Louisiana Teacher Blogger Meetup 2015!!

Oh my goodness you guys!! I am so over the moon about telling you all about our first Louisiana Blogger Meetup!!

I've been known to ramble on, so I'm going to attempt to make this short and sweet and to the point!

I didn't get to take a lot of pictures, I was entirely too busy talking and listening to the fabulous bloggers we had with us!

BUT some of the other fantastic teachers there did take some pics! So please make sure you get to hop over and check out their posts.

In addition to reading about our meetup, you'll have a chance to enter to win some sweet swag!

Well, here we go! Thanks to the absolutely fantastic Jasmine from Buzzing with Mrs. McClain some Louisiana bloggers finally got to meet in person! We have been following each other on Social Media and reading blogs for months and sometimes years and it was great to put faces with names.

Everyone had cute sunglasses and name cards at their seats after we signed in. The agenda was perfect and kept things moving.

I gave a short presentation on ways to get started with blogging. I talked about all the great linkys as simple ways to get your name and ideas out there.

You can check out the presentation by clicking {HERE}. Sorry! I didn't change any of the fonts for Google Drive.

Grabbed this pic from Kristi at the soon-to-be Pelicans and Pipsqueaks blog. Stay tuned for her blog launch!!

Here we are at the end of the grand event!

Mia from Putting Words in your Mouth (the 2nd top seller from Louisiana on TpT) gave a great presentation on Teachers Pay Teachers. She's getting a blog facelift as well! Make sure to check it out!

After each presentation we had some great discussions and questions about blogging and TpT. Tons of ideas and answers were passed around. For example, I learned that you should not only use your blog button, but also your pic for a more personal feel. Already changed out my pics on all my social media. What a great tip, Mia!

Lunch was delicious and we had some yummy cupcakes and adorable cookies. I really hope someone posts a pic because I didn't take any!! :(

After lunch we broke into small grade level groups to discuss things we do in our classroom, particularly behavior! Lots of different opinions and ideas. I love collaborating with other teachers! This has been the most fulfilling (and fun) part of this whole experience!!

My biggest takeaway from this fabulous event was just that: support from your fellow teachers, near and far. I have formed so many valuable friendships through my blogging/TpT experience and I strongly believe these bonds have helped me to become a better teacher. It is amazing how meeting up with people who feel just as strongly as you about what you do can give you the confidence and strength to continue doing what you do and bringing it to the next level.

It seems that since the launching of Common Core, educators have been divided over issues, dragged through the mud, fighting tooth and nail, harshly criticized, and yet here we are, still going strong creating and strengthening our classroom practices through the valuable support of people just like us. It validates my position as an educator. Even though I am not attending TpT Conference 2015 (NEXT YEAR!!!!) I am reminded of the Conference tagline: Come together, Go Further. Our mini meetup did just that.

Too soon the event was over and we had to say goodbye, but not before group pictures!

GREAT GROUP!!

Here are all the Baton Rouge Area Bloggers!! Hoping to stay in touch and try to get together every once in a while for lunch or dinner.

And who doesn't love swag?

We had Go Noodle, water bottle, tumblers, dice, cards, digital gifts (CD from Erin Cobb!!!), on and on!!! And the teacher gift exchange? Fabulous! I received some chalk markers from Philicia over at Motivation in the Middle.