Montana State Literacy Association

We are so proud to announce M. Colleen Cruz as one of our speakers! Check her out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcolleencruz

Teaching summer school? Going to Hawaii? Share with us in the comments! 👇

Hey , how many days of school do you have left this year?

The International Literacy Association started accepting applications for their 2024 Awards and Grants. Find out more, and nominate, here https://www.literacyworldwide.org/get-involved/awards-recognition/awards-grants

Spotify Wrapped: you only use your Spotify at work edition. Who do you and your students listen to most?

We know many of you probably attended either MSU or UM! Who’s taking home the bragging rights today? Share your blue & gold or maroon & silver outfits in the comments! 👇👇

Our Author Presenter for our 2024 Conference is Jarrett Lerner!! We can't WAIT to have him! Give him a follow. Are you familiar with Jarrett's work?

You didn't think we were going to do one GUESS WHO post and then tell you who our 2024 Author Speaker is, did you? No way! Here's another hint! Comment your guesses below.

We are excited to introduce you to our 2024 Conference Author Speaker and while the rest of our conference is a work in progress, we are stoked to know who our author speaker will be!

Any guesses? Comment below who you think it could be!

The BIGGEST of thanks to our Keynote Speakers! Patty McGee, Dr. Molly Ness, and Greg Trine, thank you for attending our conference and sharing your presentations with our attendees! Your presentations were awesome!
Check in with them at their websites:
Patty: https://pattymcgee.org/
Dr. Ness: https://www.drmollyness.com/
Greg: https://gregtrine.com/

We'd like to give a special thank you to the awesome MSU Billings professors that presented for us! Dr. Melanie Reaves and Dr. Kari Dahle-Huff, thank you for not only teaching the newest educators at the college level, but for presenting to Montana's literacy educators. We appreciate you!

BRB, thinking of all the tasty offerings Mac Shack, The FIX, The Frybread House, and Montana Melt fed us last week. Thanks again!

Thank you so much to our INCREDIBLE vendors for coming to our conference! I will tag who I can find in the comments for further shopping/support opportunities!

We hope you had a restful weekend! What was your favorite presentation from Thursday or Friday? Tell us below! 👇👇

Now that you've done all the work and attending, you've EARNED those OPI renewal credits! 👏👏👏👏👏 Make sure to fill out the Google Forms BEFORE October 28 at midnight!

Thank you, thank you, thank you. For all the work you do and did for this Conference! We hope you enjoyed yourselves, met new friends, and learned more about how to be an even better educator!

Greg Trine, the author you all met last night at the Billings Hotel, joins us for the last presentation of our 2023 Conference. See you in the main auditorium at 10:30!

We have three awesome BREAKOUT sessions this morning. I wish I could go to all 3! Which one are you going to?

The mission of MSLA is to provide high quality professional development and support for teachers and literacy professionals.
While we work hard to ensure this goal, we sometimes fall short. And that happened yesterday in one of our breakout sessions.

We welcome different perspectives and viewpoints. But we would never knowingly give a platform to someone who denigrates teachers. In addition to inflammatory and insensitive comments, the speaker shared inaccurate information. Whether mis-information or dis-information, it was not the high quality professional development we expect of ourselves.

We apologize for the hurt caused to those in attendance at that session and we are taking steps to address that and to prevent any future issues.

We hope you got some sleep, educators, because now it's time to jump back into the presentations!
Molly Ness will be in the main auditorium, starting at 8! So grab a coffee, and join us!

We will see you bright and early in the main auditorium tomorrow for Molly Ness's keynote!

Happening NOW: author Greg Trine meets with attendees!

This House of Books wanted to come to our conference, but can't, so they're offering you 10% off at the their store! SCORE! 116 N 29th St, Ste B

They're open til 7 tonight or are open 10a-7p tomorrow.

At 4:15, we welcome Dr. Molly Ness for the first of several presentations! She is presenting Dyslexia: Fact v. Fiction. Are you curious about Dyslexia? No doubt you've served at least one student with the condition. Come learn more!

Wondering what to do after today's AWESOME presentations? Come chow down on free food, and sip a free beverage with children's author Greg Trine.

We will see you at 6:15 at the Billings Hotel! (1223 Mullowney Ln)

Welcome Patty to the stage again for this afternoon's "Not Your Granny's Grammar."

Here is your information about this afternoon's breakout sessions. Enjoy!

Patty presents in 5 minutes in the main auditorium!

What Writers Need: Feedback That Moves Writers Forward with Patty McGee
Writers in classrooms come in all stripes. We have storytellers, nonfiction writers, poets, and advocates. We also have budding writers who are struggling to find their voice or writers who have command of conventions but don’t say much in their writing. Our instruction and curriculum must be as diverse as the writers we teach and full of practical, strategic modeling and coaching. There are simple and powerful priorities for writing instruction that not only grow writers, but also create joyful, productive writing communities. Patty will show you how to simplify the hardest parts of teaching writing and prioritize what all writers need.

Patty McGee, author and literacy consultant, is offering a presentation and a workshop for our incredible MSLA members.
Her presentation is entitled What Writers Need: Feedback That Moves Writers Forward. Writers in classrooms come in all stripes. We have storytellers, nonfiction writers, poets, and advocates. We also have budding writers who are struggling to find their voice or writers who have command of conventions but don’t say much in their writing. Our instruction and curriculum must be as diverse as the writers we teach and full of practical, strategic modeling and coaching. There are simple and powerful priorities for writing instruction that not only grow writers, but also create joyful, productive writing communities. Patty will show you how to simplify the hardest parts of teaching writing and prioritize what all writers need.

Her workshop is Not Your Granny's Grammar: Mid-century modern may work for furniture but not for grammar learning-- there's a better way. Together let's explore an irresistible design to grammar study and the language standards so that grammar takes its rightful place in literacy instruction.

Join us! https://montanareads.org/2023-msla-conference/2023-msla-conference-registration

Here’s your schedule for this morning!

See more details at https://sites.google.com/view/website2023msla/october-19?authuser=0