how lucky can we be right?). My daughter (middle) is participating in Dublin's Teacher Academy so was able to meet Mr. Schu as a future teacher. What fun for her!

I was very sad to miss the Scholastic Reading Summit this year as it is one of my favorite days of the year. I am so hoping to make it to one this coming summer.  I don't want to miss a chance to hear Mr. Schu talk about great books. I was a huge Mr. Schu fan before he visited our school and I had no idea that it was possible to be a bigger fan but I am!