Sunday, June 28, 2015

Igniting the love of reading from within

So, I had the wonderful experience to attend the State Iowa Reading Association Conference in Ames, where I was also asked to be a presenter.  I cannot even begin to tell you how much I learned.  We had nationally known speakers flown in from California, New York, Minnesota, etc.  I took notes like a crazy person and it was so wonderful to be surrounded by thousands of people who feel the same way about reading that I do!

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My presentation went great!  I was shaking like a leaf though!  Once I got up there, I did awesome (I know that presentation like the back of my hand).  I ended up wearing my superwoman shirt with a skirt and heels!  Nothing says heroic bravery like wearing that in front of professional colleagues!

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I had 2 famous authors/presenters stay and listen to my presentation: Mary Bigler and Jennifer Saravallo (you can google them to see more about them.  A lady came up and told me Jennifer was tweeting everything I said, and sure enough when I looked on twitter I had 20 new followers and was tagged in tons of tweets!!!  How awesome is that?!  Then, Mary, who is literally going on to her 51st year of teaching, came up and talked to me and said she loved my presentation and that I have the same reading philosophy as her!  I almost passed out.  Then, she asked to use my computer for her presentation and talked to me for  a while!

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I even got to attend an amazing session by author, Delia Ray and only 10 people attended.  I was shocked, but that gave me time to meet her and speak to her.

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We got to hear from an actual National Geographic explorer and the crazy new things she is working on to help steer girls into the sciences by breaking stereotypes.  So cool!!!

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