My SDE Conference Debut

On Monday, I had the opportunity to present for SDE at the Ohio Conference for Second and Third Grade Teachers.  To say that it was a dream come true sounds so cliche, but that was exactly how I feel about it.  If you have followed my blog for a while, you may have been able to gather that I am a really motivated, goal-oriented person.  I am Type A all the way…for better and for worse. It certainly is evident when it comes to my teaching career too.  Ever since I decided to become a teacher, I’ve been setting goals for myself in both the short-term and the long-term.  I whole-heartedly, fervently believe that if you aren’t setting goals, you’re just relying on happenstance and serendipity, and while you just might fall into something amazing, you might not.  That works GREAT for some people, but I am just not that adventurous.  At least not in that way.   I am a planner, and my adventurous side is really inherently part of my very calculated risk-taking.  I will take the leap… but only after I have planned and considered the pros and cons.  Ha!

Right now, some of my short-term goals include finishing my gifted endorsement next December and looking into an offer to teach a few workshops for a local college.  My long-range goals currently include working as a reading coach, getting my doctorate someday, working at the college level, writing a book, and possibly going through the NBCT process to push myself and keep growing as an educator.  Are they lofty goals?  Yes!  Is it going to take a lot of time, persistence, and resilience if I want to achieve those dreams?  Absolutely!  Are they goals that are worth working towards?!  Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.  BIG YES!  Because for me, aside from my faith, my family, and my friends,  teaching is where my heart is.  It is what I am passionate about, and I want to always work to the best of my ability.  If I am not working to my full potential, that’s not fair to my students or to myself.  I want to see what’s truly possible if I put my mind to it.   For me, life is a perpetual checklist, and that excites and invigorates me!

So, for just a moment, let’s take a little walk down Memory Lane, shall we?  Let’s rewind to the beginning of my career.  Even in my first and second years of teaching, I had big goals.  I knew, even when I was still in college, that I wanted to pursue higher education and work towards my doctorate.  Even though I am not there YET, I have taken steps toward that goal by securing my Masters in Literacy Curriculum and Instruction, my reading endorsement, and now my gifted endorsement.  I LOVE learning, and professional books also help me quench my thirst for more and more knowledge, especially when it comes to literacy instruction.  It is my favorite! I also started thinking about how much fun it would be to write a children’s book.  While I think it would be really fun to work on a project like that, the longer I teach, the more I have a longing to write a professional book someday.  Someday being the key word.  It’s fun to dream though.  Speaking of dreams, one of my BIG dreams was to become a presenter.  About four years into my career, I was asked to present on how I was facilitating writing to teachers across our county.  I was scared to death!  I was so worried that people would judge me because I was a newish teacher, but despite my jitters, it all went very well, and I was asked back every year since then.  Every year, I fell in love with it more.  I just LOVE working with other teachers and sharing research, as well as what works for me and for my kiddos.  It was around that four year mark when I started saying, “You know what?  It would be so much fun to be a consultant or presenter with a big company someday!  I know that’s such a hard thing to get into, but I would LOVE to do something like that towards the end of my career, if I was lucky enough!”

Fast-forward four years.  Here I am.  It’s my eighth year in the classroom.  An opportunity from SDE literally fell onto my lap through blogging, of all things, and for that, I am eternally grateful.  When I started this blog in 2010, it was something I created for myself.  It was something I thought would be fun and would help me to reflect on my practices.  I also hoped it would help me connect and collaborate with other teachers.  To say that blogging has exceeded my expectations would be a HUGE understatement.  God is so good… and He has been so good to me.  I know that without him, none of this would even be possible.  I also know that my followers and friends have contributed to everything as well, and for that, I just want to say thanks for your support, comments, and comaraderie.  It means so much to me!  I am so, so, blessed.   I definitely took a shameless selfie to capture my very first time with the presenter ribbon.  Please forgive me while I indulge!  I told myself I would scrapbook it, but who am I kidding?  I do not scrapbook.  I blog.  So, here it is.

Friends, I absolutely LOVED presenting at the SDE conference.  I definitely almost wet my pants… and I definitely got four hours ofmsleep on Sunday… but I loved it!  It was so much fun to talk to
teachers and blog followers in real life. It’s nice see the faces that I am writing to behind our computer screens.   I just wish I didn’t feel SO nervous, but now that I have four sessions under my belt, I feel
more mentally prepared for the next one.  I could feel myself gaining confidence and momentum with each successive session, and now I know what I will tweak and improve for the next time.  Isn’t that just the story of our lives as teachers?!  Always examining our craft and processes to keep improving the way we deliver the information and engage our “students”?!  The same applies here.  It was also so neat to see the “behind the scenes” preparation that goes into a big event like this.  So fun!  Plus, it was fitting that a girl from the HOF City got to present a football themed session right around the Super Bowl.  My tables were very timely.  🙂

I really wanted to fully capture my first time on the SDE scene, so I snapped a few photos in between two of my sessions while people were still filtering in!  How fun are these teachers?!  For real.   They were even great sports about letting me pat word labels onto their backs.  One of my favorite responses was, “Sure!  You can put a sticker on my back, as long as it doesn’t say ‘kick me'”.  Ha!  They were wonderful! It was really nice being able to present to other Ohio teachers in the trenches.  I’m already looking forward to meeting teachers in New Orleans and Vegas this summer!

The venue for the conference was beautiful!  The Hilton at Easton is really cozy, and it’s across from the mall, which made grabbing a quick dinner and hitting up some shops really convenient too!  I will say that Easton is a lot more fun when it’s actually warm outside though.  I made a super fast trip this time, and I walked away with one sweater.  🙂

Aside from getting ready to present and presenting, I’ve been having a lot of fun with my kiddos too!  I recently read “Word Nerds”, and I am obsessed!  The book is STUFFED with so many wonderful ideas.  Instead of doing the cloze sentence with a pocket chart, we used PowerPoint, then we did a little brain break to illustrate the meaning of “celebrate” before heading back to our seats for word illustrations.  I think they did a wonderful job, and now we have a new class mascot: the word nerd.

I’m also super excited when I catch a glimpse of my students applying strategies and thinking DEEPLY on everyday tasks without prompting.  This Reading Response Menu evidenced thoughtful consideration of each prompt, and it makes me so, so proud!

Now, I’m off to enjoy the rest of our EIGHTH snow day and work on some grad school assignments.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!  Happy Hump Day!