Sometimes things just fall into place. 3PM on Saturday I just happened to catch a post from the GA Bloggers about a meet up. Not sure how I missed this in the first place, but okay. We met downtown at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta with about 50 other bloggers from around the country.
Turns out they are in town for an Educational Market Expo. They had been invited by the incredible Sherron to attend as guest bloggers at this dealer and exhibitor exclusive event. HOW do I miss these opportunities?? I wanted in!
I got up at the monkey butt of dawn and drove down to the Ga World Congress Center to see if by chance they had any open slots for people who didn't show up. My newest blogging buddy, Felicia McAtwell, already had an invitation but wasn't able to register yesterday, so I waited for to ride on her coattails if possible. The registrars were more than accommodating and I had a bonafide name badge and entrance to all the goodies within minutes.
I then spent the next eight hours walking up and down the aisles of the brightest, newest, most exciting products available in the educational market today. Oh, it was awesome.
Sherron asked us to list our ten best products witnessed during the event so they could announce the 'Best in Show' on Tuesday. Here's my list in no particular order:
- Redispace composition notebooks from Pathways
- Goldiblocks - engineering toys for girls
- Capstone - their newest list of non-fiction was so spot on with my curriculum it was scary
- Stella Writes series from Essential - perfect for different writing genres
- Kagan - classroom management tools
- Pencil Grip People - so many of my students have weird motor skills this year
- Roylco Light box - just fun idea
- Reading Game - sort of a memory match to build vocabulary then move to reading context
- Say It - fun party game
- Learn in Style - multiplication wristbands, better than flashcards
I will be sharing more reviews of specific items later. I just couldn't believe how awesome this weekend turned out to be and had to share!