Yay! I celebrated after publishing my last A-Z post. I was one of those nerds that ran up and down my country road with "Eye of the Tiger" song blasting through my iPhone earbuds. I did some turn-arounds and a few cartwheels - totally worth it! One of my neighbors thought I had won the HGTV's Martha's Vinyard Home that I entered twice every day. Nope, but this probably felt just as good!
My theme was " Every Hero Has a Story" and bridged storytelling and books to this summer library reading theme. I learned so much about hero characteristics, story heroes that had these characteristics, and made a conscience effort to share tales that could be told or read to kids from age 5 - 14. I now have posts that I can refer back to but also for others who are interested in the various tales I shared to find and use.
It was pretty obvious to me that there weren't many children's librarians/elementary school/middle school educators participating in this challenge so I'm not sure how useful my posts were to the majority of participants. I appreciated every visitor and hope they found worthy morsels of information, stories, ideas that could be used as springboards for later use. As such, it's my goal to share this A-Z Challenge with my educator friends. Unfortunately, April is a busy month for teachers so I'm guessing not many would be able to participate but I would love for them to know they could scout us out through our list.
It was pretty obvious to me that there weren't many children's librarians/elementary school/middle school educators participating in this challenge so I'm not sure how useful my posts were to the majority of participants. I appreciated every visitor and hope they found worthy morsels of information, stories, ideas that could be used as springboards for later use. As such, it's my goal to share this A-Z Challenge with my educator friends. Unfortunately, April is a busy month for teachers so I'm guessing not many would be able to participate but I would love for them to know they could scout us out through our list.
What I LOVED:
1. LOVE the A-Z Challenge Survivor T-shirt! So cool. This was the reward I was looking for. Please, pick one up for yourself - you deserve it! I'm hoping to run into you this summer. How will I know it's you if you're not wearing THE shirt?
2. LOVED the support from A-Z Twitter and your posts placed daily to encourage all of us. I'm new and it's fantastic to read the invaluable tips given for bloggers!
3. LOVE the fact that I have time now to go back and read the blogs that everyone is raving about!
4. LOVED the comments posted on each of my posts. A million thank you's to all of you - such a boost!
5. LOVED the menions and organizers who stopped by every once in a while to check on me - thank you!
1. LOVE the A-Z Challenge Survivor T-shirt! So cool. This was the reward I was looking for. Please, pick one up for yourself - you deserve it! I'm hoping to run into you this summer. How will I know it's you if you're not wearing THE shirt?
2. LOVED the support from A-Z Twitter and your posts placed daily to encourage all of us. I'm new and it's fantastic to read the invaluable tips given for bloggers!
3. LOVE the fact that I have time now to go back and read the blogs that everyone is raving about!
4. LOVED the comments posted on each of my posts. A million thank you's to all of you - such a boost!
5. LOVED the menions and organizers who stopped by every once in a while to check on me - thank you!
Changes I would make:
1. This is my second year to complete the challenge and still found our 1000+ list daunting to organize. I appreciated the tips given throughout the challenge (bookmarking the blogs visited, sign up to follow favorite, blogs, etc.) but do feel that the list need to be organized into it's categories. Many folks forgot to place their category code next to their titles so it became hit or miss.
2. I'm still very new to blogging and probably could bring more folks in but I just don't know how to at this point. I like the fact that my blog is connected to my website but noticed most bloggers are using blog sites only.
3. As a storyteller, I tried to keep my posts short but short to me could be long to many others - ugh!
4. I would love to have your blogging tips and will take them all in and try it differently next year!
Favorite Blogs I visited:
1. Adventures in Storytelling- Julie Moss is a storyteller from Colorado who blogged on several interesting storytelling topics from A-Z.
2. Diary of an Urban Housewife- Kate wrote wonderfully, ingenious posts about
3. Kari Neumeyer ~ Rhymes with Safari - Wonderful blog on training and caring for dogs - her two shephards are beautiful and well loved!
4. Story Crossing - Pam Faro is a fabulous storyteller from Colorado who invested first hand research into Story Slams which are popping up all over the U.S. She attended and participated in a few slams and came out learning so much. Thank you Pam for sharing!
5. Dreams and Dimensions - Jyotsna Bhatia's theme was based on conversations between two people. Her writing was excellent!
6. The Fluff is Raging: Niall Mcardle's splendid blog posts on classic films was so entertaining - quite enjoyed the journey!
7. A-Z Scripture Adventure: Loved her scriptures each day and the connections made to each. We're reminded to repeat the scripture 10 times to hold each close to us!
8. Living My Imperfect Life - fun, short poetry that went with a word for that day's letter.
9. Tales Out of School - Mary is a retired teacher who also storytells and her blog posts were of her bygone days in the classroom - talk about storytelling. She shared wonderful tales that we can all connect to in and out of the classroom.
10. The Multicolored Diary- Storyteller and writer, Csenge Zalka, wrote out 26 amazing epics that opened my eyes to adventure. Her humorous, upbeat writing inspired me to dig deeper into some of these epics of which she would tell us its heros and highlights!
1. This is my second year to complete the challenge and still found our 1000+ list daunting to organize. I appreciated the tips given throughout the challenge (bookmarking the blogs visited, sign up to follow favorite, blogs, etc.) but do feel that the list need to be organized into it's categories. Many folks forgot to place their category code next to their titles so it became hit or miss.
2. I'm still very new to blogging and probably could bring more folks in but I just don't know how to at this point. I like the fact that my blog is connected to my website but noticed most bloggers are using blog sites only.
3. As a storyteller, I tried to keep my posts short but short to me could be long to many others - ugh!
4. I would love to have your blogging tips and will take them all in and try it differently next year!
Favorite Blogs I visited:
1. Adventures in Storytelling- Julie Moss is a storyteller from Colorado who blogged on several interesting storytelling topics from A-Z.
2. Diary of an Urban Housewife- Kate wrote wonderfully, ingenious posts about
3. Kari Neumeyer ~ Rhymes with Safari - Wonderful blog on training and caring for dogs - her two shephards are beautiful and well loved!
4. Story Crossing - Pam Faro is a fabulous storyteller from Colorado who invested first hand research into Story Slams which are popping up all over the U.S. She attended and participated in a few slams and came out learning so much. Thank you Pam for sharing!
5. Dreams and Dimensions - Jyotsna Bhatia's theme was based on conversations between two people. Her writing was excellent!
6. The Fluff is Raging: Niall Mcardle's splendid blog posts on classic films was so entertaining - quite enjoyed the journey!
7. A-Z Scripture Adventure: Loved her scriptures each day and the connections made to each. We're reminded to repeat the scripture 10 times to hold each close to us!
8. Living My Imperfect Life - fun, short poetry that went with a word for that day's letter.
9. Tales Out of School - Mary is a retired teacher who also storytells and her blog posts were of her bygone days in the classroom - talk about storytelling. She shared wonderful tales that we can all connect to in and out of the classroom.
10. The Multicolored Diary- Storyteller and writer, Csenge Zalka, wrote out 26 amazing epics that opened my eyes to adventure. Her humorous, upbeat writing inspired me to dig deeper into some of these epics of which she would tell us its heros and highlights!
Stop on by the A-Z Blog Challenge Reflections List HERE.
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