Nerdcamp 2019!

Last week I was at Nerdcamp Michigan for the seventh year in a row! I can't believe how much it has grown. It's always amazing to be surrounded by so many nerds. It fills me up and definitely gives me fuel to keep moving forward. I'm so glad to have it in my life. 

This year, my older son went with me again. He even came up with a Nerdcamp handshake! (Check it out at the end of this post!) It was fun to have him there with me again. Colby, Alaina, Suzanne and the rest of the Nerdcamp team did an absolutely amazing job yet again. Being so far away, I don't get to help much or see all that they put into making sure camp runs smoothly for everyone but I know they spend a lot of time to make Nerdcamp as successful as it has been year after year. I barely took any pictures but I did manage to take a selfie with Colby. I'm proud to call such an amazing, kidlit advocate my friend. 

Colby invited me to moderate the opening panel this year with a focus on feminism. It was a huge honor to take the stage with these amazing women: Patricia Valdez, Laura Shovan, Supriya, Kelkar, Alicia D. Williams, and Pernille Ripp.

They had amazing ideas to share and I found myself taking notes as they talked and wanted to share them here!

I started us off with some words from Roxane Gay. In her article Why I Am A Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay said, “It was easy to embrace feminism when I realized it was advocating for gender equality in all realms, while also making the effort to be intersectional, to consider all the other factors that influence who we are and how we move through the world.”

Later, I shared the definition of "intersectionality" from critical race and gender studies professor Kimberlé Crenshaw. In an interview, she explained, "Intersectionality is a lens through which you can see where power comes and collides, where it interlocks and intersects. It’s not simply that there’s a race problem here, a gender problem here, and a class or LBGTQ problem there. Many times that framework erases what happens to people who are subject to all of these things." I believe feminism is simple...but also very complex and wanted to try and discuss this in the short time that we had. 

To start, the panelists had a few books to share: 

Ordinary Hazards: A Memoir 

by Nikki Grimes

Other Words For Home 

by Jasmine Warga

Queer Heroes: Meet 52 LGBTQ Heroes From Past and Present! 

by Arabelle Sicardi, illustrations by Sarah Tanat-Jones

Laura Shovan reminded us that, "Feminism is all about choice." This resonated with me because all too often women aren't given a choice or laws take away our choices. 

Pernille Ripp said, "We should embrace anger as a tool." Too often women and girls are asked to be kind and sweet and expected to be happy all the time so I agree with Pernille. If we're raising and/or teaching brave women, we all have to embrace when passion might look like anger. Because anger can lead to action. And don't we want students to stand up for what they believe in? 

Artist Gareth Hinds drew us during the panel!

At the end, I asked the panelists to share what they were sick and tired of when it comes to feminism in kidlit. Here's their list!

We're sick and tired of...

• boy books versus girl books
• boys don't read books with girls on the cover
• boys versus girls
• girls being objectified
• microaggressions
• books where the girl needs a boy to tell her she is beautiful
• gender norms - coded words
• being a feminist means being angry 

It was such an amazing panel!

The rest of Nerdcamp was also awesome as well and here's my son and Alaina sharing the Nerdcamp handshake. It's been so cool to see him come to camp and embrace his nerdy-ness!

Last but definitely not least, Nerdcamp Junior was fantastic. I was a group volunteer again and got to hear Kathi Appelt, Jonathan Auxier, and Kristin O'Donnell Tubb talk about their books. The kids had a great time!

Hooray for another great Nerdcamp Michigan!

Let's Celebrate nErDcamp Michigan 2017!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating nErDcamp Michigan 2017!

*throws confetti*

I love nErDcamp!!! Every year it's so inspirational. I love being around so much great energy all in one place. I took tons of selfies...and still feel like I missed people! But here's my best photo recap!

Emily Arrow 

Emily Arrow kicked off nErDcamp! It was cool to hear her in person!

An amazing discussion of why it's important to have diverse books in our classrooms with Tracey Baptiste, Juana Medina, Karuna Riazi, Kathy Burnette, and Alex Gino. 

Louise Borden, who I presented with last year. She's always so smiley!

I moderated a panel on information fluency and sleuthing out alternative facts with Ruth Spiro, Ammi-Joan Paquette, Sarah Albee, and Daniel Nayeri. 

 I was surprisingly shocked to see Maria Villarreal from 826CHI, a non-profit writing and tutoring center for students in Chicago. I'll be volunteering for their middle school writing camp later this summer so it was awesome to see her.

Suzanne puts in so much work to make day one run smoothly! She's awesome. 

