End of Summer = Back to School

Well, another summer has come and gone. Tomorrow I go back to work to begin my nineteenth year in education.  I wish I could say I felt ready, but the summer is never really long enough.  Perhaps it's because I cram as much as I can into the short 59 days off.

I began the summer presenting with a fellow media specialist at our county's tech conference.

We presented on augmented reality and ended our session with a how to demonstration of Aurasma, which is now HP Reveal.

You can get the free how to guide I created HERE.

The next week, I attended the AWESOME GLMA Summit and met two of my "must meet before I die" teacher librarians, THE Shannon McClintock Miller and THE John Schu!  I was totally fangirling.  Like seriously.

I also got to hang out with my MS Conference BFF, Jenn.

After that, it was time to get busy cataloging and processing some new books that came in the last week of school.  I knew there was no way it was going to get done at the beginning of the year and I wanted my kiddos to be able to get to those new books as soon as possible. So I took a few days to go into work (for free) to get that done.

While I was at it, I weeded over 400 VHS tapes from our collection.  It was time.  And I know I will be happy about it come inventory time.

Not long after that, I attended my third "conference" of the summer....Media Specialist Boot Camp at West Georgia RESA, led by THE Andy Plemmons!

And thus my trifecta of pictures with AMAZING teacher librarians was complete and I was ready to really enjoy my summer.

Somewhere in between all that excitement, I sent my oldest off to Boy Scout Camp for a week.  He loved it, but it was difficult for me because that was the longest he had ever been away from home.  I was glad to have him back in one piece and he was glad to be back in the air conditioning.

My youngest got his very own public library card this summer and enjoyed checking out a TON of books.  I won't mention how many of those actually got read (bad mommy!), but we did visit the library several times.  He also started swimming lessons and did great!  He is ready to go up to the next level now.  I am proud of what both my boys accomplished this summer.

We also took a couple of family trips.  We made our annual trip to the beach and then did a cross Tennessee trip to visit family.

I was able to get a little reading done on these trips, so I didn't mind the long car rides.

We ended our summer with a day at Six Flags Over Georgia. 

It was a hot day, but I caught some Pokemon, so it was all good.  =)

I spent my last week of freedom pinning items on some new Pinterest boards and creating new products for my TpT store.  I literally spent whole days working to get these packs complete, but I LOVE how they turned out.

Book Camp Library/Media Center Pack

Click HERE to get the Book Camp Library/Media Center Pack.

Here We Grow Library/Media Center Pack

Click HERE to get the Here We Grow Library/Media Center Pack.

Ninja Themed Library/Media Center Pack

Click HERE to get the Ninja Themed Library/Media Center Pack.

Ninja Themed Book Return Reward Bulletin Board Set

Click HERE to get the Ninja Themed Book Return Reward Bulletin Board Set.

With all this fun, no wonder I am not feeling rested up enough to go back to work.  But back to work I must go.  Fortunately, TpT is having their Back to School Sale beginning tomorrow, so that makes it a little less gloomy.

Of course my store will be in the sale.  You will be able to save up to 28% off all my paid products by using the promo code BESTYEAR at checkout. Click HERE to go to my store.

So all in all, it was a good, if not busy summer.  And now it's time to gear up for another fabulous year at the best elementary school ever!

I wish you all good luck this year!  Happy Back to School!