Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day.

Wow! I have so many things to celebrate this week.

* Today I attended Widening the Circle - an Indigenous Education Conference, which is why my post is late. I've been to it in past years and it's always a fantastic learning experience. I will be writing more about this for Slice of Life on Tuesday. One of the messages was to advocate for our students - to "speak the truth" which was also a message at another conference I attended earlier in the week: Culturally Responsive Classroom Practices. Both of these events were times of encouragement and learning. They were also opportunities to connect with others who have a passion for the same issues. It's energizing to be with people that are working for the same purpose.

* The We Need Diverse Books campaign had all kinds of things to celebrate this week too. They have many initiatives planned and in progress. They kicked off a fundraiser and have already raised almost $25,000 of their $100,000 goal. It's exciting and shows that diversity in kidlit matters to many people.

* We participated in Read for the Record and also had a Family Reading Night that evening. It was the same day that I was away for a conference, but I still got to read with families in the evening. Our announcements explain what that was like.

* I was able to attend a presentation by KaYing Yang at the local university. She showed this video which shares the story of Hmong Americans in their voices.

She discussed immigration, gender equity and domestic violence. It was an evening full of learning.

* I am still enjoying my drawing class. We got to see a demo of print making. It made me want to buy a gelli. We also discussed pictures based on the material in the book Picture This by Molly Bang.

* My daughter is now a licensed driver!!!!! I did NOT have to get up at 5:30 this morning to take her to the high school to go to Minnesota for a competition. 

* Finally, I have been winning many things. I won books from two different blogs this week. I also won two books as a door prize at a public library event. At the university lecture, I also won the door prize which included candy, a nice candle and a few other misc. items. Clearly I should have bought a lottery ticket this week. ;)

This was an extremely busy week, but I really appreciated the learning opportunities and connections with people.