A bunch of friends! Jennifer Sniadecki, Kathy Burnette, Suzanne Gibbs, Crystal Brunelle, Nikki Ohs Barnes, and Kelly Vorhis. 

 I finally got to meet Marcie Flinchum Atkins! We've been writing friends for a long time so it was cool to get to hang out with her.

 Colby Sharp himself! 

Kathy Burnette and I presented on how to talk about things we don't know how to talk about...and share ideas for how to talk about race and culture with colleagues and students. Chad Everett joined us as we continued the conversation on day two. It was pretty powerful.  

 It's always wonderful to see Laurel Snyder and Debbie Kovacs. 
Look at those smiling faces!

It was so fun to see Minh Lê again!
Gae Polisner and I led a session on Teachers Write with some awesome authors. Love Teachers Write!

Alaina Sharp is such a complete rockstar! 
She works so hard to make nErDcamp happen! 

Josh Funk is so funny. I got a sneak peak of one of his upcoming books...

it's awesome. Get ready!

This guy! Noah and I became friends at nErDcamp last year 

and he's seriously super cool.

Speaking of Noah, he was one of the kids who got to join in on the awesomeness of nErDcamp Jr. I had a group of twenty soon-to-be 5th graders who got to hang out with Erica Perl, Laura Shovan, Jerzy Drozd, Laurie Keller, Ruth McNally Barnshaw, Abby Cooper. 

 

 

 

 

It was another amazing few days of learning at nErDcamp!!! 

I already can't wait for next year.

What are you celebrating this week?

Let's Celebrate Warm Weather and nErDamp Friends!

It's time to CELEBRATE This Week with Ruth Ayres from Discover. Play. Build.  Every week Ruth invites us to share our celebrations from the week and link up at her blog. What a fun way to reflect on everything there is to be thankful for. 

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This week I'm celebrating warm weather and nerdy friends!

*throws confetti*

This week both Peanut and I had cold weather days in our district but this weekend it warmed up and got into the 20's. I can feel the warm weather coming! I think we still have some winter to deal with but next weekend is March and I can feel that warm weather coming our way...even if it takes until June to get here.

But whatever the weather, June will come and then July and nErDCamp! I'm excited to join the Nerdy crew again this year in Michigan. I can't believe it's year three already! If you're wondering more about it be sure to visit the blog and the website. And if you haven't signed up yet, you can do that here. 

Need a little convincing? Enjoy some of my favorite nErDcamp memories from last year! 

   

 

C'mon, you know you want to join us!

What are you celebrating this week?

The One With NerdCamp 2.0! #slice2014

Every Tuesday, I participate in the Slice of Life challenge at Two Writing Teachers. If you want to participate, you can link up at their Slice of Life Story Post on Tuesdays or you can just head on over there to check out other people's stories. For more information on what a Slice of Life post is about, you can go here. 

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Over the weekend, I was in Boston and on Friday I spent time in Copley Square where we were for NCTE in November. It was fun to ride the T and remember when I led Colby, Ruth, and Deb on an adventure just trying to get to the hotel. I remembered presenting with Kellee, Beth, Audrey, Kate, Gae, Jo and Brian. I remembered the Nerdy party in the hotel at the Sheraton, the Nerdy run around to the Public Garden, dinner out with friends, and all the other great sessions at NCTE. It was all amazing and it made me long for my Nerdy friends...but I wasn't too sad because Nerd Camp is coming!

NerdCamp is only 19 days away! Are you signed up? I love everything about unconferences but am so excited for Nerdcamp this year. I'm leading a session during day one, running in the Nerdy 5k, planning to learn like crazy during day two and then send Peanut off to NerdCamp Jr. I'm so excited I can get my Nerdy fix again so soon!

Check out the NerdCamp blog!

Sign up for Nerd Camp 2.0!

Read about Day 1 sessions below.

Sign up for the Nerd-Run 5k. 

Are you coming? And if you aren't, I hope you can follow along on Twitter.What about hosting your own Nerdcamp or Edcamp experience? Let me know if you want advice or support!

Jen's Mish Mash in May

Believe it or not, like it or not, ready or not, May is here! It's actually closer to mid-May than the first of May. It's hard to understand how the school year has flown by or that fact that it's truly May already. We have been so busy on the blog with our Girl Power series and other guest posts that I haven't had the chance to talk about rereading in April or some other fun things that have happened lately. I have been making of list of things to blog about and this is the lucky post where I mix it all up and share with everyone. To start, I'd like to quickly recap my rereading in April. Then, I'd like to talk about Edcamp Chicago and the fact that my oldest son, Peanut, is six which also means that it's the three-year anniversary of Teach Mentor Texts. So much to share!

