Katrina Brown, First grade teacher at Baker Elementary, will travel to Columbus, Ohio, Feb. 4-7, to attend the ‘2012 National Reading Recovery and K-6 Classroom Literacy Conference: Achieving Literacy Excellence in Challenging Times.’
    Katrina said, “This Conference will allow me to bring back the theory and practice I gain and share it with many colleagues. Our school improvement goals at Wayland focus on literacy for all students, with the belief that we must challenge students to achieve in all areas to the very best of their ability, provide exemplary instruction, work collaboratively with students, and use data to guide planning and decision making.”

    Rhonda Hulbert and Robyn Robinson, Wayland Union High School, will travel to Denver, CO, April. 11-14 to attend The Council for Exceptional Children National Conference, where over 800 sessions on a variety of topics in the field of special education will be offered.
    This Conference will provide a unique opportunity that those in the special education field don’t always get – to learn about the best practices specific to that field, explore new technologies specifically designed for students with special needs and to network with others in the field.
    The information obtained from this Conference will be immediately put into practice in the classrooms to better serve the special education students at Wayland High School, to better prepare them to be successful contributing adults in our society.

2010 National Teacher Conference Recipients

Library/Media Specialist, Travis Jonker – All Elementary Buildings
Name of Conference:  American Library Association Mid-winter Conference
Location:  San Diego, Ca.
Conference Dates:  Jan 7-11, 2011

Travis will attend sessions on research, information literacy and other topics specific to his role in Wayland that will assist Travis in WUS shared core beliefs to model a passion for learning.  Information can benefit students and fellow educators as well. 
Travis was recently named to the ALSC Children and Technology Committee (2-year commitment). This group will also meet at the Conference.

Amy Oliver – Dorr DK
Kristen Brown – Dorr 1st Grade
Name of Conference:  International Reading Association Convention
Location:  Orlando, Florida
Conference Dates:  May 8-11, 2011

Kristen’s main goal for this conference is to learn many authentic and engaging approaches to help boys with reading and writing, how to create family-school literacy partnerships, as well as set up classrooms as positive learning environments. As an NCA Building Writing Chair, there is a lot of potential for sharing new information from the Conference within the Dorr building, and through the District. Strategies can be developed, and School Improvement Chairs will then update other building Chairs as to the success of the strategies.  

At the same Conference, Amy will add to Kristen’s goals as she is especially interested in increasing boys’ literacy through strategies that she will learn. She would like to spearhead Literacy Nights to help parents increase student achievement. Amy is also an NCA Building Writing Chair. She would like to take what she gains from the Conference, combine it with other research proven literacy strategies, and share the best of both with other Building Chairs.