Last weekend, I attended the French Lick Spring Teacher Blogger Meet-Up in Indiana. This was my second time attending and it did not disappoint {to see last year's festivities click HERE}! This year, I brought Mr. Wheeler along as my travel companion! French Lick is about a 4 hour drive from our house and last year it was pretty lonely driving alone! We left on Friday afternoon and arrived around dinnertime. After checking in, we headed to dinner, where I met up with many old {and some new} friends!
After dinner, Mr. Wheeler and I walked around and checked out the sights. French Lick is a beautiful resort! Although I forgot to take pictures of French Lick, I did manage to take some of its sister resort, West Baden.
On Saturday, I got up and got ready for the Blogger Meet Up. We began the day with some introductions and ice-breakers. Everyone contributed to making a letter to spell out the theme for the theme of our event, "Take Your Passion and Make It Happen."
It was great to see old friends and meet some new ones! I was *super* pumped to meet Amy and Nicole from Teachers Pay Teachers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Next it was time for lunch. We had a catered lunch from the deli. Lunch was full of laughs and good conversation.
After lunch, we had round table sessions, where people could break out and go to 15-minute sharing sessions. The topics covered a variety of things including centers, alternative seating, TpT updates, and more! I led a round table on using games in the classroom that can be applied to most any content. *I'll be posting about them on my blog soon!
We also had a teacher tool-swap gift exchange! Each person brought their favorite tool and we passed our gifts around a circle with music playing. When the music stopped, we got to keep the gift in our hand. I won a TPT bag, water bottle, and note pad. I brought Mr. Sketch markers, crayons, and smelly stickers.
As the day winded down, we had raffles. Our sponsors were so generous again this year! I won an alphabet DVD from ABC Mouse, which I am super excited about as a beginning of the year review next fall. I also won the cute backpack to go with it! I donated two pair of Stella and Dot earrings!
After the raffles, we concluded the day with some great swag bag goodies! Our sponsors were so generous! My favorite things were: a key chain from Better Life Bags, a Vera Bradley grocery bag, Astrobrights paper, and stickers from Creative Teaching Press.
After our main event ended, we were on our own for dinner and then we met up again at 9:00 for an 80's party! So fun! Everyone really outdid themselves with their outfits!
Overall, it was a fantastic weekend! So glad I was able to make it again this year. I would be remise if I ended this post without thanking our WONDERFUL organizer, Holly Ehle. She is truly amazing and such a kind and generous person!
Hope to see you in French Lick next year, friends!
xo
Megan
PS-See what other people had to say about the weekend below!
3 comments:
It was great meeting you and connecting with another Ohio blogger.
It was so great to see you again!!!! It was an amazing retreat. Love your photos of West Baden.
French Lick is a lovely spot, isn't it? We had fun making the Photo Scavenger Hunt! It was great fun to meet so many wonderful educators - and our very first teacher-blogger retreat! We're hooked - and can't wait for Orlando in July...and French Lick next year!
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