Counting Down to Registration. . .
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Innovating Wednesday Evening at #CCIRA20:
Featuring Donalyn Miller and Colleen Cruz
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Please join us Wednesday evening, February 5, to BLAST OFF the conference!
- First, make sure to pick up your registration at the Launch Pad (a.k.a. the registration table) from 4:30-7:00 pm.
- Next, head over to check out the Space Station (a.k.a. the Exhibit Hall) from 5:00-6:15 pm.
- Finally, transition to the Evergreen Ballroom to hear Donalyn Miller and Colleen Cruz open the conference from 6:30-8:00 pm.
No limits: We will have plenty of space for
everyone
at this special keynote event.
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Full registration book is online under the Conference tab.
It's time: register
here
!
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A Message from CCIRA President,
Jessica Rickert
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Why Volunteer?
Definition:
- A person who voluntarily offers himself or herself for a service or undertaking.
- A person who performs a service willingly and without pay.
Why would anybody do something without getting paid? Crazy thought, right?
We hope not! Volunteers are one of the reasons our conference and organization are able to operate so successfully.
So how can you get involved? We’re so glad you asked.
You can volunteer for your local council or at the conference as a session chair or monitor (yes, it’s as easy as it sounds).
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CCIRA is a fully volunteer-run organization, and we are always looking for new people to help. There are many opportunities to volunteer within CCIRA.
When you register for the conference please make sure to think about how you could volunteer. If you are looking for a small commitment, consider volunteering to be a session monitor. Here's how it will look during the registration process:
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Thank you! We look forward to seeing everyone at the conference in February!
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Upcoming Local Council Events
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As a CCIRA member, you can attend events at any local council across the state. So if there is an event advertised on Twitter, Instagram, CCIRA website or Facebook page that interests you, feel free to participate. Here's a great opportunity to connect:
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Innovating Partnerships With Local School Districts:
The Johnstown-Milliken Story
Ivy Brown, Co-President JMCCIRA
Corina Strickland, Co-President JMCCIRA
Jessica King, Membership JMCCIRA
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“Without change there is no innovation, creativity, or incentive for improvement. Those who initiate change will have a better opportunity to manage the change that is inevitable.”
William Pollard, Episicopal priest and physicist
In July 2018 our newly formed Johnstown Milliken Council of CCIRA contacted our new superintendent, Leslie Arnold, to introduce ourselves and discuss our vision. She was excited to meet with our officers and invited us to lunch. We explained that we were the first new council to form in Colorado in 15 years. We shared the membership benefits of our local council as well as state conference attendance.
Throughout the 2018-2019 school year Ms. Arnold was supportive of our council events. When planning for the upcoming school year, Ms. Arnold shared that, “The attendees came back excited about the ideas that were shared at CCIRA, the networking, and the speakers." About this same time, our district staff was in the middle of preparing the PD calendar for 2019-20. The staff decided to go to full day PD days (as opposed to late starts and half days), and we, as a team, determined that the CCIRA days should be designated as PD as well.”
Ms. Arnold explained, “Our insurance trust CEBT, provided us with a one time dividend check in December 2018 of $191k.” Ms. Arnold continued, “We worked with the Board of Education to make sure that all the funds from CEBT would go back to employees through professional development in 2019-20 and 2020-21. This includes the membership to CCIRA as well as the conference in February.”
Ms. Arnold said:
"Selecting effective professional development for a school district has to be a partnership between the administration and educators within the district. This is the first school year where all employees have been able to select relevant and meaningful professional development in order to develop skills and knowledge that will best help them in the job that they are in. CCIRA provides all educators with innovative techniques in reading instruction, literacy development, and strong networking for educators across the state. In a smaller size district, we could not provide the instruction and the depth of knowledge with multiple guest speakers and experts in the field in the three days that CCIRA will be doing this February. I look forward to attending the conference with my team!"
We are very fortunate to have an innovative superintendent who is willing to listen to her staff and remove obstacles in order for them to continue growing as educators. Never had we imagined having this opportunity as a fledgling council. We can’t thank Ms. Arnold enough.
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What's New on the CCIRA Blog?
CCIRA.blog features a wide variety of nationally renowned literacy experts, as well as talented practitioners from across Colorado. Check out our posts from October:
Reading CCIRA.blog every week
—
perhaps over lunch or a cup of coffee
—
builds a quick dose of professional learning into your routine. Who knows what ideas or inspiration this might spark!
If you might be interested in submitting a guest post to CCIRA.blog, please contact Hollyanna Bates ([email protected]).
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It's CCIRA Award Season!
Who Might You Nominate. . .?
(Go Ahead: Make Someone's Day!)
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Visit
CCIRA.org t
o look over the array of awards CCIRA sponsors. We hope you will consider nominating a deserving educator for an award to be presented at the Annual Conference on Literacy in February!
Purpose: To recognize an individual, organization, or institution for significant contributions to literacy in a community, state or nation.
Purpose: To recognize a CCIRA member that has made significant contributions to the organization.
Purpose: To recognize a classroom teacher who has made an outstanding contribution to excellence in reading instruction.
Purpose: To recognize and publicize outstanding reading/language arts programs in schools.
Purpose: To recognize an outstanding reading teacher in his/her first five years of teaching to honor the work of deceased past presidents of CCIRA.
Purpose: To promote and recognize administrative support of quality reading instruction in Colorado schools.
Do you know a passionate leader who is always striving to improve literacy and enrich learning for students? Let's support our administrators who in turn support teachers and encourage them to grow through professional development. Our administrators are champions for teachers in advocating for school literacy needs.
Winners receive $500.00 for their school library as well as recognition at the CCIRA Conference in February.
Former winners of this award are Sean Gorman, Mike Mazurano, and Jill Hafey. Nominees for this award are creative, inspiring, reflective, open minded, flexible and collaborative.
Send nominations by December 5th (form is online at ccira.org) to
[email protected]
.
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November Teaching Tip
from TPS
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Viewfinder: Primary Source Analysis Strategy
Primary sources often contain a lot of information that can be overlooked without analyzing it intensely. Especially for political cartoons, maps, and even photographs, breaking up the information contained in a primary source can be a great way to scaffold and level questions and provide cross-curriculum connections.
Viewfinder Instructions:
- Pick up to five different colors of sticky notes for color-coding the different types of questions.
- Create as many viewfinders as students by cutting out the center of a sticky note.
- Each viewfinder color stands for a different type of question. Display a key for the colors in your classroom so each student knows what to expect.
- Ask students to place the viewfinder over the item on the primary source and then address it using the key question.
Here are some sample questions:
- What is one thing you have a question about?
- What is one thing you know something about?
- What is one thing that reflects a sense of culture?
- What is one thing that reflects a sense of place?
- What is one thing you think you know something about, but would like to research?
*Questions can and should be adapted to focus on your classroom’s inquiry needs.
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Just for Fun. . .
You should have received this as a separate email, but in case you missed it: Put this mobile together to highlight the #CCIRA20 featured speakers. Post a pic on Instagram (and tag @ccira_coloradoreading) for a chance to win prizes!
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CCIRA Executive Committee
Amy Ellerman
, Immediate Past President: ellermanamy
@gmail.com
Michele Warner
, State Coordinator:
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Is your local council, state committee, school, or community doing something extraordinary for literacy in Colorado? Do you have a great idea to share with other educators on how to enhance literacy in the classroom? Do you know of a conference or event that CCIRA members might be interested in attending? If so, please contact Amy Ellerman ([email protected]) to submit information for publication.
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