Join us for this three day event as we cut through the policy jargon to provide solid insights and illustrations into how literacy teaching practices can change in every classroom to transform student learning.
Anne Ruggles Gere is Associate Professor of Urban Education and Cultural Studies and Associate Director of Youth Research at the Institute for Democracy, Education, and Access (IDEA) at UCLA. He is a writer of poems, plays, essays, novels, and academic books, book chapters, articles, reviews, and encyclopedia entries. For more than a decade he has worked with adolescents, drawing on their involvement with popular culture to promote academic literacy development. Morrell is the author of, Linking Literacy and Popular Culture: Finding Connections for Lifelong Learning and Becoming Critical Researchers: Literacy and Empowerment for Urban Youth. Morrell has been invited to give numerous keynote addresses for postsecondary institutions and national organizations
Anne is part of the the NCTE Consulting Network working with schools in urban areas including Boston and Los Angeles.
Susi Long is an instructional technologist for the St. Vrain Valley School District in northern Colorado. Formerly, he taught high school language arts and journalism at Olde Columbine High School in Longmont, Colorado. He is a teacher-consultant with the Colorado State University Writing Project, an affiliate of the National Writing Project, a group working to improve the teaching of writing in schools via regular and meaningful professional development. Bud is a former co-editor of the New Voices column of English Journal, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English. Bud is a co-founder of Learning 2.0: A Colorado Conversation and has served as an Online Community Leader for the New Jersey Cohort of Powerful Learning Practice, a long-term, job-embedded professional development program that immerses participants in 21st Century learning environments.
Tonya Perry is an assistant professor of English Education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech). A former middle and high school English teacher, she received the first National Technology Fellowship in English/Language Arts. A nationally-known consultant and speaker, she is also the author of The Tech Savvy English Classroom, Bringing the Outside In: Visual Ways of Engaging Reluctant Readers, and the recent NCTE publication, Adolescents and Digital Literacies: Learning Alongside Our Students.
Sarah Brown Wessling is a second grade teacher at Centennial Elementary School in Firestone, Colorado. She was a member of the planning team assembled to build the foundation and open the school in 2008. Prior to teaching at Centennial, she taught at Prairie Ridge Elementary, which is another school in the St.Vrain Valley School district. Lisa sits on the Positive Behavior Support and technology committees within her school. She is also a member of the Standards Alignment Committee and the Assessment Leadership Team for the school district. An avid supporter of building 21st century learning environments, she teaches professional development classes within the district on how to incorporate Promethean technology into the classroom.
Jeffrey Williams has been an educator for twenty years, teaching the majority of those, but also taking some time off to raise her family. She has taught in five different states, in public and private schools, 5th–12th grades, and in the areas of social studies and language arts. In 2007 she earned a Masters of Science in Education with an emphasis in Middle Level Education online from Walden University. Jennifer currently teaches 7th grade language arts at Westview Middle School.