Sunday, February 24, 2013

Dublin Literacy Conference 2013


 “Capture the Joy of Literacy"
What an amazing day I had yesterday attending The 2013 Dublin Literacy Conference at Dublin Coffman High School near Columbus, Ohio.  The teachers in the district do an incredible job putting it together, inviting top-notch authors and educators to present their skills and stories in creative and interesting ways.  A lot of us also commented and tweeted about how impressed we are that kids are incorporated into the day's activities. They create the bags we're all given to carry our materials, greet and direct participants, and introduce speakers. The featured author presenters included the following:
 RALPH FLETCHER (Keynote Speaker)
LOUISE BORDEN (Keynote Speaker)
KATE MESSNER
JARRETT KROSOCZKA
SARA KAJDER
VICKI VINTON

There were also excellent teachers presenting, some of whom have terrific books and blogs:
and many more!
We were treated with a Keynote Address by Ralph Fletcher, which set the tone of the day.  Here are some of my tweets and retweets about that fabulous talk and some from the other presentations:
No doubt a richness in vocabulary helps create a richness of thought. @fletcherralph #dublit13
To look at a child's piece of writing you need to have walked the walk of writer in order to know what the child is doing well.#dublit13
Mentor texts open a room to you and let you borrow what you need. @fletcherralph #DubLit13
Good nonfiction writing borrows from all different genres. @fletcherralph #dublit13
@studiojjk We need to validate graphic novels and comics as reading #DubLit13
Mysteries invite deeper reading. - @katemessner #dublit13
High stakes testing teach kids not to fail - can't break new ground when you're afraid of failing. @katemessner #dublit13
When you say wow that means you might have an idea you'll want to write about later." @louiseborden #DubLit13
Authors & illustrators -- await your invitation to #DubLit13 and reply with an enthusiastic YES! dublinschools.net/dublinliteracy…
Go to #DubLit on Twitter to read them all.

I got to meet Ralph and have him sign one of his books for me.  We talked about blogging!


Next up was Katie Messner presenting "Whodunnit?  Reading and Writing Mysteries with Kids!"  My kids loved her book, Capture the Flag, and I was especially excited to see her because my students and I had Skyped her, and I had won an ARC of the sequel, Hide and Seek.  I couldn't believe that she was going to personally deliver it to me and sign it!  How exciting is that?!  Kate is so generous with her time and talents.  She recently set up a list of authors who will Skype with students on World Read Aloud Day, on her blog:  http://www.katemessner.com/skype-with-an-author-on-world-read-aloud-day/.  I'm looking forward to her Teachers Write Summer Camp again this year.  Last year's camp was when I was inspired to start this blog!



She gave a terrific talk.  You can find both her presentations for the conference here:
http://www.katemessner.com/dublit13/
I attended Scott Sibberson's Web Tools for Literacy next.  There are so many cool ways to incorporate technology into the classroom!  His entire presentation and many ideas are here:
After a great lunch where I caught up with my former colleagues from Lebanon, we attended Louise Borden's Keynote.  She was wonderful!  She took us on a journey through her literary life and told us stories behind her stories.  She told me her website will be updated any day now, but you can find some snippets of stories behind her books here: http://www.louiseborden.com/index2.html

The last session I attended was titled "Fostering the Young, Creative Mind" with Jarrett Krosoczka.  He was so funny, kind, and interesting.  He talked about his road to being a picture book author and graphic novelist.  My kids are going to be excited about me bringing them some Lunch Lady books.  Jarrett reminded us as teachers how important our encouraging words are to students.  We need to recognize their need to create and be validated.  He also told us about School Lunch Superhero Day.  Be sure to visit that link to read about what you can do for your school lunch staff on that day!  We were also VERY lucky and got to see the book trailer to his upcoming chapter book, The Platypus Police Squad: The Frog Who Croaked!

3rd Grade Students Introduced Jarrett


One of his early writings/drawings - precurser to Punk Farm!


Great guy!

Whew!  What a day.  I have lots of reading to do after shopping at their incredible book sale!  I can't wait to share all these books with my classes!


After the conference, my friend and former colleague (although we still collaborate a lot together), Megan, and I enjoyed a great dinner at J. Lui's in downtown Dublin and talked about our day and future literacy plans.  We can't wait for Dublin Literacy Conference 2014, which is featuring Penny Kittle, Gene Barretta, Don Brown, Bud Hunt, Kassia Omohundro Wedikind and Bryan Collier!!






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3 comments:

  1. Mary LeeFebruary 27, 2013 at 5:53 AM

    Great recap post! (I tried to comment from Twitter on my phone earlier in the week, but obviously my comment was lost...)

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    Replies
    1. Holly MuellerFebruary 27, 2013 at 6:37 AM

      Thanks, Mary Lee! It was such a great day! I didn't get a chance to see you that day - maybe next time!!

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  2. ValeriaJuly 15, 2013 at 4:13 PM

    This is cool!

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