August's and September's Online Professional Development Opportunities

Despite my best intentions, class prep and beginning-of-the-semester meetings got in the way of posting this month. However, before the month is out, I wanted to do a quick round-up of the upcoming professional development opportunities that August and September still have in store!

Book Round-Up for August 29: Finishing Up Summer Reading

Something I've learned about myself is that I have a latent competitive streak. While it doesn't always manifest itself, it can be a dangerous and powerful thing when it does emerge. It doesn't translate to sports (at which I am terrible at) or even in situations that seem competitive (think trivia night contents). However, it comes out in full force when I am competing against myself. This is particularly true when it comes to reading and books. I keep up with the books I read each year on my personal LibraryThing account, and I always want to beat my previous year's tally.

This usually translates to a great excuse to spend lots of quality time reading during the summer, which is really one of the only times I have to dedicate myself to pleasure reading for an extended period. However, summer is also a time to read books for the new school year, particularly in preparation for the YAL and trade book suggestions I provide for my students. So, without further ado, here are some books I read this summer but that I didn't write about in another round-up.

picture from
Jacqueline Woodson's website

Two Exciting Online Professional Opportunities for August 2016

I can't believe today is the first day of August (seriously, where did July go?)! This means that the start of school is just around the corner for most of us, and it also signals a prime time for some before school inspiration and professional development. Fortunately, there are two excellent (and free) online opportunities coming soon. This means that you can get ready for the school year and hear from some wonderful speakers without having to leave your couch. While I'll be posting about other PD opportunities later this week, I wanted to highlight these two before it is too late (as you'll see, one starts tomorrow).

EdmodoCon 2016 is August 2 (aka tomorrow) and 3. The conference focuses on how teachers can use Edmodo and other digital tools and resources to improve students' learning. Both days of the conference features numerous speakers and sessions on a number of topics related to education and education technology.

SLJTeen Live is on August 10, 2016. As I've mentioned before, this is a great opportunity to listen to authors speak about their work (this year's keynote speakers are Meg Medina and Maggie Stiefvater) and to interact with young adult publishers to learn about the different books and materials they offer.