NCFL Conference San Diego

I know I said that I would post about the work portion of our trip to San Diego on Tuesday, but I had to let Karen tell about her experience with hot yoga. Me personally, I prefer a hot pretzel, but each to his own I guess.

Just to catch you up, my friend and colleague Maria at Teaching in the 21st Century were invited by the good folks at the National Center for Family Literacy to present how we use their Wonderopolis website in our classrooms. We were part of a panel that included 3 other educators including one public librarian, more on that later.

After enjoying the city we had some responsibilities to fulfill on Sunday, one of them was the opening general session that included some very inspirational speakers. I was moved by the story of Jennifer Navarro Burns, a single mom from Long Beach that knew education was the only way to give her son the life she wished she had as a child growing up in Columbia. She used the ESL services provided by the Long Beach Family Literacy program, became proficient in English and began studying at Long Beach City College. From there she worked in a dentist office and decided to continue her college studies at Cerritos College to become a dental hygienist so she would have more time with her son Bryant a happy, successful first grader.

I must admit, before attending the conference, I didn't really know much about what NCFL did. While at the conference I heard countless stories of people in the trenches working with little or no budgets, with people who are struggling to make ends meet, but understanding that education is the ticket to a better life for them and their families.

On Monday we presented. We had 30 or 40 people attend our session. Our panel was made up of people who had received Wonderopolis mini grants from Better World Books. Maria and I were joined by 5th grade teacher Ashley Cripps from South Carolina; Julia Dweck, a multi talented gifted specialist from Pennsylvania and Aime Thomas, a public librarian from Brownsburg, Indiana. Each of us took about 15 minutes to present how we were using Wonderopolis in our classrooms or libraries and I was honored and humbled to be included in such a smart group of people. Quite honestly I came away with several ideas that I'm currently trying to implement into my library, so I'm sure the others in the room walked away with plenty of good ideas too.

That evening we attended the NCFL banquet, where we sat as a panel at a reserved table very near the front. They made us feel very important, but I must say that there was a lot of silverware around that plate, fortunately my new friends Heike and Donna from NCFL helped keep me straight. After dinner I was once again moved by another alum of programs sponsored by NCFL, Henry Hildreth, Jr. Henry is a proud Navajo from New Mexico who is also a veteran of Iraq. When he returned from his tour of duty he set his sights on becoming a better family man and especially father to his son Adam. He and Adam began participating in the FACE program, Family and Child Education. It's an exciting program in which the parents and children go to school together. For part of the day the kids do the preschool thing while the parents work on GEDs or other further education opportunities. The other part of the day they work together and learn ways to increase literacy in their homes, not only to help the children but the parents as well. Henry was very obviously a proud father, Adam who is ready for kindergarten this fall. It saddened Henry that he and Adam wouldn't be attending school together any more, but he will still be attending school, continuing his education in college. There wasn't a dry eye in the house when Adam joined his father on stage, awesome!

On Tuesday we packed up and flew home to Ohio. It was an amazing week of fun, learning and inspiration. Maria is blogging about the conference today too, so check out Teaching in the 21st Century for her views on our week in San Diego.

NCFL Pre Conference Fun in San Diego

My colleague Maria from Teaching in the 21st Century and I were invited to present at the national conference for the National Center for Family Literacy in San Diego last week. Since we were on spring break we decided to go out a couple days early to check out the city and have some fun.

We left the warm March climate of central Ohio, seriously it was 80 degrees when we left, and flew into the cool climes of San Diego, low 60s. Who would have thought it! On our arrival we walked along the San Diego harbor and admired the many boats docked there, planned our days of fun before the conference began and enjoyed some really great food.

Highlights included a whale watch, we saw three gray whales swimming, several dolphins and a whole lot of seals. We also got sunburned because we weren't anticipating the sky clearing and a beautiful sunny afternoon.

We spent a morning on Coronado Island and visited the Hotel Del Coronado which opened in 1888. As we strolled the corridors you could just sense the history and picture Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra or Marilyn Monroe enjoying this classic hotel back in the day. In fact, the movie Some Like it Hot was filmed on location at the Coronado and photos of Marilyn Monroe are on display in the history hall.

Back on the mainland we walked past the Midway, a gigantic aircraft carrier permanently located in San Diego Harbor and visited a memorial to Bob Hope and all he did to entertain our troops. As you walk into the site, you can hear a recording of Mr. Hope giving one of his famous monologues in his one of a kind style. It was very moving and the three of us, Maria, her husband Tom and I all reminisced about watching those TV specials as kids. I'm not sure today's kid can relate to all of that and I think they're really missing out on something important.

For lunch one day we visited the Gaslight district, full of restaurants and pubs where we enjoyed one of the best burgers I've ever eaten at Nicky Rottens and saw Wyatt Earpps' place on 5th Avenue. We took the train to Old Town to see what San Diego looked like in the beginning and enjoyed some delicious Mexican food.

For two days we rode the city buses and trains everywhere and stuffed a lot of touring into a short time. On Sunday the conference started and Maria and I had to go to work. I'll share more about that tomorrow.

An NCFL Grant to Extend My Wonderopolis World

A few months ago, several of my Dublin colleagues and I received $500 grants for technology that would allow us to increase literacy in our classrooms. The grant was awarded by the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) the sponsors of the Wonderopolis web site. NCFL was looking for ways to help teachers use technology in creative ways to increase literacy.

My friend Maria at Teaching in the 21st Century, an ambassador for Wonderopolis before she was even selected as an official Wonder Ambassador, told me I needed to apply. I've been using the Wonderopolis web site in the library for a while now, since she put me onto it and have found it to work well with all of the kids grades 1 - 5 that I have each day. I figured I had nothing to lose and knew I had been wanting/needing to get some iPads for our library so I applied. Lo and behold, not only did I get one, Maria got one and our kindergarten teacher Kitsy got one. It seems the good folks at NCFL were intrigued by the collaboration possibilities of three recipients in one building. In order to seal the deal the three of us had to sit down and come up with a way to collaborate with the iPads to bring Wonderopolis to a new place at Bailey.

It's been an exciting journey so far and I think we've come up with some pretty good ideas with our collaboration. For example, I've been playing with QR codes this year, I've converted my Amazing Library Race clues to all QR codes, I've been placing QR codes in random books with links to web sites or extensions of the books and recently I've been going through the non-fiction section and putting codes that link to Wonderopolis where the Wonder of the Day extends the book.

The three of us have some big plans for using Wonderopolis to create a file of QR codes that link to Wonders of the Day that will connect to the curriculum standards and beyond and I'm working on some sort of Wonderopolis scavenger hunt for my 4th and 5th graders. It's amazing what great professional development comes out of three teachers sitting down and working together for the good of the students in their building. Amazingly we didn't talk about data or statistics or grades, just how the creative and innovative use of technology will increase our students knowledge base and literacy. Can't wait to get started.

Thanks NCFL for your support of good teaching!