Scott McLeod

CCIRA welcomes Dr. Scott McLeod to the 2024 conference! He is one of the nation's leading experts on school leadership, deeper learning, technology, and innovation. He's written Different Schools for a Different World and Harnessing Technology for Deeper Learning. You can also check out his podcast - Redesigning for Deeper Learning. We can't wait to hear what he has to share with us!

Natalie Wexler



Natalie Wexler is the author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System—And How to Fix It and co-author of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades. She also writes a newsletter called Minding the Gap. CCIRA is super excited to have her speaking at the conference this year!

Alex Gino

CCIRA welcomes Alex Gino to the 2024 conference! Alex has been telling stories since before they could even hold a pencil! They now write stories for and about middle-grade LGBTQIA+ people. They are the author of the award-winning book Melissa and more recently, Alice Austen Lived Here. Their latest book, Green, is due to come out in October. Just in time for the conference!

Alan Katz

Alan Katz, also known as the Seriously Silly Guy, is coming to the 2024 CCIRA conference! He has written more than 50 highly acclaimed children's books ranging from board books to middle-grade books to trivia sets. Alan is super excited about his newest release titled Got Your Nose. He is also the author of Really Stupid Stories for Really Smart Kids, the Liographies series, three Elf Academy early readers, and the five-book Society of Superheroes (S.o.S.) series.

Funds Available!

CCIRA has recently received a National Honor Society grant making funds available for advances in literacy instruction. The grant money can be used for a range of purposes, including professional development opportunities for educators, literacy events to engage students and their families, as well as purchasing classroom materials that support literacy instruction. These funds provide an excellent opportunity to enhance literacy instruction, and educators are encouraged to take advantage of this opportunity to promote literacy development among their students. Anyone interested in obtaining more information can contact Lisa Kahn at lisakahnccira@gmail.com.

CCIRA Literacy Conversations

Learn from some of our 2023 conference speakers and more in our library of podcasts! There are episodes from Cornelius Minor, Charles R. Smith, 

Whitney La Rocca, Krista Griffin, Melanie Conklin, Pernille Ripp,

Gordan Korman, and more! Click the button below and listen in!

CCIRA Professional Development Blog

All Things Literacy

The CCIRA blog features a wide variety of nationally renowned literacy experts, as well as talented practitioners from across Colorado. Check out the posts on https://ccira.blog/  

Have you read Carl Anderson's Teach Writing With Mentor Texts! or Look After Your Twisted Ankles: Professional Development in Troubled Times by Kate and Maggie Roberts? If not, take some time to read these great additions to CCIRA's blog. There are also several other great posts including Re-Imagining RtI / MTSS: Putting Students Back at the Center of Instructional Designs by Julie Wright and Mark Bazata and Nawal Qarooni's Breathing Life Into the Syllabus: How Teaching Preservice Educators Hones My Practice.

📃If you are interested in submitting a guest post to the CCIRA blog, please contact Hollyanna Bates.📃 hollyannabates@gmail.com

Attend PPIRA's Coaching Consortium!

Connect with coaches from around the Pikes Peak Region as they share specific ideas and examples that have led to effective teacher development and student learning. Learn innovative coaching techniques and leave with coaching tools that can be immediately implemented.

Our Keynote Speaker this year is Rebecca Frazier, PhD, author of Joy of Coaching.

We welcome all educators, especially

• Instructional Coaches
• Building Leaders
• Educators interested in becoming instructional coaches

Topics for this event include:

• Characteristics of Effective Coaches
• Coaching Cycles and Roles
• Tips for Implementing New Programs
• Classroom Management
• Coaching Teachers to Differentiate Instruction Using ELA Data

A light lunch buffet will be served.

CDE Licensure Credit: 4 hours

For questions, email ppirareading@gmail.com.

CCIRA is a non-profit organization that works to empower literacy educators. As a non-profit organization, we appreciate support in a variety of ways:

• Donate
• Support a Conference Scholarship Opportunity
• Leverage fundraising programs to earn CCIRA money
• Volunteer with CCIRA

This Month's Featured Fundraiser

CCIRA Partners in Empowering Literacy Educators

TOP REASONS TO PARTNER WITH CCIRA

• Over 2000 conference attendees will learn about your partnership with CCIRA.
• Our 1300+ members will see your support on our webpage.
• Visitors to the CCIRA website will learn about your organization and its events.
• Our combined support of literacy will impact students across our state and neighboring states.

From Our Partners at InnEdCO

InnEdCO Returns to Breckenridge this summer! This year's conference is focused on continuing to support educators to innovate in their workplaces, upgrade their always evolving teacher toolkit, and design the most hands-on, engaging, and equitable lessons. This summer... it's time to Press Start and Play!

Our in-person conference last year highlighted 150+ different workshops, featured speaker sessions, and round-tables with more than 200 different presenters and co-presenters, primarily classroom teachers, all attended by over 600 educators and sponsored by almost 100 unique sponsors.

InnEdCO is also going to be at this year's CCIRA Conference as well!! Tickets are available until June 11th!

CCIRA collaboratively encourages, supports, and advances literacy through research-based instructional practices to increase literacy access to all.

All people will be empowered to critically engage in our changing world by developing and utilizing literacy skills throughout life.