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| "Hey, do you see yourself???" If so, go www.facebook.com/helloliteracy and tag yourself! And do you notice they're all SO HAPPY? #notstaged #notpaid #happytobePDd #lifelonglearners |
Ok, I had such a blast presenting in downtown Raleigh yesterday. I mean, don't get me wrong if I've been to your "outside of North Carolina" school...Rocky Creek Elementary in South Carolina made me a life size WELCOME JEN JONES PD banner and Fall Hamilton Enhanced Option Elementary School in Nashville, TN had "Welcome Jen Jones!" out front on the school marquee. But, there is really something special about coming to present at the North Carolina Reading Conference. It's like my own backyard, my peeps, my fan club, whatever! I love it! I love you! I truly felt like a celebrity...especially when one teacher said, "Well, I'm not going to ask you for your autograph, but if you pull out an 8X10 glossy, I'll take it." LOL. Seriously, ya'll, I'm just a regular Jen, have piles of laundry to fold, eat out too much, stay up too late, send birthday cards too late, have a
Seriously, I am beyond humbled that all of my sessions were a "full house"...and I'm super sorry that some of you were turned away by the room moderators who apparently took their jobs very seriously of not exceeding the Maximum Capacity Occupancy in these rooms. If it were up to me, ya'll could have come in, stood in the back, sat down the aisle and come straight on up the front criss-cross applesauce, we could've had our own little session mini-lesson right there in front of the big screen--BUT, nobody asked me. And, I guess, I heard after my session that I it even caused a little riot in the hall, some folks wanted in bad and she said NO. THIS ROOM IS FULL. (Secretly on the inside, I smiled and had a little #sistersmoment.) So, I'm sorry. I'm also sorry for running out of handouts. I truly thought 75 would be enough. But as promised, I have uploaded my session slides and handouts below.
I also apologize for not getting this post up until now. I cannot tell you how many sweet emails I have received from teachers who were in my session(s) yesterday....ahhhh, so much positive and warm feedback. Truly makes my literacy heart melt. This email below pretty much sums up the sentiment of most of the emails.
If you were not in any of sessions yesterday, feel free to peruse them as well, but please understand that they will have the most contextual meaning to the folks that were there. However, behold, I am more than willing and able to travel to your school or district and deliver any of these (or others) enthusiastic and energetic professional development sessions to your teachers. If you are interested in having me visit your school, send me an email and I will let you know my rates and availability. I did actually just update my PD schedule for 2015 which you can see by clicking on the PD>My Schedule link at the top of my blog. IF you are interested in having me visit your school or district, I encourage you contact me sooner than later as I am beginning to taking bookings now for August through October.
I had the opportunity to travel to many amazing places in 2014 to deliver staff development, and I look forward to traveling to Georgia, Idaho, Tennessee and Kentucky in 2015. Will I be adding your state to my itinerary? Email me for PD rates and availability.
Download Slides Here
Download Handouts Here
Email Me About Presenting This Session to Your Staff
Download Slides Here
Download Handouts Here
Email Me About Presenting This Session to Your Staff
& TWO TRUE STORIES
I was on a little vacation last week in Puerto Los Cabos, Mexico, with my husband and some of our good friends from California. We had a great time. Short, but relaxing. We stayed at one of those all-inclusive type resorts where all the food and drink is included, and the particular one in which we stayed, (Secrets: Puerto Los Cabos) happens to hold a lot of corporate retreats. There were probably four different corporate functions going on while we were there...BUT ANYWAY, we were walking to breakfast one morning and happened to walk past a table of "corporate talkers" and I overheard one of them say, "if you're teachable, you're still humble." And that really resonated with me because as a literacy coach, you often work with teachers who LOVE a teaching coach, WANT a teaching coach and BEG for a teaching coach. But, then, there are some teachers who don't. Some will not actually come right out and say they don't, but some, the bold ones or usually the ones with a lot of years of experience, even come right out and say, "I don't want a coach. I don't need a coach. Don't waste your time in my classroom." There was a teacher once who said this to me (I didn't take it personally, as a coach, you cannot take statements like this personally) and it's always stuck with me, and when I walked by the breakfast table, this teacher's comment from many years ago, totally snapped into place for me. Although the opposite of humble may be conceited, arrogant or showy, she really didn't act like that, but she really wasn't humble either. I also wonder...how do you keep teachers teachable? At what point in a teacher's teaching career does a teacher go from humble to "I don't need a coach!" I don't get that. I don't know the answer, but I do like what the breakfast person said, a lot! #stayteachable #alwayslearning #stayhumble #productiveeavesdropping
And one more vacation/teaching story. On the last day of our vacation, my friend, Shannon, from California finally asked me, "Why do you take so many pictures? And of the weirdest things!" My response was, "for Picture of the Day! (like, obviously)." So I explained Picture of the Day to her in the most parent-friendly way, as she is a non-educator friend and parent who works in the Silocon Valley. She shook her head and was amazed at the concept, and then asked if her youngest could move in with us. LOL. (Yep, we'd love to have her! But you'd probably miss her.) The best part of the story is tha yesterday when I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw she had posted several pictures in an album that she named Cabo: 2015. I looked through all the pictures (cute!) and the last picture I find is this picture and caption.#ilaughedoutloud #loveit
Picture of the Day Volume 1 and Volume 2 or you can read all about it HERE.
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| Facebook Caption: Picture of Mrs. Jones getting her "picture of the day" |