While many of you are still laying claim to a beach chair, we went back to school at The Scholastic Store this week. Well, it’s not so much of us going but teachers coming! This week was our annual Teacher Appreciation Week and we welcomed over 500 teachers this week in six workshops and a Dollar Days sale.

The theme this year was eReading, eLearning and eLections so it was fitting our first presentation was on our new eReader app, Storia. Teacher blogger, Christy Crawford, took teachers through basic Storia functions while a trio of teachers followed up with how they’ve used Storia in their classroom.

On Tuesday, Kelly Bergman shared her expertise in Classroom Management. She’s authored a new book on making the first six weeks of school count to go with her binder on Classroom Management.

The eLearning component was highlighted on Wednesday in a session that continues to be one of our most popular – Tips and Tricks for the Interactive Whiteboard. Presenter Adam Hyman is really fantastic with them! Here’s a recent Teacher Talk he did.

Thursday was our first ever double session! The day started with Scholastic Classroom Magazines editor Suzanne McCabe talking about eLection resources in the magazines and also coverage by some of our Scholastic Kid Reporters.

The second session was done by Now I Get It! author, Joan Lazar. Her passion for helping struggling readers came through as she shared her own difficulties in becoming a reader. A scientist as well, she advocates logic and reasoning to help build student’s confidence (plus a few imaginary vocabulary words!)

Our final session was on Common Core, a subject that all of our OOM readers have been hearing about. Presenter Mary Rose engaged the teachers on writing with the Common Core Standards. The group not only talked about sentence structure but added very sharp horns and red toe fungus to the Billy Goats Gruff.

Each year, I look forward to this week. Teachers shop in the store (using a 50% discount on Teaching Resources!) all year long but there is something very special seeing them come together to learn themselves.

Thank you to all who attended!