Magic, whimsy, and play don’t have to end in elementary school. This notion led Ashley Bible of @buildingbooklove to set up the most magical workshop for secondary educators. In just over a month, she planned out an entire 4-hour jam-packed, magical event that took place at The Story Shop in Monroe, Georgia, the most magical children’s bookstore.

For four hours, educators from around the United States (even all the way from California!) worked in hands-on, interactive, relevant, and engaging stations and sessions.

In my 15-minute session, I focused on two strategies that have worked well in my classroom: CSET and FAQS. CSET is a writing strategy designed to help students embed relevant quotes into their writing to support their claims. FAQS is a method used to break down writing prompts into manageable and accessible parts for students.

In my 40-minute presentation, I focused on classroom transformations, making the most of your magic, and the magic of teaching box! We started with a The Price Is Right style game in which teachers had to guess how much I spent on various classroom transformations. I’ll give you a hint: I rarely have to spend money on my classroom transformations. I hunt for free and discounted items like it’s my second job!

After that, I was able to share my personal magical stories from my experiences with teaching which led to our activity with the magic of teaching box. Each participant created their own magic of teaching box in which they put items in it that helped make their teaching magical. In my box, you will find pom-poms, flashlights, tablecloths, glow sticks, strobe lights, and letters/gifts from my kids. Why? All of these things help transform my lessons all the time and make G115 a bit more magical.

Check out Jenna’s (@doccopteaching) post here 🙂

If you have any questions or would like to make any suggestions for our future events, please let us know in the comments or on our IG @keepingthewonder! 🙂 We are very excited for what’s to come. Stay tuned!