I had an amazing time attending the International Reading Association convention in Chicago this year! The theme was Celebrating Teachers... I left the conference motivated, excited and ready to share all the great learning experiences I had. (Unfortunately, I have not shared with anyone yet...no time!) The atmosphere and the teaching professionals that came from all over the world were motivating beyond anything I had experienced.
I arrived on Sunday to attend an Institute: Developing Literacy Leadership: Key to School Improvement. It was an all day workshop and the speakers were educators I have followed and read much of their research work or published articles. Monday's workshop was Using RTI to Promote Whole-School Change in Literacy that followed the theme from Sunday. Both sessions were filled with information, research and handouts that I could bring back and use with my work at H-D. Each day I was nodding saying "yes! we are doing that" and "yes! we will get there". Mr. Speake traveled with me and he was so good to listen to my endless jabbering after each day. My only disappointment was that all of the H-D elementary teachers couldn't be there.
Workshop Presenters: Rita Bean, Susan L'Allier & Laurie Elish-Piper, Michael McKenna, Mary Ellen Vogt and Sharon Walpole, Judy Wallis, Nancy Allison, Nancy McLean, & Joan Jennings among several others.
Other famous people I heard:
Timothy Rasinski, Frank Serafini, the infamous duo of Fountas & Pinnel throughout mini-sessions in the exhibition hall. I stood by Richard Allington in the Starbucks line....I was so star struck and of course I couldn't think of anything intelligent to say!
The authors I saw:
Jerry Pallotta, Mem Fox, Kate Messner, Annie Borrows, Nicholas Sparks (well his brother but it was amazing to visit with him about his brother's books which my daughters love to read!) The moments were priceless. Well, if you live in the educational world of literacy!
The overall lesson I learned....
Motivating readers and making students life-long readers must be our ultimate goal using a reader's workshop model (gradual release) and explicitly teaching skills in all five literacy areas. WOO HOO!! Independent reading is the most powerful tool a teacher can implement in their classroom. This was just the encouragement and motivation I needed as I try to continue to help our teachers at H-D transform their classrooms to workshop model with an emphasis on independent reading.
Reading is the cornerstone of student success in school. Many of our students today do not receive any reading support at home for a wide-variety of reasons. It must be our job to share our passion and love for reading which will be a life skill that will help students in all they do.
Happy Reading! Mrs. Speake
Mr. Speake (that's me) enjoyed listen to you after each day of your conference. It is exciting to see someone who is so passionate about their profession, especially since it involves reading and teaching. I could tell immediately that you felt it was very worthwhile and rewarding.
ReplyDeleteHappy Reading!!