The Missouri State Council of IRA Announces:

the 2011 Missouri Early Learning Conference

(formerly known as the Primary Conference)

November 3-4, 2011 

Tan Tar A Resort 

Register online at http://muconf.missouri.edu/moearlylearning/Registration.html

Featured Speakers:

Katie Wood Ray, Laureen Reynolds, Valerie Ellery, Audrey Penn, Mike Artell

A New Endeavor for MSC-IRA

As you know, MSC-IRA did not hold an annual conference this past year. For the past two years, MSC-IRA has teamed up with Educational Solutions International to co-sponsor the Write to Learn Conference.

This year, MSC-IRA is expanding its partnership with Educational Solutions International by becoming the major co-sponsor of the Missouri Early Learning Conference. This conference, formerly known as the Primary Conference, has been in existence for six years. Starting with the 2011 conference, the name is being changed because the conference audience is being expanded to include pre-school teachers in addition to the traditional K-3 audience.

Conference Information

The Missouri Early Learning Conference

November 3-4, 2011

at the Tan-Tar-A Resort 

Osage Beach, Missouri.

Teachers can attend either day or both days.

Cost for one day is $159; the cost for both days is $259.

Each day will consist of an opening keynote address and three breakout sessions on a variety of topics. There will be breaks, refreshments, and exhibitors, as well. Lunch will be on your own.

About Our Speakers

Thursday, November 3

Audrey Penn

The day will begin with a keynote address from award-winning children’s author Audrey Penn. Audrey began her first career as a ballerina dancing with the National Ballet, New York City Ballet, and the Stuttgart Ballet. She also served as a choreographer for the U.S. Figure Skating Team in preparation for the Pan-Am Games in 1973 and for the 1976 Olympic Gymnastics team. But in 1980 she became ill with Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis and had to stop dancing.

Audrey had always enjoyed children’s theater and children’s literature, so she turned to writing children’s books as her creative outlet. She used material drawn from the journals she wrote as a child to write her first children’s book. Since then, she has published 18 books for children (including The Kissing Hand and the Chester Raccoon books) and young adult readers. In addition, she takes her one-woman educational program, The Writing Penn, into schools, libraries, and children’s hospitals, where she shapes and refines her story ideas in partnership with kids. Audrey will also do two breakout sessions following her keynote address.Valerie Ellery has devoted her professional career to the field of literacy. Over twenty years ago, she realized that her son had a problem with reading. This very personal experience launched her journey in the quest for understanding, "What do good readers do?" She spent over ten years watching, listening, and analyzing students as they learned to read. Along the way, she was certified as a National Board Teacher. Valerie became a district Curriculum Specialist in 2000, a role which allowed her to model effective literacy strategies for her colleagues while continuing to research and write about strategic reading.

Valerie Ellery

In 2004, Valerie returned to the classroom as a second grade teacher. A year later, her book Creating Strategic Readers was published, earning IRA’s book club selection and best-seller honor. Valerie continued to serve as a part-time Reading Coach while consulting internationally. The second edition of Creating Strategic Readers was published in 2009 with 35 new techniques. Once again, the book was named an IRA "Book Club Selection" and best seller. Her newest, co-published book, Sustaining Strategic Readers, has been named IRS’s April 2011 Book Club Selection. Valerie will present three breakout sessions on the first day of this year’s conference.Laureen Reynolds is a national education consultant and former classroom teacher who believes that bringing interactive activities and novel materials into classrooms inspires and engages learners while providing differentiation opportunities for their teachers. Her philosophy focuses on using classroom-tested management techniques and a large variety of activities to attract students and build their interest and independence as learners.

Laureen Reynolds

Laureen is the author of many teacher resource books, including Poems for Sight Word Practice, Centers Made Simple, Poems for Math Practice, Drill and Thrill, Catch Your Kids Before They Fall, and most recently, Number Facts and Jumping Jacks. Laureen has presented at conferences throughout the country where she shares her energy and passion for education. She served as the chair of both her local and district professional development committees and prides herself on providing educators with practical, ready-to-use activities and differentiation techniques. Laureen will present breakout sessions on a variety of topics both days of the conference.

Friday, November 4

Katie Wood Ray

We will begin with a keynote address from Katie Wood Ray, a former Associate Professor of language arts education at Western Carolina University who is now a full-time writer and researcher of the teaching of writing, as well as a highly accomplished keynote speaker. With a particular focus on the study of writing craft, she leads teacher workshops and summer institutes across the nation. Her professional background includes both elementary and middle school teaching experience and two years as a staff developer at the Reading and Writing Project, Teachers College, Columbia University. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, and is the former co-editor of the journal Primary Voices K-6, a publication of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Katie is the author of a number of professional books for teachers, including Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom; The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts (And They’re All Hard Parts); What You Know By Heart: How to Develop Curriculum for Your Writing Workshop; About the Authors: Writing Workshop with Our Youngest Writers; Study Driven: A Framework for Planning Units of Study in the Writing Workshop; Already Ready: Nurturing Writers in Preschool and Kindergarten; and, most recently, In Pictures and in Words: Teaching the Qualities of Good Writing through Illustration Study. In addition to her morning keynote, Katie will do three breakout sessions on Friday.

Mike Artell

Mike Artell is an award-winning children’s book author, illustrator, and TV cartoonist. Mike’s body of work includes nationally recognized picture books, wordplay books, how-to books, and non-fiction books. Mike has also written and illustrated teacher and parent resource books on subjects as diverse as ecology, parties, cartooning, and young authorship. In addition to his work as an author and illustrator, Mike also has extensive experience as a musician, a storyteller, a newspaper editorial cartoonist, a magazine and greeting card writer, a keynote speaker and humorist, and the host of his own television show.

Mike’s newest project is a CD of original Mardi Gras music for children and families (Calling All Children to the Mardi Gras) that has been awarded a Parents’ Choice Foundation award. Mike regularly speaks in schools, public libraries, and at conferences across the country. Mike also conducts regular "author/illustrator in residence" programs in schools, and he has personally guided more than 3,500 students through the process of writing and illustrating their own picture books. For this work, Mike was recognized by the Northshore, Louisiana chapter of the International Reading Association for "exemplary service in the promotion of literacy."

Many of Mike’s books have been named award winners. Most recently, Mike’s book, Petite Rouge: A Cajun Red Riding Hood, was named by the National Association of Elementary School Principals as its 2009 Read Aloud Book of the Year. Mike’s astronomy book, Starry Skies, was named a Best Science Book for Children by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Mike’s books have also been named "Pick of the Lists" by Publisher’s Weekly, "Top 100" by Curriculum Administrator magazine, and "Teacher’s Choice" by Learning Magazine. Mike will do three breakout sessions on Friday.

Breakout Sessions

In addition to sessions presented by the speakers above, Missouri master teachers will also do a number of presentations at the conference. Topics covered in conference sessions will include reading comprehension and fluency, book making, writing, math games and centers, science, oral language, fluency, motor skills—even cartooning!

You won’t want to miss this conference, so mark your calendars now for the Missouri Early Learning Conference, November 3-4, 2011. We will see you there!