Missouri State Council of the International Reading Association

Welcome!  We hope that you find this site informative and that you will return to it often to stay current with IRA and today's reading instruction.  We welcome your comments and questions.

– Mitzi Brammer                                  

MSC-IRA State Coordinator                 

Hello fellow readers and writers,

I hope this spring finds you well. Many of you who are still teaching are in the midst of state MAP testing. I hope that is going well for you. Some of you may be in a school that is piloting the Smarter Balanced Assessments. I am excited to inform you that plans are underway for our Summer Literacy Leadership Institute at Port Arrowhead at Lake of the Ozarks on June 20-21. June 20 is the Leadership Institute, open to Council leaders. You may send up to 4 council leaders to this. Sign in and networking begin at 4:00 p.m. on June 20. The following day, June 21, will be an information-packed (hopefully fun-filled) day of learning for not just council leaders, but any members of your local council who wish to attend. The cost is extremely reasonable at $20 per person. We will meet on June 21 from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m.–just in time for you to get out there and do some outlet shopping!

I hope you will take time to read the newest edition of The Missouri Reader. We at MSC-IRA are thrilled that the journal continues to be alive and well. Our co-editors, Dr. Keisha Panagos and Dr. Beth Hurst have done an outstanding job on this edition.

The Show Me Award Guidelines and Forms are now available for viewing and/or downloading. Simply click on the RECOGNITIONS tab on the home page of the MSC-IRA website, then click AWARDS, and finally SHOW ME AWARDS. If you have any questions about the submittal process, please contact Mitzi Brammer at mbrammer@ssdmo.org.

We’ve experienced the excitement of the holidays, and now we’re back in school for that “winter slump”.  Sometimes we begin to feel exhausted during this time of the year because we are preparing our students for the MAP, we’re implementing Response to Intervention, we’re conducting formative assessments, and some of our districts in Missouri have already begun implementation of the Common Core State Standards for certain grade levels. Not only do we as educators become exhausted, but our students seem to lose steam, as well.

How do we keep each other energized through this difficult time of the year? Elina Aguilar, a transformational leadership coach in the Oakland, CA, school district, has some great advice that we all can heed.

First of all, she advises teachers to keep the big picture in mind. Educational reform and change can take anywhere from three to five years. When we are in the midst of it, though, it feels like it is taking forever and we want to see things happen more quickly (including student outcomes). Honor the process of change, slow down and listen to each other and engage in shared decision making. Focus on the small successes. More about this next…

Next, Aguilar notes that if you are in a teacher leadership or literacy coaching position, it is often easier to see the big picture. Focus on those small indicators that show your school is moving in the right direction and share these successes with the rest of the staff. Aguilar calls these “microimprovements”—indicators of progress towards goals. By sharing, positive dialogue results rather than focusing on the negative.

Finally, Aguilar encourages teacher leaders and literacy coaches to lead others in reflective conversations to build resilience (our ability to bounce back from setbacks). However, it’s not important that we do this for others; we also need to think about how we do this for ourselves! What actions can we all take today to maintain our energy, hope, and faith that our schools will be the best they can be in literacy?

Mitzi Brammer, Ph.D.

State Coordinator

Our summer leadership and literacy institute was such a huge success that we decided to offer a fall leadership and literacy institute. By now, you should have received a flyer from your local council president about this upcoming event. It is NOT too late to register!  Do you wish to build your IRA team, strengthen your IRA council, learn even more about the common core and instruction for deeper reading? Then the Lake (The Resort at Port Arrowhead) is for YOU on August 2 and 3. August 2 is for local council officers and August 3 is for local council members. 

The Missouri State Council will cover all expenses (including 1 complimentary room on Thurs night) for 4 people to attend Summer Leadership and Summer Institute.  Four additional council members are invited to attend Summer Institute for a nominal fee of $20 each. 

RSVP for this fun event by emailing Mitzi Brammer at mbrammer@ssdmo.org. Do you have questions about August 2-3? Simply email Mitzi Brammer at the address provided.

I hope your summer is filled with relaxing activities and you are enjoying the things you like to do (did someone say READ??). I wanted to introduce myself in my first "chat" with you. My name is Mitzi Brammer and I am your new state coordinator. I was installed into this office at our June Leadership and Literacy Institute. If you were present at this event, you no doubt took away some wonderful resources for building your local councils, getting started with the Common Core State Standards, and selecting some great "reads" for your students when you go back to school in the fall. Thanks to Mary Jo Barker, the past state coordinator, who arranged such a stimulating two days of learning and growing as literacy professionals. 

My background is diverse. I began my career as a speech-language pathologist 27 years ago. I had recognized the relationship between language and reading by virtue of my position and I always made the reading specialists in my buildings my good friends! Our jobs and responsibilities were so close in many respects and I loved that I could share what I was doing with students to help their reading and get tips and pointers from the resident specialist(s) in my building. I admired the work of the reading specialist so much so that I went on to get certified in special reading. I figured I was already doing so much with reading with my students, I should try to learn as much as I could. In addition to this, I have my special education administrator certification. 

I have taught students in grades K-12 at one time or another in my career, both as a speech-language pathologist as well as a reading teacher. As an administrator in my district, I currently oversee literacy coaches and data coaches as well as the training of Tier 2 and Tier 3 literacy and math interventions.  As far as my involvement in my local council, I am the past president of the St. Louis Suburban Council of the International Reading Association. I have also held the offices of President, President Elect and Vice-President. I work with other individuals on the Communications Committee in my local council to help run our website.

One of the things that I hope to build upon that Mary Jo Barker began when she was State Coordinator is member involvement–involvement in your LOCAL council and involvement at the STATE level. We are rich with knowledge and resources in our wonderful state of Missouri and I want nothing more than to share those things with each other. I am a firm believer in being a community of learners. We only have a few more weeks of summer vacation left. I hope you will reflect on this post and think about how you can become more involved in your local council and at the state level. How do you see yourself as a TEACHER leader for LITERACY?

Mitzi