I’ve had the privilege the last few years to not only attend the workshop, but be part of the amazing staff that puts this workshop on each summer.   This year I worked mostly in the Creative Strand teaching about the 21st Century Learner, Blogs, and Wikis.  I also hopped into a couple of the other strands talking about Literacy and Research projects.  It was so much fun.  An added plus is I get to show the potential the library media program can have in schools.  Sometimes it can be a little bit of a downer when folks come up and say, “my librarian would never do anything like that”, but we’ve planted a seed of what might be possible.  The teacher may just be the one to go back and help spark a collaborative experience with the library media specialist using some of these creative tools.

This week also brought in two amazing guest speakers with Martha Kaufeldt and Jean Blaydes Madigan.  While I was only able to catch part of Martha’s presentations, she shared great ideas for how to structure the classroom, creating procedures for students, and how that all relates to the brain and how we learn.  Jean spent the entire day focusing on how movement and exercise impacts the brain.  It was truly amazing!

Even with my time mostly devoted to leading sessions, I always come away learning something new and exciting.  Here was just some of the things that come to mind.

• Attitude is key!  The whole week of C.L.A.S.S. is such a positive experience.  You can’t leave thinking that anything is possible.  I know I leave every year with a positive outlook and helps to get the year started off right for me.
• Jean Blaydes Madigan’s day is still kind of milling in my mind on how I might be able to add movement to the library experience.  For example, couple I come up with a movement to help the kids remember the Big6?  I think that might have real possiblities.
• One of C.L.A.S.S.’s motto is “As Good As We Are, We Can Always Get Better!”  Each session I was leading, I came away with ideas of how I would do it differently or better next time around.
• Just popping into other rooms, I saw books I wanted for the library (and me) and picked up ideas on how teachers were using them with kids.
• Conversations are so important.  Just the chance to interact with other educators can be so rewarding.  Having been a part of it the last several years, I’ve become friends with many of the staff and some attendees, so I love the chance just to chat and catch-up with them.

Walking away I always marvel how I got involved with such an amazing learning experience.   My story with C.L.A.S.S. spans my entire teaching career.  My first school was one of the very first C.L.A.S.S. schools.  I can remember Barbara Pedersen, the founder of C.L.A.S.S., coming to our school that first year I was teaching for a professional develoment day.  It was my first introduction to C.L.A.S.S.  Fast forward a year or so and I was able to go to Summer Institute for the first time.  That first summer I remember learning a lot and some of the pieces started to fit.  But, things changed.  I left that school for a new opportunity.   My new school had worked with C.L.A.S.S. years before, but wasn’t currently invovled.  So, while I was certainly able to use what I had learned, the chance to build on that knowledge wasn’t there….yet!   Fast forward a few more years and a new administrator brought C.L.A.S.S. back into my professional world.  It didn’t take long to link the connections of the library media program to C.L.A.S.S. and before I knew it I was working with the C.L.A.S.S. folks on some projects.  I think that wasn’t an accident that C.L.A.S.S. came back into my life.  It is now a critical part of who I am as an educator!

So, last week was amazing!  In a few days I head off to ALA for another amazing week with my librarian colleagues and I can’t wait!  The summer is going fast, but having a great time, too!