Last year in April, I declared it to be a month of rereading. This year, I decided to give myself the go ahead to take a break from new books so I could reread some favorites again. I think it's a combination of April being such a super busy time of year and the awesomeness of rereading, but it was exactly what I needed as much this year as I did last year. I enjoyed revisiting books that I love. It's a wonderful feeling to read or listen to a book that I already know I enjoy. Many of my reviews of rereads were all about how we read it first to soak in the story and then when we reread we're able to acknowledge and appreciate what the author has done. Rereading is so critical and I believe now more than ever that we need to keep this in mind when working with students. How often do we read with students and then stop and ask questions about craft or literary techniques without giving them time to reread? We should stop and ask them to read it again or listen as we reread and to think about what the author is doing. It comes down to giving students the chance to read it and revel in it the first time but then the expectation to focus and find what the author has done that makes it so great by rereading. And sometimes when rereading we are able to more objectively view a text. There were a few books I actually was much more critical of as I reread because I could access the text with a different lens having already read it one time through. Overall, rereading in April was another fascinating trip into thinking about how readers read. Here are my 2013 rereads (click on the titles to read the review)!

Jen's 2013 April Rereads:

The Fault In Our Stars

Okay For Now

Bink and Gollie #1

Bink and Gollie #2

All-American Girl

Squid and Octopus: Friends for Always

From What I Remember...

Will Grayson, Will Grayson

The Dreamer

Naked Mole-Rat Letters

Gabby and Gator

Velma Gratch and the Way Cool Butterfly

Two weeks ago, I got to attend my very first Edcamp! It was also my first time organizing an Edcamp so it was an insanely crazy learning experience for me in more ways than one. I'm still reeling from how energizing it can be to simply gather people in a space and let them free to share and discuss and learn from one another. If you haven't heard the news on Twitter, Colby Sharp is organizing his own Nerdy version of Edcamp on July 11th in Battle Creek, Michigan. I'm ecstatic to be on the team to help bring his nErDcamp vision to life. Click the link here to register and join us! If you couldn't make it to Edcamp Chicago or aren't able to travel to Michigan this summer, I recommend looking for an Edcamp near your or hosting your own! It's a phonomenal experience!

My baby turned six on Friday! It's crazy to think that I have a six-year-old son! It's been amazing to think of how much he has grown. On Friday, when he woke up, I told him about the day he was born. It was a week past my due date and I had to be induced. We woke up super early and drove to the hospital so I could get all hooked up to machines and start the whole process of inducing labor. It wasn't until 7:10 p.m. that he finally made an appearance. I'll never forget the feeling of holding him and looking into his eyes for the first time. And now, six years later, I'm so proud of the kiddo he has become. He's just a blast to be around. He has a kind heart and a great sense of humor. He was born a few days before Mother's Day making him the hands-down, best Mother's Day gift I could ever ask for. 

Three years ago, after we celebrated Peanut's birthday with family, I remember he took a nap and I sat down to take the plunge into book blogging. I had already been blogging for over year but a dear friend, Laura, suggested I think about doing a book blog since I was always reviewing books on my home/family/cute kid blog. I was pregnant with Little Bean and had just turned in my National Boards box...I have no idea why that was the day, but it was. And here we are today, three years later. Right from the beginning, I felt such a warm welcome from other book bloggers. I've so appreciated the guidance and support from Danielle at There's a Book who has been and continues to be a true inspiration along with all the other great bloggers out there! Two years ago, Kellee started blogging with me and she has been a great partner. I have loved being able to collaborate with her and to share her perspectives on books and reading here at Teach Mentor Texts. I'm sad to see her go but know her new blog Unleashing Readers will be an asset to the blogging community. Overall, blogging for the last three years has brought me so many wonderful experiences and I'm looking forward to seeing how my adventure in blogging continues. 

With all the reflecting I've been doing on my life, blogging, and the school year lately, I realized it was important to share how important reflection really is. It was also the perfect opportunity to create a postcard to share with you using my Bill Atkinson Photocard app. I love this app! A big thank you to everyone who has visited and been part of Teach Mentor Texts over the past three years!

If you've made it all the way to the end of this post: hooray! It was a mix of news and updates but important things I wanted to share and celebrate. What's new in your world this week? What are you reflecting upon at this point in your life, career, school year? I'd love to hear about it!