Dublin Literacy Conference - WOW!

Yesterday was the Dublin Literacy Conference (you can peek in on all the tweets using this hashtag #dublit13 on twitter). This is an amazing conference and one I look forward to each year, but now I look forward to the conference more than ever! This is because of my PLC (personal learning community, formerly known as my PLN personal learning network- thank you @frankisibberson) the conference was the perfect opportunity to meet the members of my PLC in 3D! 

Some of the best times were had outside of the presentations and speakers (i needs to said- the speakers and presenters were inspiring beyond words). Sitting at lunch chatting with my "newest live meets" @jennorr & @dahila_constant along with my other PLC friends; @laurakomos, @cathymere and @karenterlecky, followed by book shopping with @nicolelkessler and @mandyrobeck made my day! 

Walking through the halls seeing old friends and searching for members of my PLC kept my spirits high and alert. I am sure I missed many faces that I would've loved to meet and chat with, so sorry to have I missed this opportunity! 

Hanging out with my PLC is indeed a (if not THE) highlight of the conference, but I would be remiss to not share the wonder of the amazing presenters and speakers! If only I could have been in more than one place at a time…wait! @tonykeffer taught us about tweetdeck and how we CAN be in more than one place at time via Twitter in his session with @frankisibberson.  

I also have to mention the opening speaker, Ralph Fletcher who invited us to "Stand under mentor text and let some of that mentor text fall down on us -understand?" This surprisingly moved me to tears. We were asked us to write about a favorite memory using the first and last line of a poem as our mentor text. This may have been a life changing event for me… I realized how much I missed writing about things close to my heart (other than teaching and learning) Slice of Life?

During the conference I had the honor of presenting with @karenterlecky and @cathymere, we hosted a session on Evernote. I have admired both Cathy and Karen for quiet some time and to be standing alongside of them presenting was an honor, I am still pinching myself!  After our session I realized @mbheartsbooks, wizardozteacher and @barbkeister from my PLC were sitting in our session.

You can see our presentation below. 

In the session after lunch @LouiseBorden reminded us "When you say "wow" you may have something to write about later." This advice really stuck with me and I think this is something my first graders can remember in their writing lives. 

Our final session was the biggest WOW of the day. As we sat in Vicki Vinton's session I met another twitter friend, @wizardozteacher and  I saw something very familiar in her presentation… she was referring to the #cyberpd book talk organized by Laura Komos and Cathy Mere! 

WOW, I guess this is what it means to have your work "OUT THERE! "