 If you are a book lover and feel strongly about sharing books with kids, NerdCamp is for you! Here is the official link to find out what it's all about. This will be my third Nerdcamp experience; I had to miss Nerdcamp last year, but I vowed NOT to let that happen this year. You know it's a special place and group when you walk up and clutch the arm of your {nerdy book-loving, artist, not-even-a-teacher) friend and literally squeal, "Ohhh, we've found our PEOPLE!" Even better is getting your picture taken with Babymouse and Arnie AND meeting your edu-heroes in the literary world AND walking out with books, posters, bookmarks, and memories to share with your students about your very own summer "camp" experience! Nerdcamp had its humble beginnings back in 2013, and it has consistently grown by leaps and bounds! This year there are more than 50 authors and illustrators who will share in the fun! This S'More will give you an idea of just how broad the scope of the sessions for Day One. Day Two is set up in the non-traditional style of an ED-Camp where the group itself builds the session board based on the interests and questions of those present. As you can surely see, there is excitement in the air as approximately1500 literacy-lovin' and book-passionate folks come together in Michigan! Please follow along on social media - much of the learning will be shared and available for those not able to attend. But wait - there's MORE! After the adults have their two days of learning and sharing, many authors, illustrators, organizers, and volunteers stay for Nerdcamp Jr.! This will be my first year to participate so I am truly pumped to see how this works. I'll work with one group to lead them through their visits with their assigned guests. Summer learning time also allows me to experiment with new technology to engage my students, and one I am exploring with great interest is Flipgrid. I see this as a viable assessment tool (non-traditional, yay!) for my students as they explain their thinking or reasoning or share what they're experiencing. I'd love to have students use it to share book talks, make connections between books or authors, and to help us connect with others outside of our little rural community. I've completed most of what I need to begin my Flipgrid certification journey, but I need your help to practice more with it. Flipgrid is a tool that uses video to capture or share learning about a particular topic.I created a Nerdcamp Grid and posted a topic asking for nerdcamp lovers to please share what they are excited about or some important piece of learning during the actual sessions. Here is the link - I am hoping to have a few video responses which will allow YOU to share why you are passionate about Nerdcamp and will allow me to learn more about moderating responses - so it's a total win-win! It will take only about a minute, so please help out! Have a great time at Nerdcamp - or following along via social media if you are @notatnerdcampMI. if you write a blog post about your experiences, feel free to leave a link in the comments below! 
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 For the fourth year I recently participated in the Not-at-ISTE community, and the past few days have been devoted to learning and sharing and connecting with other educators and tech-enthusiasts from around the world. Much of the learning revolved around the happenings actually AT ISTE in San Antonio, but for many of us, our learning was from afar. We didn't lack the opportunity to watch sessions, view keynotes, and learn from many edu-heroes. Most presenters willingly share their resources with anyone who is interested. And for the notatISTE crew, that meant nearly 2,000 interested folks from around the world!
Here is a link if you are interested in exploring this community of learners and leaders. Trust me, there are many leaders in this community. There have been robust conversations and IGNITE sessions and Periscopes and such support over the last few days! I can't wait to go back through the session notes and delve in more deeply on many topics! One of the first things I'll be exploring is Flipgrid - a video discussion community to engage my students. I'll give voice to their learning by allowing them to use video to explore, explain, question, wonder, and share! There are endless ways this could be used in my classroom—from explaining mathematical thinking to exploring a creation they want to make to sharing wonders and wows with their classmates—I am very excited as I'm learning how to combine this with other apps and sites to engage students while allowing them to use video to share both within and outside of our community of learners. For any #notatiste community members who are reading this, please help me further my learning so I can more effectively use Flipgrid with my students in the fall. Here is a link to allow you to share your aha-moment or best learning from our few days together. Summer learning is the best—it energizes you and helps you to continue to grow and learn, as well. Each year #notatISTE humbles me by making me realize just how many educators there are who willing share their own passion so that I may share mine with my students! Slicing today by following in the footsteps of Judy at Joodles Now and Then, I'm posting a Six Word Story today: Spring Break skiing, powder day calling! {Oh, and here's a tiny timely Thursday Tech Tip for you: if you haven't played around with a photo editing app called Prisma, it's fun and addicting! It's available for both android and iOS users. Go check it out and don't say I didn't warn you....} That's it - thanks, Mother Nature and Judy, for today's inspiration! 
It's Tuesday - and here is a quick tech tool for you. Google Forms are so easy to use and incredibly versatile!
First, here are two links and experts to get you started if you've not explored GF much—or even if you've used GF a bunch, you'll find something new to learn! These ladies have tons of ideas for using Google Forms in more ways than you can even imagine! Look at Shake It Up Learning with Kasey Bell and Teacher Tech with Alice Keeler. Now, here are just a few ways I've used Google Forms:
Below is a little form for "peeps" to try out if you'd like! Can you add some ways you've found Google Forms to be useful in the classroom? Please comment below so we can all learn new uses for this tech tool.  I am participating in a month-long writing challenge called The Slice of Life Story Challenge sponsored by Two Writing Teachers. The purpose is to share little short "slices" of your everyday life in realistic terms. "Slicers" also read and comment on other bloggers' slices - and in the process we get to experience some fun topics and are exposed to many different writing styles. {There is an individual SOL challenge and a classroom SOL challenge, so perhaps next year I'll be brave enough to tackle this with my students!} Our inspiration for today was to share simple little stories that creep into our lives. This is a perfect opportunity to highlight an app we use in our classroom to share simple stories and slices of our learning: ChatterPix Kids. If you're not familiar with it, look for it in the App Store. It's easy to use and my kids love it! Here are just a few ways we've used ChatterPix Kids to share our learning:
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