Bridging Reading and Writing: Balancing the Core

TCTE PD Institute September 26-27, 2014

Bridges USA in Memphis, TN

Opening Keynote: Dru Tomlin "Write Your Li teracy Success Story " As the Director of Middle Level Services for the Association of Middle Level Education, Dru Tomlin has a commitment to educational improvement and a passion for teaching, learning, and middle school. In 1994, Dru began his 18 year career in education as an English teacher at Harrisonburg High School in Virginia and then, in 1998, he discovered the joys of middle school in Georgia as a language arts, reading, and social studies teacher and then as a school administrator. He has also been a school system staff development trainer and a faculty member for AMLE's Leadership Institute, believing firmly in the power of professional learning. For his work, Dru has been recognized as a school system Teacher of the Year and as Georgia's Middle School Assistant Principal of the Year.

 

Workshop sessions covering writing, reading/literature, technology integration, informational literacy, common core integration, and engaging reluctant/struggling readers will be offered by classroom E-LA teachers, university faculty, and others who have vested interests in the teaching of English.

 

Exhibitors will be on hand to share ideas and to offer inspiration. Each exhibitor will showcase the latest products available and will highlight resources favored by teachers.

 

Closing Keynote: Barry Gilmore Barry Gilmore taught English and social studies for nearly twenty years before becoming a middle school principal at Hutchison School. He is the author of seven books for English teachers, including Common Core CPR (Corwin, 2013). A national board certified teacher, Gilmore is past-president of TCTE and currently serves on NCTE's anti-censorship committee. His teaching awards include being named as TCTE's Don Jenkins winner, NCTE's High School Teacher of Excellence, the Tennessee Holocaust Commission's Teacher of the Year, and an American Star of Teaching by the U.S. Department of Education.

Luncheon Keynote : Kwame Alexander Kwame Alexander is a two-time NAACP Image Award Nominee and author of 17 books, including the middle grade novel, The Crossover, Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band, a picture book, about a Rooster that starts a jazz band with Duck Ellington, which has been optioned for a TV show, and the YA/teen novel He Said/She Said, a Junior Library Guild Selection. He’s also a poet, publisher, literary editor, playwright, producer, speaker, performer, teacher, and book festival founder. He believes that poetry and literature can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people. He’s the poet-laureate of LitWorld, and, through his Book-in-a-Day literacy program, he has created more than 3,000 student authors of 64 anthologies of poetry and fiction. A regular speaker and workshop presenter at conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Brazil, Italy, France, Turkey, Canada, and Ghana are recent stops). Recently, Alexander led delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as part of LEAP for Ghana, a literacy program he co-founded.